Learning from the Other Side
Some of you know that I’m on Twitter. I have to admit that I find it difficult to put my thoughts together in more than 140 characters now, so bear with me.
I have two great and interesting types of people I follow on Twitter. The first are sex workers and advocates (shout out, ya’ll!), and the second are emergent-type church folks.
What exactly is emergent church? Who the hell knows?
Here’s what Christianity Today (not one of my favorite magazines, by the way) says:
It is said that emerging Christians confess their faith like mainliners—meaning they say things publicly they don’t really believe. They drink like Southern Baptists—meaning, to adapt some words from Mark Twain, they are teetotalers when it is judicious. They talk like Catholics—meaning they cuss and use naughty words. They evangelize and theologize like the Reformed—meaning they rarely evangelize, yet theologize all the time. They worship like charismatics—meaning with their whole bodies, some parts tattooed. They vote like Episcopalians—meaning they eat, drink, and sleep on their left side. And, they deny the truth—meaning they’ve got a latte-soaked copy of Derrida in their smoke- and beer-stained backpacks.
As I understand it, though, the emergent church movement is about evangelicalism losing it’s certitude, becoming more open to ambiguity, and worrying less about who is “in” and who is “out.” Which, of course, can’t be a bad thing.
But back in the day (2005), there was also something called the emerging church, which seemed different than the emergent church. Where the emergent church was conservative evangelicals moving more towards the middle, the emerging church was liberal or progressives moving toward the middle. They may have merged into one movement, I don’t know. And just for the record, the emergent/emerging church seems to have become another program to build church, which, of course, seems antithetical.
But here’s how it is in my life: I walked away from evangelicalism years ago, tossed it all out, and the emerging church was my way of struggling to keep any bit of my tradition. So I’ve begun listening to the emergent movement.
Today I listened to a sermon by Jay Bakker, of Revolution NYC, also of One Punk Under God, and the son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. I have to say, it was good. Bakker quoted one of my favorites, Will Campbell, I think from Soul Among Lions, and he really, really has an amazing hold on God’s love for us. As Bakker said, “Jesus love us and wants to make a mixed tape for us.”
I recommend a listen.
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Oh no they didn’t!
June 24th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Great post on the emerging/emergent church… and interesting differences pointed out here. I too had some of the best experiences of my christian career (fundagelical…) during my time at Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis. It definitely aided in a growth spurt in my days of following christ that eventually helped me jump out of the entire religion all together. No regrets. I wrote about my time there in my blog… fond memories… great people… artistic community… sincere… worth following on twitter. Check out Solomon’s Porch and Doug Pagitt if that is your thing.
July 16th, 2009 at 1:35 am
That description from CT is so off the mark and rubbish. Emerging church kept me from totally leaving my faith behind. i have found solitude and a safe space to question, doubt, rethink out loud without the fear of lambasting and rejection.
Lia, you said, ‘And just for the record, the emergent/emerging church seems to have become another program to build church, which, of course, seems antithetical.’ Can you expalain further for me what you mean by being antithetical to reform church? Some are looking to find new and relevant ways to grow their churches since numbers are down. Yet many are really rethinking things and making paradigm shifts & rethinking how we are to be the church. So, i’m not really tracking with you on this.
Thanks,
Adele
July 16th, 2009 at 9:25 am
Thanks for the comments.
Adele, the church, for most of my adult life, has been doing everything it can possibly do, to GROW. From George Barna to Rick Warren, church leaders have been working to make sure that more and more people are in church. Like the efforts of Baptists in the 80′s and 90′s to move toward mega-churches, the end result doesn’t seem to be, well, church.
Grrr. I can’t even explain it.
You know, the Christ came to build disciples. Granted. But it wasn’t to build larger buildings, to have bigger budgets, or to have larger churches. That’s not Christianity.
And every tool that can be used to build disciples has been eventually used to build budgets and buildings. When the church becomes more interested in remaining an organization than being about the original mission of the church (love God, love one another as ourselves), then “reform” becomes church growth.