Emerging

There are always movements and battles in the philosophical life of the church. One of the more recent ones that many may be aware of is the "Emerging Church" movement. Like any term, it is not as clear cut as saying "This is what it means to be 'Emerging'". As with any movement, you have a range of beliefs and adherents and depending on your own beliefs, the term can mean different things. Kind of like "baptist." :) The Emergent Movement really is an expression of the newer generations (X, Y) coming to terms with what church means for them. At 39, I am on the older end of Generation X and it is this generation that has been moving into the driver's seat of church leadership over the last 10 years. More and more senior pastors and teachers are from this generation, and as we move into leadership, we are asking "what is the church for us?" Each generation has defined church according to their culture, with the predominant church culture being very 'Modern' for the last generation. My generation spans the change from a 'modern' way of thinking to a 'post-modern' approach and this means redefining and recreating anything that is a cultural institution. So while the Church as the Body of Christ remains, church, the institution, is undergoing some transformations, as it has to. Now the tension comes as transforming church starts to affect how we understand the Church, the body of Christ. The Emerging Church movement really began as an attempt to pull up all the old stakes of tradition and culture that had tied the church to modernism. This kind of thing is very exciting to Generation Xers who are interested in making things more relevant. In the process though, the movement got away from itself. Instead of simply reexamining the cultural context of church, it pulled up ALL the stakes. It began to question truth itself and the Word of God. Really, the movement began to fail to distinguish between 'cultural' and 'Scriptural'. At that point, it no longer became of question of what is church, but began to affect the WHO of the Church, the body of Christ. This has lead many of my age, like Mark Driscoll, who have an Orthodox understanding of God's Word but a post-modern approach to culture, to distance themselves from the movement and these problems. Church, as a cultural institution, will change and adapt. It is unavoidable. As an institution, church will always reflect our culture. The trick is to remember that THE CHURCH is not defined by its culture. The CHURCH is defined by being saved by the blood of Christ and Christ alone. Being baptized into His Body and walking with Him. The trappings, while oh so important to us, are irrelevant in the long run. Whether we despise tradition or hold on to it for dear life, whether we are moved by hymns or choruses, whether we prefer our Bible with or without a lot of 'th's', is irrelevant. The question that the church needs to answer to be relevant and emergent is; Do you know the Love of Christ? Is the Love of Christ your prime mover? Do all who know you see the Love of Christ? The Gospel defines us, it is us, and when we put the Gospel, the Good News, the ministry of reconciliation, the CROSS, at the heart of who we are, what we do, and what we say, we will be emergent, we will be relevant, and we will be unified!