Book Review of The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier (Part 3--or, "No Country for Old Churches")

It all started at an IHOP. The beloved International House of Pancakes.

One of my former students was in town and we were grabbing a late-night dinner (or pre-morning breakfast, depending on how you want to define it). This former student has been growing spiritually ever since I've known him and he continues to encourage and challenge me to this day, so it was kind of cool to sit across the table and hear what God was doing in his life and ministry and church and all that jazz.

And God was doing a lot in his life and ministry and church and all that jazz at that time.

Much of that was due to an exposure to an entirely different way of "doing church" than the suburban megachurch experience he'd grown up in. It was (and still is) exciting...but in that excitement, reading between the lines of the excitement was the hint that we'd been doing a lot "wrong" in the suburban megachurch experience of which I'm a part. He didn't mean it that way, but it certainly came through.

And I felt like the character Ed Tom in "No Country for Old Men" as Tommy Lee Jones goes on a rant about all the things that were wrong in this country and there just wasn't room for those of us who are, more or less, from the "old school."

Tony Jones, in this book, fires off from the very first chapter entitled "Leaving the Old Country." Jones hauls off and says that the church in America is dead. That's right. DEAD. Well, at least he qualifies it by saying the "conventional forms" of the church are dead (page 4) In fact, he compares these forms of church to "pay phones." They're still around. Just no one uses them. They're irrelevant.

This is the first place I depart from my Emergent (capital "E") friends: I'd disagree. If for no other reason that the numbers of people that attend those places on any given Sunday. It's Easter weekend and all over America churches will experience high attendance figures.

Granted, they'll level off as summer comes.

But there's a lot of great folks using their gifts and talents for His glory in each and every one of those buildings on Sunday. Doesn't matter if it's a little Methodist church in a rural area or 17,000 in one building having 3,500 watching satellite feeds in another.

There's a lot of people growing in Christ, desiring others to grow in Christ and using their gifts and talents to serve. Your own figures site roughly 255 million Americans who claim a church affiliation. And those are all over the map regarding levels of involvement, consistency in attendance and all that jazz.

But that doesn't make it irrelevant. In fact, I'd say that makes it highly relevant.

Sure.

All those folks aren't "on fire" and "growing" and all that. And, yes. There's plenty of folks filling up a pew (or interlocking stackable chair) who put in their hour twice a month and that's that.

But, Tony. Ahem. That's where they are in their spiritual growth at this time in their life.

Everybody can't be at some deeply spiritual, highly educated place of spiritual growth. The beauty of the Body of Christ is in the very diversity--everybody in a different place spiritually. Everybody in a different location. Everybody in a different venue. In my own community there will be highly liturgical services celebrating the Resurrection. There will be interdenominational gatherings on the Flower Mound (yes, there is one that our town is named after). There will be big gatherings. Small ones. In Africa and China and all over the world in different forms this will take place. And it's beautiful in the diversity.

So, I have no problem if you Emergents (capital "E") want to gather in a dank basement of a pub and light candles and worship using Gregorian chants. Rock on. Have at it. Worship the Lord in a manner that glorifies Him!

But I don't understand why those of us in multi-purpose facilities who have a relatively strict one-hour time frame for parking issues with well-lit auditoriums using amplified music and big screens and will give 10 times more to missions this year than your entire church budget don't get the same grace. We worship the Lord in a manner that glorifies Him! Why can't we Rock on?

That doesn't make us dead, Tony.
That doesn't make us wrong, Tony.

It just makes us different.

And, like I reminded my IHOP friend, there's room in the Kingdom for us--our suburban "megachurch," too.
And, like I reminded my IHOP friend, don't forget that it was at our very church that we taught you to think about Scripture a certain way, trained you and gave you opportunities to grow in your faith, and loved you and encouraged you every step of the way in your spiritual journey. We wanted you to question us. And now you're doing it. And I'm thrilled by it...because you're poking holes where we need to have holes poked.

So, rock on, emerging church (little "e"). Rock on.

We hope you'll extend the same grace to us as we rock on. Keep sharpening us, okay? But let us rock on. We're in this deal together, okay?