emergent

Exclusive interview with Jim Belcher and Mike Erre

Conversant Live — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 10:22:02 -0700

Here is ConversantLife's exclusive LIVE interview with Jim Belcher and Mike Erre, two of today's most innovative pastors and communicators.The guys, who had never met before this interview, talked about their recent transitions and their books.

Mike & Jim from ConversantLife on Vimeo.

Everything Labeled "Emergent"

Chuck Bomar — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 10:05:15 -0700

We live in a world of labels and categories. Everything has to fit into something. And perhaps among the widest of these categories is the one labeled, "Emergent."

I've been told that I'm Emergent. Sometimes I'm asked, but recently a few people have just labeled me that. When this issue is brought to my attention I always respond with a question, "What is your definition of Emergent?" I had one person tell me that I'm Emergent because I used the word "journey" in a message. Another was concerned because I did an overview of a book of the Bible (Ecclesiastes) in a talk versus going verse by verse and phrase by phrase. I've had another person assume I'm Emergent because my churches website didn't have the exact words, "Triune God" anywhere on it (as if I don't believe in a "Triune" God simply because it's not explicitly articulate on a website).

Do those things really define someone as "Emergent?" If so, I think that's crazy.

I've yet to hear anyone ask me a theological question. No one has asked me what I think about a specific statement or view proposed in a book by someone that actually claims to be Emergent. I've yet to have anybody ask me my view of Scripture. And nobody has asked me my definition of "Emergent." It just seems like anything outside of anybody's personal realm of normality is to be labeled Emergent...?

My hunch is that if I were asked some of the questions above I would be more conservative than many of those asking the question. And my guess is if I asked for everyone to post their definition of what "Emergent" is we would have hundreds of different definitions. And I would assume if I asked what sort of things would "tip you off" on someone being Emergent, we would have a list thousands of ideas long.

That to say, I'd love for the label to disappear. Not because I've been labeled it by a few people, but because it's not really a label or category anymore. It seems to have simply become anything different than we're used to. But, if me at times being a little "unorthodox" in order to bring the unchanging gospel message to a lost world labels me Emergent, I guess I'll take the label. Even if I went to one of the most conservative seminaries our country has to offer...

Confessing The Sins of The Church and Why Church Is Boring

Nick Bogardus — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:07:25 -0700

Two more great quotes from Why We Love The Church. I wish I could post every line I've highlighted so far in this book but I think I'd probably drive you all crazy. Just do us both a favor and read this book. This first excerpt is from co-author Kevin DeYoung.

[In speaking of the current trend among many younger Christians of confessing the past sins of the church.]

""When a man over forty tries to repent of the sins of England and to love her enemies, " writes [C.S.] Lewis, "he is attempting something costly; for he was brought up to certain patriotic sentiments which cannot be moritified without a struggle. But an educated man who is now in his twenties usually has no such sentiment to mortify. In art, in literature, in politics, he has been, ever since he can remember, one of an angry and restless minority; he has drunk in almost with with his mother's milk a distrust of English statesmen and a contempt for the manners, pleasures, and enthusiasm of his less-educated fellow countrymen."

Younger generations today face these same dengers with regard to the church. In confessing all the sins of the church, we have everything to gainand nothing to mortify. This isn't to suggest that the church hasn't gotten things dreadfully wrong, but it is to suggest that slavery and the Crusades are no the things thirtysomething Americans are likely to get wrong today. We would do well to listen to Lewis from seven decades ago: "The communal sins which they should be told to repent are those of their own age and class - its contempt for the uneducated, its readiness to suspect evil, its self-righteous provocations of public obloquy, its breaches of the Fifth Commandment. Of these sins I have heard nothing among them. Till I do, I must think their candour towards the national enemy a rather inexpensive virtue.""

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This excerpt is curteousy of co-author Ted Kluck.

'Church isn't boring because we're not showing enough film clips, or because we play an organ instead of guitar. It's boring because we neuter it of its importance. Too often we treat our spiritual lives like the round of golf used to open George Barna's Revolution. At the end of my life, I want my friends and family to remember me as someone who battled for the Gospel, who tried to mortify sin in my life, who found hard for life, and who contended earnestly for the faith. Not just a nice guy who occasionally noticed the splendor of the mountains God created, while otherwise just trying to enjoy myself, manage my schedule, and work on my short game."

HT: Team Pyro

An Emerging Pattern?

Nick Bogardus — Tue, 19 May 2009 08:07:38 -0700

I've been listening to some online classes in preparation for seminary next year and one of the professors made an illuminating observation in the class I listened to yesterday.

He said that there seems to be a pattern throughout the history of the church that is particularly evident in the early church and around the time of the Reformation.

First, there is a synthesis between Christianity and paganism that captures the attention of the church. In the early church this was Origen and leading up to the Reformation it was Aquinas.

