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Preachin's Blog A little blog from an upstart theologian that will do its best to exemplify Christ while sharing a thing or two along the way. |
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![]() Wednesday, March 29, 2006 An Evangelical Vision for the Emerging ChurchAs we head bravely into the new millennium there have been a wide variety of changes and shifts within our societies locally to globally. The advent of the information age has moved from possibility to reality allowing more interaction and connectedness than ever before. The continued polarization of the American political landscape has begun to divide our country along party lines. With the AIDS crisis in Africa looming as a more pressing threat for global humanitarian organizations, coupled with increasing politically stability throughout that (and other continents) there have been so many pressing concerns that even our venerable 24 hour news channels have not been able to keep up. For we Christian Evangelicals we have found ourselves looking past the impending Y2K threat, and prophesied global extinction (which might or might not have ushered in the Second Coming of Christ) and towards the future of a supposed post-Christian environment globally. In an attempt to answer to a supposedly post-Christian climate some Christian Evangelicals, and mainline Christians, have begun to start churches with an ear It is no small truth that the Emerging/ent Church has engendered enough of a conversation over its tenets and propositions that it has created a unique sub-culture within the Church and culture. With a growing awareness of and accessibility to Emerging/ent Church gatherings more and more evangelicals are discovering this movement. With this growth many of the leaders within the Emerging/ent Church have sought out the literary market and used the electronic means to promulgate their message throughout society. Many of the leaders of the Emerging/ent Church began with simple texts and statements which were largely ignored by the mainstream evangelical press, but through the seedbed of discontented younger Christians the message began to grow. In truth the first book about the Emering/ent Church I read was Leonard Sweet’s Postmodern Pilgrims which introduced me to some of the concepts behind the changing tides of ecclesiology in North America. Now, five to ten years later, the Emerging/ent Church has their own publishing arms and have begun to produce texts which seek to better postulate their positions on the nature of the Church, the nature of society, the nature of their beliefs, and the nature of the opportunities available to Christianity. Of course the ubiquitous term of Emerging/ent Church carries with it the incredulity towards definitions. Talking with different people from different clans of the Emerging/ent Church brings out different definitions...most of which are at war with each other. Wikipedia has given some space to this ecclesial manifestation by suggesting it seeks to deconstruct and reconstruct Christianity as its mainly Western members live in a postmodern culture. Moreso, I suggest the Emerging/ent Church is a collaboration of younger dechurched thinkers who seek to reconstruct the very essence of church from its supposedly sordid past into a vibrant fellowship earmarked by authenticity and vunerability. Perhaps nothing is more clear in this movement it is that most of the Emerging/ent Church folk are:
They have been heard and the evangelical arm of the Church has begun to respond. Of course I need not get into the history or analysis of the contemporary issues confronting all involved, others are doing this far better than I could hope. Rather it is my thought offer an evangelical vision for the Emerging/ent Church for the next five to ten (twenty?) years in light of the recent events. Over the next several posts I will assert that there are several key factors for the Emerging/ent Church to embrace if they ever plan on going from a simply movement or sub-culture of Christianity to a place of substantive contribution to the Church as a whole. As the Emerging/ent Church enters into a second stage of awareness it enters a time critical to its continued existence and viability. Of the particular points that I will be entering into over the next several posts:
The posts which preceed from this point are my observations after interacting with and conversing with those in the Emering/ent Church for six plus years. Also, that hereafter for my sanity's sake I will refer to the Emerging/ent Church as the EC and the Established Church as the IC. posted by Preachin Jesus | 2:32 PM | |
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