I Still Don't Understand What the Emergent Church Is
I've read a fair amount on the emerging church and associate with plenty of people who identify themselves with the emerging church, but I still don't get what the emerging church is. I kind of think it is a moniker used by those who want to distance themselves from a) Christians whose primary mission involves condemning homosexuality and abortion rights and b) congregations that are traditional to the point of being stuffy, boring, and even irrelevant.
Sometimes I think I'm emergent; sometimes, I'm not so sure. The movement is so vaguely defined that I can't grasp what the emergent church actually is. I'm cool with innovation and questioning and nontraditional ways of connecting with God. I worry, however, that trying to build a movement around these emphases could turn what is now the emerging church into a fad that comes and goes, like the Jesus movement of the sixties and seventies.
I'll just keep doing my church stuff. If I'm emergent, cool; if not, all right.
Sometimes I think I'm emergent; sometimes, I'm not so sure. The movement is so vaguely defined that I can't grasp what the emergent church actually is. I'm cool with innovation and questioning and nontraditional ways of connecting with God. I worry, however, that trying to build a movement around these emphases could turn what is now the emerging church into a fad that comes and goes, like the Jesus movement of the sixties and seventies.
I'll just keep doing my church stuff. If I'm emergent, cool; if not, all right.
posted by Tinley | 3:04 PM
1 Comments:
My understanding is that Emergent thought is the direct application of postmodernism to Christian theology. It can therefore be seen as a branch of liberal theology (despite its claims otherwise) and has foci upon the inward moving of the Holy Spirit, the journey of faith, and social justice.
Unlike other branches of liberal theology, Emergence does not see itself as a revival of classical Christianity perverted by conservative theologians and fundamentalists, but as an entirely new idea and approach to the Christian faith.
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