IDENTIFYING CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EC

Excerpted from
AN ARTICULATION AND EVALUATION OF AN EMERGING CHURCH ECCLESIOLOGY
By Laura K. Springer
Th.M. Thesis, May 2008
Talbot School of Theology, Biola University
Reader: Robert L. Saucy, Ph.D.

ECs come into being by the process of emergence and do so along a shift continuum that runs from a shift in practices to a shift in the reasons for these practices. Most ECs likely fall in the middle of the continuum, having a shift in practices based upon a shift in the reasons.

The purpose of this shift process is nothing less than the reformation of the church. Reacting to the ineffective processes of program modification and development, ECs see the postmodern turn as an opportunity for systemic change in church.

Two theological ideas form the theoretical basis for the process of shift. First, ECs consider the church inherently missional, living the gospel for the sake of the world. Second, ECs consider church to be inherently incarnational, being the Gospel in their neighborhoods for the sake of Christ.

In sum, ECs are characterized by bottom up, reformational change in theory and practice for the purpose of incarnational mission.

Related Posts:
A TENTATIVE IDENTIFICATION OF EC
HUNTING FOR TAXONOMIES
DEFINING THE EMERGING CHURCH


NOTE: This is a rumination ("1. The act of pondering; meditation. 2. The act or process of chewing cud." American Heritage Dictionary) in search of synergy ("1. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.")

Tag(s): theology emerging church

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“Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.” http://www.esv.org/

A TENTATIVE IDENTIFICATION OF EC

As the researching and writing of my ThM thesis continues, I will be posting some "thought bubbles" for the purpose of critique and clarification. Questions, comments, and corrections are welcome.

ECs are characterized by bottom up change in theory and practice for the purpose of incarnational mission.

NOTE: This is a rumination ("1. The act of pondering; meditation. 2. The act or process of chewing cud." American Heritage Dictionary) in search of synergy ("1. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.")

Tag(s): missional ecclesiology emerging church

See CC License

“Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.” http://www.esv.org/

HUNTING FOR TAXONOMIES

UPDATE: TSK added 1/25
UPDATE: Links to journal and book citations added 4/19/09

As the researching and writing of my ThM thesis continues, I will be posting some "thought bubbles" for the purpose of critique and clarification. Questions, comments, and corrections are welcome.

I've gathered buckets of definitions from various sources (more on that later), but I'm in the market for EC taxonomies. Here's what I've collected so far:

C. Wess Daniels

• Deconstructionist Model
• Pre-modern/Augustinian Model
• Emerging Peace Church Model (Or Open Anabaptism)
• Foundationalist Model

Scot McKnight

• Prophetic (or at least provocative)
• Postmodern
• Praxis-oriented
• Post-evangelical
• Political

Darrin Patrick

• Emerging Conversational
  
• Emerging Attractional
  
• Emerging Incarnational
  

Ed Stetzer

• Relevants
• Reconstructionists
• Revisionists

Mark Driscoll (which looks vaguely familiar...)

• Reconstructionists
• Relevants
• Revisionists

Andrew Jones (Tall Skinny Kiwi) (added 1/25/2008)

• Big like a Miracle-Gro Garden
• Healthy like a Greenhouse Garden
• Pure like an organic garden
• Free like a wildflower garden
• Whole like an English country garden

This post is cited in Evangelicals Engaging Emergent, By Adam Greenway, Thom S. Rainer, "The Emergent/Emerging Church," by Ed Stetzer, footnote #56, page 72.
and
"The Emergent/Emerging Church: a missiological perspective" (pdf), by Ed Stetzer, in The Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry, Fall 2008, Vol. 5, No. 2, footnote 56, page 82.

Am I missing any?

NOTE: This is a rumination ("1. The act of pondering; meditation. 2. The act or process of chewing cud." American Heritage Dictionary) in search of synergy ("1. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.")

Tag(s): missional ecclesiology

See CC License

“Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.” http://www.esv.org/

DEFINING THE EMERGING CHURCH

As the researching and writing of my ThM thesis continues, I will be posting some "thought bubbles" for the purpose of critique and clarification. Questions, comments, and corrections are welcome.

The first chapter of my thesis is, "Defining the Emerging Church." Here is a Venn Diagram I've developed upon which I might hang some thoughts.


Comments? Corrections? Adjustments?

NOTE: This is a rumination ("1. The act of pondering; meditation. 2. The act or process of chewing cud." American Heritage Dictionary) in search of synergy ("1. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.")

Tag(s): missional ecclesiology

See CC License

“Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.” http://www.esv.org/

THOUGHT BUBBLE--ECM's challenge

As the researching and writing of my ThM thesis continues, I will be posting some "thought bubbles" for the purpose of critique and clarification. Questions, comments, and corrections are welcome.

To date I've "plundered" a nearly 3-foot stack of books and articles by and about the emerging church and/or ecclesiology. Though the results of my plundering remain a rather disorganized scattering in the memory of my laptop, I shall hazard my first speculated conclusion:

The ECM is contributing a crucial critique and challenge, and the historic church ought to listen: Each local congregation is a gathering of local missionaries, committed to and equipped for disciple-making in the local and global communities.

Too many historic churches have forgotten, neglected, or refused to obey Jesus' command to go make disciples. Too many have become focused on drawing in members or on maintaining internally focused programs. Of course, this is not true of all historic churches, but it is true of far too many. ECM's call for a missional ecclesiology must be heard and answered.

