Campus CrossWalk Magazine: 2008 Spring Issue -- What is the Emergent Church Movement?

Where to Begin?

Campus CrossWalk is committed to reaching young people with a biblical worldview to strengthen Christian faith, hope and love. This brings us into positive contact with many Emergent Church goals and principles that promote to kingdom growth.

We must also be careful of a faddish critical spirit. As the emerging conversation proceeds, pick out the bones. With discernment, ride the fresh emerging winds of innovation, reformation, and reconciliation; while resisting the ill winds of deception, cynicism, seduction. Most of all, hold tight to God’s hand.

When and where did the Emergent Church movement begin?

According to Brian McLaren (in an interview with Religion & Ethics Newsletter on July 15, 2005), in the early 1990s, an organization called Leadership Network, in Dallas, called together some mega church leaders around the country. They saw fewer and fewer people between 18 and 35 coming to their events and this sparked some discussions in the mid-'90s about “Generation X.”

They discussed what was working in the church, and what wasn't. That raised a myriad of conflicting opinions, so some tried to take the conversation beyond a focus on one generation or about cultural and musical styles, and they tried to develop an emerging philosophy. They began to define it as an emerging cultural shift, generally, from a modern to a postmodern emphasis. This effort has still not achieved a unified definition for the Emergent Church movement. That’s why some simply call it a “conversation.” And it’s a conversation Campus CrossWalk (with both praise and criticism) is glad to encourage.

Why did it start?

The Emergent Church movement formed (and is reforming) to address various needs and concerns felt by young people regarding the church. From personal conversations, diverse readings and a few blogs, I have picked up a few anonymous expressions of these concerns:

: “I don't want to go to church with porcupines anymore.”; “I’ve never felt like I fit in the traditional church.”; “I love Jesus, but I’m not too excited about Christianity in its current form.”; “It feels like we’ve missed the point of what Jesus was about.”; “I’m dissatisfied with the status quo in my life, my church and my world. I know I need to change but I don’t know how.” (from McLaren’s website).

This movement manifests the following trends: An emphasis on experience over explanations, image over words, subjective truth over objective truth, and belonging over believing. A motto for my father’s generation was, “Come, let us reason together.” Today, it’s “let’s hang out!” Whatever pitfalls you see in those dichotomies, it is important to understand these trends to better reach young people.

What are the aims and goals of this movement?

Here are a few more explanations I have heard (paraphrased below) from young people attracted to the Emergent Church movement:

: “We need to get unstuck from the mud of previous approaches to Christianity.”; “Let’s replace absolutes with authenticity.”; “We seek a break from the American pop culture church without retreating down old paths.”; “Everything must change” (the name of McLaren’s 2008 tour).

On the other hand, one overzealous critic observed (and again, I paraphrase):

: “The goal is to overcome the theology of Western European white male Christians and replace it with the theology of Western European white male atheists.”

The Emergent Church movement is diverse, with much to praise and criticize. Much of its focus, (at least initially) has been on youthful dissatisfaction, some of it merited and some of it not! Most Emerging Churches are trying to meet those dissatisfactions with a missional spirit to draw them back into faith. I pray for a growing respect between our old evangelical and new emergent wings. Perhaps absolutes and authenticity can flap in unison and carry us high on the winds of progress for the gospel.

Right vs Left.

I have perceived an excessive intolerance in some sectors of the Emerging Church movement toward those on the right. There are a few Emergent Church leaders (like Mike Clawson and Brian McLaren, for instance) who caricature the religious right unfairly, in my view. Some evangelicals, it must be said, have a history of criticizing the left unfairly and perhaps this is a reaction. But this takes us off our common mission. At the church where I serve, both left and right and both Democrat and Republican are fully respected. We consider that others who disagree with us may actually be sincere.

Two Questions:

: “Are these youthful dissatisfactions valid and genuine, or are they being prodded and exploited by some emerging teachers?”; “Is the Emergent Church movement a serious and healthy reform movement within the church, or a marketing ‘hook’ to attract the next generation to new definitions of the church or to new politics in the name of faith?”

My answer is; “yes!”

It’s time for us to be critical thinkers without being critical people. We’ve had too little of the former and too much of the latter already.

Joel Mark Solliday , B.A., M.Div., is the editor of Campus CrossWalk and the pulpit minister of the Northern Light Church of Christ in Minnesota. He earned his M.Div. at Fuller Theological Seminary and has worked at Pepperdine and ACU. His wife Katie is a junior high school teacher.