FaithJanuary 25, 2007 10:17 pm
Streams of the Emerging Church
There’s a good article in Christianity Today by Scot McKnight summarizing Five Streams of the Emerging Church. The five streams are Prophetic (or at least provacative), Postmodern, Praxis-oriented, Post-evangelical, and Political. I like it because it shows a little more of the breadth of the conversation going on in the movement.
Your thoughts?
i don’t know too much about the emerging church except for what i have read on the internet. and coming from a more Reformed/Presbyterian background i had my suspicions. But i am sure there are both good and bad versions of it (just like anything else), but if the movement generally follows the patterns of Scot Mcknight, then i can see it being generally a good thing. BTW, the CT article was based on lectures giving at Westminster PA, and you can order the audio here:
http://www.wtsbooks.com/product-exec/product_id/4959/nm/What_Is_the_Emerging_Church_and_Misnomers_Surrounding_the_Emerging_Church.
Comment by dan — January 26, 2007 @ 10:28 am
Thanks Dan. I read through some of the comments on Scot McKnight’s blog and apparently the lecture was about twice as long and a bit harsh in tone, especially in response to some of the critics of the movement. Too bad Westminster makes you pay for the talk…otherwise I’d listen.
Comment by Administrator — January 26, 2007 @ 11:20 am
Pastor Ted,
What are some of your thoughts about the emerging “movement”? is it a good or bad thing? Would you like seeing other churches move in this direction?
Comment by Dan — January 31, 2007 @ 12:12 pm
Dan,
Sorry fror the slow reply. i’m traveling. In general, I think great things are coming out of the emerging movement. My favorite part is seeing people on mission — people thinking hard about what God’s mission is, why the church exists, and engaging the world again. Of course, there’s bad stuff happening, too. And, like McKnight writes, there are so many misperceptions…even among those who consider themselves among the emerging. In short it’s the Orthopraxy stream from the article that excites me. There’s other stuff too but I’ll save it for another post.
Comment by Administrator — February 2, 2007 @ 8:02 pm
test. my post got rejected. sucks
Comment by Dennis — February 8, 2007 @ 1:54 pm
Anyhow, I was writing about how this article was really interesting. I think you posted about the Emerging Church before but this is the first time I’ve actually read about the concept. I read it through a few times so I could digest the ideas. Not really sure what to say but that I do experience a lot of what is talked about in the article especially in the praxis-oriented dimension. I see a lot of the “candles and incense” thing going on in churches today. It’s a big contrast to what we saw when we toured some of those huge awe inspiring churches (St. Stephens in Austria) in Europe. Sometimes I feel that there is a certain reverence that is lost in our services today.
Good stuff man.
Comment by Dennis — February 8, 2007 @ 2:08 pm
I thought this was a great article.
There is much that I find attractive within the emerging church. Jesus was quite provocative, after all. He was so provocative in fact that they killed him.
A lot of the metanarratives that have dominated the landscape of our lives are lies and need to die. Also, the emphasis on living one’s faith and being missional is on target. Faith without works is dead!
Systematic theology can die as well, as far as I’m concerned. In practical application the key accomplishment of systematic theology has been to create cookie-cutter, carbon-copy pastors/church leaders who are afraid to think for themselves. I’m quite certain that when Jesus was dying on the cross he wasn’t envisioning the Church as the self-righteous, self-serving ecclesiastical club that so very much of what is known as Christianity has become.
And, as someone who is a political moderate and who splits his vote, I truly think it’s about time that the religious right admitted that their supposed hammerlock on morality is an illusion. Neither Democrats nor Republicans have all the answers, and both have something to contribute. Those at both extremes would have you believe that one’s political affiliation is a prerequisite for salvation.
The emerging church falls apart, though, if its relativistic view of the world carries over to ambivalence about the person of Jesus Christ. I agree entirely with the author when he wrote, “we must always keep the proper goal in mind: summoning everyone to follow Jesus Christ and to discover the redemptive work of God in Christ through the Spirit of God.”
Jesus our Savior or Jesus our Lord? The answer isn’t either-or, it’s both-and.
Comment by Greg — February 13, 2007 @ 9:48 pm