Scot McKnight provides more of his trademark clarity in a recent article in Christianity Today:
I maintain a crucial distinction between two related streams: emergent and the broader emerging movement. Emergent is crystallized in Emergent Village and its leaders Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, and Doug Pagitt. Emerging is a mix of orthodox, missional, evangelical, church-centered, and social justice leaders and lay folk. When I think of this broader emerging movement, I think of Dan Kimball at Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, Dave Dunbar at Biblical Seminary in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch and their book The Shaping of Things to Come, and Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz. Some of this was anticipated by Lesslie Newbigin’s many writings and is now sketched in Tom Sine’s The New Conspirators. Furthermore, I see emerging trends in megachurches like Willow Creek Community Church and Saddleback Church.
Despite what some critics assume, Brian McLaren, the most controversial of emergent leaders, does not represent all things emerging. But he does represent the more progressive wing, and his latest books offer a glimpse of where that movement might be heading.
Related posts:
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- Willow Creek + Brain McLaren = (???) Willow Creek is inviting Brian McLaren to speak at their upcoming Shift conference. This post will be very odd because I love what I hear...
- John Piper on “Emerging”, “Emergent”, and “Missional” John Piper has a handle on what these terms mean, and shows it in this post. I’m not in total agreement with his analysis but...
- OBITUARY: Emerging Church (1989-2009) This brings a (satirical) tear to my eye. The money quote: She is survived by her parents, the Seeker Church, and Sojourners; her paternal grandmother,...
- Emerging Church Ceases to be “Radical and Controversial” Andrew Jones, a long-time leader and historian of the Emerging Church Movement gives it the R.I.P. treatment in his recent post “Emerging Church Movement –...