Then, because of the syncretism a heresy springs out of it. Because of Origen's flawed view of the Trinity, that Jesus derives His being from the Father, the heresy of Arianism not only sprang up but was accepted by the vast majority of the Roman Empire. Because of Aquinas' combination of Greek philosophy and Christian theology and elevation of natural reason to the same level as Scripture, this strengthened the Catholic belief that church tradition and scripture were equal, and what came out of that was someone and a situation like Tetzel who, on the authority of the Rome, sold indulgences (or salvation) to people - trading what is only the work of God for money.

Next, because the heresy is so obviously wrong, comes a reformer. During the period of the early church it was Athanasius who fought against the Arians and teachings of Arius, and during the Reformation it was Luther who fought against the false teachings of Rome.

Finally, someone comes along who is able to look back on the whole development historically and re-articulate Christianity in light of the reformational process. Early on it was Augustine and during the Reformation it was Calvin.

As I listened to the class a thought came into my head. The Emergent Church has built themselves on this philosophical (?) idea of emergence, in particular Phyllis Tickle's book, The Great Emergence. In it, she argues that every 500 years the church needs to reform itself and that this Emergent Movement is the new reformation. Much of the movement downplays the authority and knowability of Scripture, and has distinctly unorthodox views of hell, sin, the atonement, and salvation. My question would be where does she, and where do they, fit in the aforementioned pattern? Syncretists, Heretics, Reformers, or Consolidators?

Hipster Church Tour: Jacob's Well

Brett McCracken — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:16:15 -0700

As part of the research for my book, I’ve been visiting churches all over the country over the past year—a tour of “America’s hippest churches,” you might say (though soon to expand to Europe as well). The goal is to gain a good bit of qualitative data on the subject I’m writing about, to understand firsthand how various church bodies are fitting in to this whole thing. I have stopped at dozens of churches in many states and talked with countless people, and every now and then on my blog I will describe in depth my various observations about these churches.

Keep in mind a few things: 1) I love Christians and have greatly enjoyed all the services I’ve visited. They are all genuinely worshiping God. 2) Calling these “hipster” churches does in no way elevate them above other churches nor does it denigrate them; It is not meant to be any sort of value judgment at all. “Hipster church” is simply a designation for a particular type of contemporary church that, above all classifying criteria, tends to attract large numbers of hipsters.

With that said, I’d like to start this series with Jacob’s Well—a church in Kansas City which exceptionally high hipster cred. Because I’m from Kansas City, I think it’s fitting to start this journey there.

Church Name: Jacob’s Well
Location: Kansas City, MO.
Head Pastor: Tim Keel

Summary: I’ve attended services at Jacob’s Well on three occasions, which is more than most of the churches I’ve visited (simply because I’m in Kansas City a lot). Jacob’s Well has been a fixture on the “emerging church” landscape since the early 00s, largely because pastor Tim Keel is on the board of directors for Emergent. It’s a church that feels totally new and fresh, but which upholds tradition and history and all things “vintage.” It’s a hipster church because it has a large, young hipster contingent in the audience, but also because it fits firmly within the hip tradition of usurping the establishment. As described by Christian Century, Jacob’s Well is “a rebuke to those churches that, in imitation of cutting-edge 1970s evangelicalism, deliberately strip themselves of historical symbols, creeds and practices in an effort to grow. [Jacob’s Well] is succeeding by moving in precisely the opposite direction.” For example, JW embraces things like read prayers, weekly communion (by intinction, and with the option of gluten-free bread!), and lectio divina. It’s all very mystery-minded and aesthetically pleasing.

Building: A formidable old Presbyterian structure from the 1930s, renovated but retaining many traditional and ancient elements like stained glass, pews, candles, and churchy vaulted ceilings. On one wall in the building you will see this quote from Stanley Hauerwas: “The work of Jesus was not a new set of ideals or principles for reforming or even revolutionizing society, but the establishment of a new community, a people that embodied forgiveness, sharing and self-sacrificing love in its rituals and discipline. In that sense, the visible church is not to be the bearer of Christ’s message, but to be the message.”

Congregation: Granted, I’ve only ever visited the evening (5:30pm) service, which probably skews especially young, but the JW congregation is remarkably youthful. There are some older people scattered throughout, but for the most part the crowd seemed college or twentysomething. Lots of guys with beards, girls with tattoos, and skinny jeans everywhere. Mix of yuppie-type hipsters and more organic, indie types. Not particularly high on the friendly-to-strangers scale, but twentysomethings rarely are. We all did hold hands for the last song, however, which was a cheerfully sung benediction.

Music: Led by worship pastor Mike Crawford, the Jacob’s Well band is youthful, loud, but worshipful. It seems less performance-oriented and more a facilitator of community singing, which is not to say that it isn’t good. It’s quality indie rock, and largely original. Crawford writes many of the songs himself, such as “Words to Build a Life On,” which features the lyric “Sing your freaking lungs out / Jesus Christ is King!” When they play the music of others, the JW band is more likely to do a Sufjan Stevens song during communion than any sort of “Jesus is my girlfriend” chorus. On one of the Sundays I visited, they played the Welcome Wagon version of the nineteenth century hymn “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed,” mere weeks after the Welcome Wagon CD came out. Their style is a bit grungy, imperfect, and unpolished, in true hipster fashion. Slick, overproduced songs with crazy lighting and fog machines are nowhere to be found at Jacob’s Well.

