Defining Emerging

In the Midwest Region, we gather our church planters a couple times a year and call it a Percolator. We had one yesterday here in Mattoon, IL. It is one of my favorite things to do and it always makes me think about what we need to do next at The Crossover.

Something that popped out at me yesterday was that there are at least two major elements of the current emerging church.

1. Theological Questions -- leading that quest is Brian McLaren, asking questions, trying to stretch orthodoxy back to its original shape. There is thought that the boundary has been drawn a little too tight by evangelicals, but still he isn't wanting to throw it open into anything goes.

2. Missional Questions -- not sure who is leading this, but a prime example is Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill in Seattle. He is a 5 point Calvinists. He thinks questions about theology are from the devil (I heard him say it). But he is all about the mission of the church.

Glocal.net is another prime example. They are asking a few theological questions but their focus is on the threefold mission -- Church multiplication, Community Development, and Nation Building. They want to change their communities into better places to live. They want to develop 2nd and 3rd world nations into better places to live. Why? Because that is the Gospel (Matthew 25). It isn't that Gospel doesn't desire people getting "saved." It is just that it is fuller than that. That goes back to the theological stretching.