Thanks to TSK, the Emerging Church is now dead. TSK says that it was like that when he got there, but the investigation is still underway.
But move on we must, and we now enter the era of reflecting on the good and bad of the movement… like Dan Kimball does here as he reflects on 10 good things that came about as a result of the movement:
1. Friendships developed amongst many who thought they were alone and going crazy.
2. A recognition the church is not connecting with emerging generations and a shared urgency developed to do something about it.
3. Safe places to ask questions were formed – and a strong interest in theology not just methodology developed.
4. The contemporary church has made changes to where it often looks like what was being done in young adult ministry 10 years earlier.
5. There has been a refreshing reevaluation of how tight we held onto certain minor theological or denominational differences and ceasing what we used to argue about. But at the same time, all the more solidifying our historical orthodox Christian faith and core doctrines and unifying together on those.
6. There has been a correction made to the reductionist form of the gospel we were using that focused only about the afterlife and making a “decision” - and not about mission, justice and compassion in this life. But as much as we now focus on justice and compassion in this life – we still cannot ever forget about the reality of eternal heaven/hell.
7. There has been a healthy rise of attention for having both orthodoxy and orthopraxy in the life of a disciple of Jesus.
8. There has been an interest in exploring why we do what we do in the church and if the origins are from Scripture or from tradition. Tradition for tradition-sake must never get in the way of mission.
9. Youth pastors stopped wearing mullets. Goatees were adopted, but at least they were better than mullets.
10. There has been a healthy rise of the church “being the church” instead of “going to church” – and that the church is seeing itself more as being sent into the world on mission.
Speaking of the Emerging Church like a dead relative may be difficult for some, but the time has come to say farewell.
Related posts:
- 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 –...
- 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...
- What is the “Emerging Church”? In my experience, having observed, engaged in, and written about it, the following are some important and often misunderstood facts about the movement: The Emerging...
- Andrew Jones responds: “John Piper and an ‘upper-middle-class’ emerging church” Andrew Jones (Twitter), a recognized long-time leader in Emerging Church circles responds to my post from earlier this week. Here is an excerpt: The EC...
- Michael Kruse : Emerging Church and Obama Read the rest of the article here… Kruse makes a keen observation about emerging Evangelicals: One of the most ironic things I’ve seen in this...
