Defining Emerging
Emerging is a loaded word. People seem to find the most extreme conversation in the emerging arena and then define emerging as something extreme. For me, emerging is a healthy exploration of theology and mission. It is an exit ramp from the traditional church culture. (Don't confuse culture with truth.) Most people in the emerging conversation for whatever reason don't feel very comfortable in the traditional church culture. There are too many unspoken values that they don't value. So they have begun to emerge from that culture. Of course, they will create a new culture. No one lives outside a culture.
I see two key aspects to the emergent conversation -- theology and mission.
Theology is the exercise of trying to define an infinite God, who exists three in one, who though is beyond creation, entered creation as the Son of God, to save us from an eternity separate from Him. By the very definition, questions MUST be asked. There is no way that it can be thoroughly defined at this point in time. That is enlightened arrogance.
People in the emerging conversation don't fear questions. I also find, despite some opinion, that the people asking the questions hold to a fairly conservative theology. They don't doubt the divinity or Godship of Jesus Christ. They don't doubt his literal death and resurrection and the necessity for a substitionary sacrifice. They are usually challenging conservative theology made popular in the nineteenth century. Rather than being liberal, I find them in some ways to be more conservative.
The other popular area is to be "missional." For me, this is a movement away from meeting the popular "felt" need and to move toward meeting "real" needs. It is probably a bit of a rebellion from targeting rich white people ("rich white people need Jesus too") to targeting the areas that Jesus told us to target -- poor, widows, prisoners, blind, orphans, starving, ... The problem with targeting these people is that there isn't much money to build a nice building or send our kids to Six Flags on a youth trip. (Hopefully that is read as passion rather than anger.)
Feel free to comment, but if you will email me, I'll set you up as a member and you post as well. This isn't my blog. This is our conversation. Welcome about Dan Knight!
posted by Brian at 5:56 PM
2 Comments:
Thanks, Brian. I'm glad you gave a working definition of this because I have had some difficulty trying to understand what "emerging" is about. Normally I've viewed it as the act of moving into mainstream traffic. Maybe that could preach! Anyway, I look forward to it.
Maybe exit ramp isn't a great metaphor. Let me try another. There is a distinct traditional church culture in the United States. In The Present Future, Reggin McNeal calls it a "church bubble." The emerging church is stretching the sides of the bubble. Early images of this pushing of the bubble came with "contemporary" music, replacing pews with chairs, ... This didn't create a new bubble; it just distorted the edges of the old bubble.
Now rather than just pushing the sides of the bubble, emergers are pushing hard enough that they may be creating a new bubble that may float out on its own. That may cause some to worry, but I don't think they should. It isn't a different church or a different Gospel; it is a different church culture. It has happened many times in history. Sometimes with good results. Sometimes not. But reform never comes without some risk.
Let me give you some bubble differences. The emerging church is less likely to build big expensive buildings. It would take too much money away from community transformation, global development, and church multiplication. They are less likely to get up on a doctrinal issue, but they remain very solid at it's core, such as the Nicene Creed.
McNeal says the traditional church doesn't know it lives in a bubble. A problem for the Emerging church is they don't know that they too live in a bubble. They probably think they just live outside the traditional bubble. But I think it is probably impossible to live outside of a bubble.
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