pat loughery

A collection of thoughts, quotes, statements, theories… Please feel free to comment, rebut, agree, deconstruct (:-)).

First of all, what authority do I have to make these characterizations? None. I’m probably not as emergent as you are, and I’m certainly not a figurehead of any kind in the emerging church collective. I haven’t written a book, and I live in the suburbs. I’m not even an ordained minister. You probably should just stop reading now. (Crap, reading that paragraph again makes me feel like I should just stop blogging for good and go back to work in software).

But in case you’re curious and have nothing better to read:

What is the emerging church? Here are generally common emphases that I’ve seen in my virtual travels:

1. A commitment to reconsider the meaning of the Gospel. Specificially, a focus on the Gospel of the Kingdom as Jesus’ primary message, as compared to “if you were to die today would you go to heaven because you prayed the salvation prayer?” message.
2. Ancient-future liturgy, combining the best of pre-reformation theology and practice with culturally relevant expression. Contemplative prayer with house music. Spiritual direction and exegesis of film. Walking the labyrinth, with DVD films at prayer points along the path.
3. A global commitment to justice and compassion, particularly in a manner that is separated from specific political parties (in the US, distancing influence from Republican and/or Democratic platforms).
4. A commitment to living the message of the Gospel in a holistic manner (i.e. “actions speak louder than words”).
5. A recognition that our understanding is influenced by our cultural context (i.e. American Christianity’s emphasis on wealth as an indication of the blessing of God, which conflicts sorely with other emphases in the global church).
6. Experimentation in teaching styles that are participatory and experiential as compared to lecture-driven.
7. An ongoing struggle to practice being “in, but not of the world” and its application in cultural relevance, language, involvement.
8. An embrace of the mysteries of faith without a need to organize and emphasize formulas and models of critical truth.
9. The use of artistic expression (both via observation and creation) beyond the current focus of music-only.
10. A relational theology with emphases on humanity in relationship with God, with the rest of humanity and all of God’s creation.
11. An understanding of the church’s missional nature informing the practice of the church. This creates a de-emphasis of the “come to the Sunday service” model of church griwth, and re-emphasizes being God’s people 24x7x365. Specifically, this is a recognition that Tuesday evening’s grocery shopping trip can be a holy moment in the same league with the time reserved for healing prayer in Sunday’s church gathering.
12. A flexible ecclesiology, welcoming and learning from practitioners of the church with various expressions from neo-monastic orders, house churches and large gatherings. Additionally, recognizing that there is no magic formula to worshipmusic-announcements-sermon-prayertime as liturgy.
13. An emphasis on the life of the individual in community, with an understanding that faith, theology and mission are best worked out in community.
14. Strong language of faith as an ongoing journey, not as a single moment in time.
15. Flattened leadership structure with an emphasis on “everybody gets to play”, as opposed to one main leader with a large bunch of followers.

The emerging church is emphatically not about cool haircuts and cooler music. Nor is it about candles, couches and coffee. Nor is it an argument that today’s philosophy is correct and yesterday’s was incorrect; it simply is the church’s ongoing project of reinventing itself for its cultural context.

There, a quick article on emergnig church that doesn’t discuss either modernism or postmodernism. Whether that is a strength or a weakness is left as an exercise for the reader to comment upon.

More reading:
1. Andrew Jones’ pillar article, “What is Emergent?”
1a. Another Tallskinnykiwi articles here
2. Wikipedia’s definition of emerging church
3. Jordon Cooper’s article, quoting others’ thoughts on the topic.

Please comment! I suspect that this entry will be frequently edited and changed.