Arts: Arts are huge at Jacob’s Well. There are frequent gallery shows displaying the art and photography of the congregation. During worship services, the congregation is encouraged to take one of the “community journals” to write doodles, art, prayer, thoughts, or poems, as they sit through the service.

Technology: Like most hipster churches, technology is important at Jacob’s Well, but not in an over-the-top way. They do encourage texting in questions or ideas, and the church has a large online presence (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc).

Neighborhood: The heavily hipster midtown Kansas City area—near Brookside and Westport. Lots of artists, bohemians, and Democrats in the area. Far from suburbia, which is important.

Preaching: One interesting thing about the preaching at Jacob’s Well is that the speaker preaches on the floor, at eye level—not elevated on stage or behind a pulpit—in a conversational style. The preacher invites comments and questions from the audience throughout the sermon, steering the sermon according to where the congregational conversation goes. On one of the Sundays I visited, the topic of the sermon was child sex abuse—a topic rarely discussed in church but which is a problem made all the worse because “we let dark places remain dark.”

Quote from pulpit: “We at Jacob’s Well are trying to move away from being a belief-centered community to being a practice-centered community.”

Quote from website: “Jacob’s Well doesn’t have a mission; it is mission.”

Why We're Not Emergent: A Gift To The Church

Nick Bogardus — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:27:23 -0800

I'm a little late posting about this book (it came out last year) because, well, Amazon doesn't ship to M*ngolia. For all of 2008 I kept a running list of books I wanted to get when we came back to the States and Why We're Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck was near the top. I finally picked it up after Christmas and read it in about two weeks.

I really could not recommend a book more highly for my generation at this moment than this one. Like Phil Johnson, I found myself saying "Wow.Wow.Wow." in every chapter.

The book is written by a young pastor and one of his congregants (who happens to be a sports writer) who, as the title says, should both be 'emergent'. The book is a wonderful combination of entertaining, thoughtful, concise, profound, analytical, encouraging, humble, and corrective all at once. I sincerely believe this should be required reading for Christians between the ages of 18-35 or for anyone interested in the current state of the Church. It is a book that goes against the prevailing wind of our culture and against many of the loudest voices in Christianity and, in doing so, it challenges what you (as a Christian!) believe in a way that is both prophetic and pastoral. I say prophetic because the book challenges and corrects current errors in The Church with clarity and vigor in a way that points people to Jesus; and I use pastoral because it is done with a deep care and love for God's people.

As a bit of a teaser, here is a sample of some of my favorite quotes:

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“[Regarding the emergent church's emphasis 'the journey'] Because the journey is an experience more than a destination, the Christian life requires less doctrinal reflection and more personal introspection. The postmodern infatuation with journey feeds on and into a preoccupation with our own stories. If my parent’s generation could be a little stoic and not terrible reflective, my generation is introspective at a level somewhat between self-absorption and narcissism. We are so in-tuned with our dysfunctions, hurts, and idiosyncrasies that it often prevents us from growing up, because maturity is tantamount to hypocrisy in a world that prizes brokenness more than health” (34).

"Young people will give their lives for an exclamation point, but they will not give their lives for a question mark, not for very long anyway. Once the protest runs out and the emerging church has its own blogdom, and conferences, and church networks, and book deals, there will be no exclamation point, and all that's left will be ethical intentions and passionate appeals for kingdom living. This will not sustain a movement - the protest will for a while, but once that's gone there will be no great vision of God, no urgent proclamation of salvation, no eternal judgment or reward at stake, just a call to live rightly and love one another. That message will sell on Oprah, Larry King, and at the Oscars, but it won't sustain and propel a gospel-driven church, because it isn't the gospel." (127-28)

"The main problem in the universe, according to many emergent writers, seems to be human suffering and brokenness. Make no mistake, suffering and brokenness are a result of the fall, but the main problem that needs to be dealt with is human sin and rebellion. . . Christians don't get killed for telling people that God believes in them and suffers like them and can heal their brokenness. They get killed for calling sinners to repentance and proclaiming faith in the crucified Son of God as the only means by which we who were enemies might be reconciled to God (Rom. 5:10)." (194-95)

"[Regarding all the angst and shame about the church's track record when it comes to the arts:] I'm still a little unclear as to the reason. Is it because churches aren't displaying art on their walls? Neither are insurance companies, but nobody is up in arms about that. My hunch is that there is this feeling that churches aren't adequately "supporting" artists (musicians, writers, visual artists) in their midst. However, I don't exactly see churches "supporting" software designers, salesmen, or farmers either. That's not the church's purpose. And it seems that the artists who are making the most noise about "not being supported" are the ones who may not have the talent to really cut it in the marketplace anyway. I don't know of any working artists (musicians, actors, writers, painters) who complain that their church doesn't "support" their efforts. Art is tough. Making a living at art is tough. It's tough on families and marriages. That's simply the nature of the game." (143)

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You can buy it new, buy it used, download a chapter online.

I'm curious if you've read the book as well. What did you think? What did you gain from it or disagree with?