Book Review of The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier (Part 2)

I got an e-mail from one of our church's Bible study leaders yesterday. She was preparing for next week's lesson, in which a DVD is shown and then they break into groups, and the teacher on the DVD took an aside to briefly discuss the dangers of the "emergent" church. The DVD teacher had a lot of negative things to say about that group. Our church's leader asked me to help her understand why this respected teacher would feel so strongly.

Which highlights a very important reality that author Tony Jones does indeed point out in his book:

That any discussion of anything "emerging" or "emergent" you have to make a distinction regarding precisely who it is that you're talking about. In fact, in the introduction, the author does that very thing.

Mr. Jones makes it clear from the outset that when he uses the term "Emergent" (capital "E") he is specifically referring to the "relational network which first formed in 1997; also known as Emergent Village." When he uses the term "the emergents," he is referring to a group of people who bring "new forms of church life rising from the modern, American church in the 20th century."

The reason this distinction is important is that often those that take hard-line critiques of the "emergent church" (little "e") are often setting their sights on the group of noted authors who are publishing books and on-line articles...the Emergent Village (capital "E").

The problem with this is that so often the "emergent church" (little "e") has never heard or read one single thing that Tony Jones or Brian McLaren has ever written (oddly, this is also the case of many of those that take hard-line critiques of Emergent Village), much less believe the same things they publish.

And, yes, there's much the Emergent Village has published that should cause concern (two specifically, of which I'll touch on in later reviews) regarding the Church (ecclesiology) and the Scriptures (bibliology).

But that's another matter. Remember, the "emergent church" contains members of an age range roughly of those born between 1975 and 1995. They come from various church backgrounds, notably coming of spiritual age in the American church during a time of highly-innovative ways of doing church led by highly-trained professionals.

And they're asking questions that make those of us in leadership (and, those in the church at-large who designed and implemented the various ministries and designed buildings and gave money and are now in servant/leadership roles) a little uncomfortable in the best of ways. Things like:

"Why would Christians bother aligning themselves with any political party?"
"Why have youth groups going to play paintball? I can entertain myself. Why don't you just equip me for life & ministry?"
"Why should we have coffee in the auditorium during worship?"
"Why have a multi-purpose facility? If worship is the most important thing we do, why not have a facility dedicated to that purpose? And why would anyone come late to WORSHIP THE LORD?"
"Why aren't women in more visible roles of leadership?"
"Why do we get wrapped around the axle about homosexuality when gossip is acknowledged to be a bad thing but winked at in practice?"
"Can a suburban megachurch foster my desire for authentic community, or does it's very existence detract from that?"
"Isn't worship more than just singing?"
"Why isn't prayer--corporate and personal--a more active part of our worship services?"
"Why don't we practice church discipline?"

I could go on.

But you see how folks could get confused, right? If the Emergent Village (capital "E") writes a book or article that addresses these concerns of the "emergent church" (little "e") then the "capital 'E'" and the "little 'e'" get lumped together in the discussion. So, if controversy is created by the "capital 'E'" writers then the entire argument of the "little 'e'" folks gets dismissed out-of-hand by those who put out DVD's and write web sites and counter-articles.

And, you know what? The "emergent church" is doing precisely what the previous generations did regarding church: They're looking at the way a church operates and asking questions. Good ones, too. If you don't think those questions I listed above aren't good questions that they should be asking then maybe you're a bit too comfy in the pew. Or the stacking, interlocking chairs with comfy cushions. We're blessed to have the emergents (little "e") in our midst, making us beautifully and wonderfully uncomfortable. We--those of us in the previous generation of churchgoers--would be prideful, arrogant and silly to ignore them. They're part of our church today...

...not the church of the future.

I'm glad Tony Jones started his book this way. It'll save everybody a lot of time and energy just knowing that.