The “EC” (Emerging Church) is not a denomination. It has no creed or doctrinal statement. It has no charter or by-laws. It has no president or board of directors.
The “EC” is a term used to describe a movement that is already happening – or, in some cases, has already happened. The “EC” is the church that is rising (emerging) from the ashes of inaction. That’s too broad a brush of course, since not all churches can be successfully accused of inaction, but in general terms, the EC is comprised of people – some with doctrinal clarity, some not – who are not content with simply knowing – there must be doing as well.
”Emerging” and “Alternative”
An analogy from the music industry might be helpful. In the early 90’s we had an explosion of what we called “alternative” music. This was music that was either on the fringes or completely different than the hit music of the time – which would classified as the “mainstream”. Alternative music was created and then flourished because of great dissatisfaction with the current state of the music industry. What “the industry” was producing was mostly lifeless, weak, and ineffectual music. Eventually “alternative music” became very popular, and because of this fact it ceased to be “alternative” and became “mainstream”.
In the same way the “Emerging Church” is in large part a reaction to the “mainstream” of (mostly) the North American church. The North American church – like the music industry in the late 80’s – has become too weak, lifeless and ineffectual to capture the hearts and minds of the emerging generation of Christians. But these terms need to be transitory and flexible; once something is mainstream, it can no longer be the alternative to the mainstream; once the new generation has emerged, it can no longer reasonably be called “emerging.”
The mistake we seem to be making is we’re trying to call something “emerging” after it has already emerged, just like we continued to call something “alternative” after it became that which it started out as the alternative to. “Alternative” mistakenly became a genre within the music industry. “Emerging” and “Emergent” are becoming genres of Christianity. This too is a mistake.
Defining a Generation
The emerging generation is comfortable with the book of James: If works do not result from faith, then faith is dead. In James’ words – faith without works is like a body without a spirit.
We see lots of professed belief, but too little faith that results in, and is verified by works.
We see a lot of dead bodies, and we’re running away from them.
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Other writing on the Emerging Church that you might find helpful:
Ed Stetzer on The Emerging Church
McKnight: “McLaren Emerging”
John Piper on “Emerging”, “Emergent”, and “Missional”