The danger within the ECM is that too many in the movement may become enamored by a culture of openness and will exchange the biblical warrant for a clear communication of the gospel for a pragmatic warrant for cultural compromise. Therefore, the ECM must hear and answer its own critique and challenge.

The command of Jesus requires it.

NOTE: This is a rumination ("1. The act of pondering; meditation. 2. The act or process of chewing cud." American Heritage Dictionary) in search of synergy ("1. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.")

Tag(s): missional ecclesiology

See CC License

“Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.” http://www.esv.org/

THE MISSIONAL IDENTITY OF THE CHURCH 8

Spring 2007 has been a semester of Newbigin. I have read The Open Secret, Foolishness to the Greeks, and The Gospel in a Pluralist Society. One result of this study is a series of questions I shall be considering as I research emerging church ecclesiology this summer and fall. Please note that these questions are actual questions. Therefore, any insight into an emerging-missional perspective is greatly appreciated. The goal here is conversation and discovery.

• Does the emerging church clearly declare the Jesus as the ultimate authority?
• Does the emerging church call for radical commitment?
• Does the emerging church strive to maintain the tension between the already and the not yet?
• Has there been conformity for the sake of relevance? If so, what is the justification? If not, what protections are in place?
• Is the emerging church’s self description as “followers of God in the way of Jesus” a sufficient definition of the church?
• How does the emerging church explain their intense focus on Jesus in light of the Trinity?
• How does the emerging church practice their cultural shaping in the context of divine promise?
• How does the emerging church answer the charge that they have a low interest in theology?
• Is the emerging church faithful to valid traditions?
• Does the emerging church have a verbal and practical witness?
• How might the emerging church join in conversation with its detractors so that its theology and practice would more accurately proclaim the kingdom?

NOTE: This is a rumination ("1. The act of pondering; meditation. 2. The act or process of chewing cud." American Heritage Dictionary) in search of synergy ("1. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.")

Tag(s): missional ecclesiology

See CC License

“Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.” http://www.esv.org/

THE COMPLEX CHRIST chapter 4

In the interlude, Brewin takes a step away form his direct discussions of church as the embodiment of the complex Christ to wonder about the shape and characteristics of an Emergent Church. A key idea in his discussion is illustrated by slime mould. This particular mould is morphed as a direct result of its environment--radically morphed. This causal relationship--mould and environment shaping each other--is, according to Brewin, the condition of the Emergent Church. Just as Christ was incarnated into first century Jewish culture, so each church today incarnates into a particular culture. The church is changed by and changes the culture, and a new thing is constantly happening.

Quotes from The Complex Christ:

p.75
What is important for our purposes is to understand that this change-from-within is triggered by the environment in which the slime mould is existing, and that central to its survival is its ability to read and respond to this environment.

p.87
The truth of the Church needs to become 'open source', with distributed agents able to feed in solutions, rather than it being left to a closed clique of experts.

p.91
...the role of leaders in an emergent system should be to 'change the perceptions of a situation.' This is very different from stating what changes ought to be made and telling everyone what the new deal is. They are not there to announce change, but to resource change; to provide environments whereby change can happen naturally from the bottom up, as described above.

NOTE: This is a rumination ("1. The act of pondering; meditation. 2. The act or process of chewing cud." American Heritage Dictionary) in search of synergy ("1. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.")

Tag(s): ecclesiology kester brewin complex christ

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“Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.” http://www.esv.org/

THE COMPLEX CHRIST chapters 1-3

According to Brewin, the journey of emergence involves three movements. Advent consists of realizing where we are—exile. Advent remembers the past, but is not tied to it. Rather, the past enables and prepares us for change because it reminds us that there has always been change. Incarnation is “…the embryonic cooperation of divinity and humanity.” Incarnation lives out the complete presence of both divinity and humanity in the present context. Emergence is the self-organization that takes place in the space between anarchy and rigidity. Emergence allows for real growth and health, while both rigidity and anarchy inhibit both growth and health.

Quotes from The Complex Christ:

p.35
But we must do it, we must stop all the programs, stop the meetings, stop the denials, stop the machinations, dismantle the structures, face our fears and disappointments and weep for the absence, weep for the emptiness, weep for the pretence, weep for the fiction. Weep until we can see our barrenness clearly, for only then will we have made room for newness.

p.48
If we are to become wombs of the divine, then what we give birth to will not only take a great deal of careful nurturing, but will also be very specific to the culture and place where it is born.

p.60
…somewhere between these two poles of anarchy and rigidity—a spectrum with death at each end—there exists a place where a system begins to live, to self-organize, to become more that the sum of its parts, to develop a character, a culture, a soul if you will—as if some breath has entered it and commanded it to live.

NOTE: This is a rumination ("1. The act of pondering; meditation. 2. The act or process of chewing cud." American Heritage Dictionary) in search of synergy ("1. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.")

Tag(s): ecclesiology kester brewin complex christ

See CC License

“Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.” http://www.esv.org/

FIVE STREAMS OF THE EMERGING CHURCH

Scot McKnight's article in today's Christianity Today online looks to be worth a read.

After defining the movement using the definitions and characteristics from Bolger/Gibbs Emerging Churches, he goes on to describe five steams: prophetic, postmodern, praxis-oriented, post-evangelical, and political.

more later...

NOTE: This is a rumination ("1. The act of pondering; meditation. 2. The act or process of chewing cud." American Heritage Dictionary) in search of synergy ("1. The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.")

Tag(s): ecclesiology

See CC License

“Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.” http://www.esv.org/