Emerging church talk (2)

I'm catching up with the discussion on 'emerging church' that is going on in the blogging community. Andrew Jones posted some excellent contributions that might help to get some grip on the 'emerging church'. I summarized them, so for the full story you should click on the titles.

1. How would you define emerging church?

Andrew: "No one has succeeded in defining it. Maybe that is OK. People in the emerging culture do not really want or need such a definition, because behind the practices and models of emerging church, lies a radically different mindset, value system and worldview. People coming from a modern mindset always want to know what is new or next, so they can upgrade or replace what they have. This sequential, diachronic replacement way of thinking is light-years away from the emerging way of thinking, where the new thing finds its place by nesting, linking or layering vertically into the whole thing. New things compliment and enhance rather than replace. For this reason emerging church is not the same as 'youth church', because it's intergenerational, and can't be labeled 'postmodern' either because it's not reactionary. It's about understanding the way of Jesus in our own culture."

2. What examples have you seen which you think deserve the phrase 'emerging'?

Andrew: "Parties that happen in a home, with lots of food, a DJ, and discussion on spiritual things. As people decide to follow Jesus, the group gradually becomes a church, but it keeps its party format. House churches are also becoming increasingly popular, and in some countries represent the bulk of new churches. It's a relational place to share life together. Monastic models of church are now a viable option for young people in urban centers who want a higher level of commitment. The practice of pilgrimage is increasingly popular, as are yearly festivals. The internet (and especially blogging) is adding a significant slice of church life to the layers. It is providing a place for greater visibility, storytelling, self-publishing, accountability, witness, and networking. Style-culture churches and traditional churches will also find new ways of engaging with the culture.

"Believers who do not belong to an institutional church are no longer seen as unchurched or backslidden. They are a large part of Christ’s body [a majority, some argue] and they may become the most important players in developing organic and relational church forms. The real difference lies in a new way of understanding church. When emerging people zoom out to see the whole church, the invisible church, they see church in modular form, as discrete but connected elements working together in a harmonious system. Church life then has more to do with the combination of many activities, projects and events than with participation in any single event or commitment that tries to define the church experience."

3. Why do you think the idea of an emerging church has gained such popularity over the last few years - why do so many want a part of it?

Andrew: "I believe the commitment to emerging church has to do with a deep love for God’s church as the beautiful Body of Christ, and the dissonance in knowing that the church in its present form is not living up to our expectations, is not attractive to outsiders, and is not adequately reflecting Kingdom culture in the world we live. A great body, stuck in a frumpy dress.

"There is also the new sense of empowerment. Not long ago, young people were encouraged to join a church but they were not allowed to start them – that was considered rebellious or reserved for the professionals. In the last two decades, partly as a result of the church growth movement, church has been somewhat demystified of its priestly elitism, defragged of its excess baggage and deconstructed of its abusive power claims. We are now seeing more streamlined, simple, organic churches that ordinary people can start in their favourite coffee shops or their own homes. Add to this the sense of empowerment and immediate access to resources that the internet has provided, and you can see why being a player and developer in the emerging church is more appealing than joining the struggle to preserve an incumbent church. People in the emerging culture are generally creative, entrepreneurial, innovative, empowered. They don’t want to join somebody else’s program. They don’t want to become somebody’s number. They don’t want to warm up somebody’s empty room. But they do want to be a part of starting something that will make a difference."

4. How far do you think the church has to go before it will really start to reach the emerging generation in large numbers?

Andrew: "As far as Jesus went, which is all the way, incarnating, fleshing out Kingdom realities in the culture God has planted us. It will take courage, risk and sacrifice. There will be a change of vocabulary to reflect a new mindset. There will be more unbelievers joining our communities earlier in their journey than they did previously and with more honesty. They will request more honesty from us too. More vulnerability. There will be misunderstandings. And the greatest persecution may come from the existing church. There is an approach to truth that is more relational, narrative, participatory and experiential. One of the challenges for the existing church is to recognize and support this."

Additional 1: Emerging church definition

Andrew: "This morning i walked through the Walthamstow market and saw famers selling the organic produce they have been growing themselves. There is something freeing and simple, even rebellious, in buying produce directly from the people who grew it. I feel good buying it. He feels good selling it. Our transaction bypasses quite a few levels of marketing people and middlemen, and it is quite deconstructive in displacing those heirarchies. But it is also empowering to us, and it just feels good. I get the same feeling when I experience church - real church - and I have also felt it in homeschooling, unschooling, downloading info from the web, the immediate self-publishing of blogging, punk music, shopping at Home Depot to fix my own house. It feels empowering, never complex, bare and naked, totally human, focused, and God's pleasure is one of those feelings mixed into it."

Additional 2: Urban poor and girls

Andrew: "Two important groups for the emerging church are the urban poor and girls. 1/4 of the world are 'urban poor' and the amount of foreign workers that ever make it out to incarnational lifestyle among them is pathetically small. And yet movements of God traditionally start among the poor, often involving the elite at the same time, since both groups deal with justice - one needs it and one has justice to give. People who start movements among the poor end up working also with the elite (Francis of Assisi, Mother Teresa). A really interesting thing is how the middle class is either bypassed during the intial stages of a God-movement, or brought in much later when the action is all over or settling down.

"About girls (or young women): the movement in China would not be the same without teenage girls. A friend from China told me recently that a teenager started a church in China that has since become hundreds of churches involving tens of thousands of people. God has been using girls from the beginning. Mary was young. Esther was young. It should not surprise us."

Comments

[Patrick J. Hession]

What is the basis of authority in the "emerging church"? Is it "everyone did what he/she thought right in his/her own sight". Jesus left a specific authority structure when he returned to the Father. Has God somehow changed his mind?

[Pam Anderson]

A great article titled "Who Is Your Covering?" by Frank Viola can be found in its entirety on a search engine...typing in "spiritual authority" Scroll down until you find it. This is how I found it when looking for a "spiritual covering"...now I have Jesus as the Head of the Church and He is all I need. There is no need for a mediator between God and man. Frank's study on the spiritual authority is one of the best scriptural studies I've ever read.

Pam Anderson
Christian Home Fellowships

[Andrew]

Hi everyone!
Pam's link to Frank Viola is http://www.ptmin.org/covering.htm
Frank says we are accountable to God, and suggests that people who ask about "covering" are actually asking about control mechanisms - valid point. I have one of Franks books on my shelf - i really like the guy!

I would like to hear Patrick flesh out his "specific authority structure" especially if he wants some of us to trade our freedom for another yoke.
Perhaps if he explained to us how his form of church is the model that Jesus left us with, and showed some Scripture to back it up, then that would be a starting point.

Until then, we have orders from Jesus to make disciples of every nation, and we have been endowed with a HUGE amount of freedom in exactly how we go about it. And we have the biblical record of multiple expressions of church in the Book of Acts.

I say . . . lets get to it! As my old pastor Charles Swindoll once said, God wants you to fly . . so dont let people cut your wings.

[Tony Dale]

You may also find some thoughts on leadership and authority in the chapter of Simply Church that Felicity and I wrote entitled, "Who In Charge Around Here, Anyway." See www.house2house.tv for more information.