What is the emerging/emergent church movement?

The emerging, or emergent, church movement takes its name from the idea that as culture changes, a new church should emerge in response. In this case, it is a response by various church leaders to the current era of post-modernism. Although post-modernism began in the 1950s, the church didn't really seek to conform to its tenets until the 1990s. Post-modernism can be thought of as a dissolution of "cold, hard fact" in favor of "warm, fuzzy subjectivity." The emerging / emergent church movement can be thought of the same way.

The emerging / emergent church movement falls into line with basic post-modernist thinking—it is about experience over reason, subjectivity over objectivity, spirituality over religion, images over words, outward over inward, feelings over truth. These are reactions to modernism and are thought to be necessary in order to actively engage contemporary culture. This movement is still fairly new, though, so there is not yet a standard method of "doing" church amongst the groups choosing to take a post-modern mindset. In fact, the emerging church rejects any standard methodology for doing anything. Therefore, there is a huge range of how far groups take a post-modernist approach to Christianity. Some groups go only a little way in order to impact their community for Christ, and remain biblically sound. Most groups, however, embrace post-modernist thinking, which eventually leads to a very liberal, loose translation of the Bible. This, in turn, lends to liberal doctrine and theology.

For example, because experience is valued more highly than reason, truth becomes relative. Relativism opens up all kinds of problems, as it destroys the standard that the Bible contains absolute truth, negating the belief that biblical truth can be absolute. If the Bible is not our source for absolute truth, and personal experience is allowed to define and interpret what truth actually is, a saving faith in Jesus Christ is rendered meaningless.

Another area where the emerging / emergent church movement has become anti-biblical is its focus on ecumenism. Unity among people coming from different religious and ethnic backgrounds and diversity in the expression of corporate worship are a strong focus of the emergent church movement. Being ecumenical means that compromise is taking place, and this results in a watering down of Scripture in favor of not offending an apostate. This is in direct opposition to passages such as Revelation 2:14-17, Jesus' letter to the church of Pergamum, in which the Church is warned against tolerating those who teach false doctrine.

False doctrine seems to abound within the emerging / emergent church movement, though, as stated previously, not within every group espousing emerging / emergent church beliefs. Because of this, care must be taken when deciding whether or not to become involved with an emergent church group. We all need to take heed of Matthew 7:15-20, "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them."

While seeking new ways to witness to a changing culture is admirable, utilizing ways which compromise the Truth of the Gospel in any way is nothing more than promoting false doctrine and leading others away from Christ instead of to Him.

I expected to see these sorts of rather defensive, reflexive "it's the liberals" comments. They miss an important point, though. The author wants to pick a fight, but he's really fighting his own assumptions.

Those who are less interested in this author's biases, and instead want to actually understand the thinking behind the emerging church movement, should probably start by reading Donald Miller and Rob Bell.

Forget the mechanics of an emerging church service for the moment, and let's look at the context in which they're operating, as opposed to the context of more traditional denominations.

Traditional denominations are very much rooted in the idea of "Christendom," that large swath of the world in which everybody was Christian and basically believed the same things.

Christendom lasted from about 300-1500 AD. The Reformation, and the wars that followed, split Christendom in two -- there were Protestants and Catholics, both groups claiming the mantle of Christendom, and each viewing the other as heretics or worse.

Nevertheless, if you look at what differentiates one traditional denomination from another, you'll note that it's basically a matter of refinement of some doctrine or other; or some difference in style or emphaisis; or some different theory of church organization. But all denominations are in basic agreement on the Creeds ... and all assume that most people within the culture basically agree on the Creeds as well.

Christendom began to crumble in earnest, in the aftermath of the World Wars. Most of Europe is post-Christian now, and America is headed that direction. Christianity no longer defines the culture here, as it once used to do. Cultural mores are generally defined elsewhere, now.... and promulgated by the entertainment media. Not everybody believes what the Creeds say, and many people are turned off by the church, or it's not relevant to their lives.

All that to say, the underlying assumptions of traditional denominations are no longer true. That doesn't make the traditional denominations non-viable, but it does put them out of step with the unchurched people they want to reach.

In reality, we live in a culture that is much closer to that of the Roman Empire, than that of Christendom.

And the emergent church movement sees today's Christians as being in much the same position as those in the early church. They realize that we, as Christians, cannot assume that the average guy on the street is a Christian, or that he knows anything about what Christianity really is, but he undoubtedly knows a lot of things about Christianity that aren't true.

We understand the vital importance of bringing that guy to Christ. Well ... how do we approach him? How do we teach him what Christianity is really all about?

Do we, by our behavior, demonstrate to him that Christianity is about nothing more than correcting some other denomination's false doctrine, as the author of this piece seems to believe? Or, perhaps traditional denominations somehow lost the point -- which is a big reason why we're now living in a post-Christian culture.

What if, rather than forcing our battles on the guy in the street, we instead meet him where he is? That brings us to the underlying idea of the Emergent Church movement, which might be summarized as follows:

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. (John 5:39-40)

The Scriptures are wonderful, but what use are they to a guy who doesn't yet care about them? They're not going to bring that guy to Christ. He doesn't care about the Bible, or being a Christian at all; he's even less interested in untangling the finer points of Doctrine. And he's just going to run away from our theological squabbling.

To start with it is sufficient for him to know just one thing: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

The emerging church movement no doubt has its doctrinal problems -- as do we all. But they realize something that the author does not: folks can wait to hear about "true doctrine." Right now, that guy on the street is like the Samaritan woman at the well: he just needs to know about Jesus.

What the author calls "watering down" says that he cares more about his own theological battles, than about reaching the guy who knows nothing at all about Jesus Christ.

Another area where the emerging / emergent church movement has become anti-biblical is its focus on ecumenism. Unity among people coming from different religious and ethnic backgrounds and diversity in the expression of corporate worship are a strong focus of the emergent church movement. Being ecumenical means that compromise is taking place, and this results in a watering down of Scripture in favor of not offending an apostate. This is in direct opposition to passages such as Revelation 2:14-17, Jesus' letter to the church of Pergamum, in which the Church is warned against tolerating those who teach false doctrine.

Here you are. I know the word Catholic is not EXPLICITY stated, but IMPLICITY. Rome is the one pushing eucmenism, right?

"The goal of the Church's ecumenical strategy is the unity of all Christian Churches through common communion with the Roman Catholic Church...the results will be that, little by little, as the obstacles to perfect ecclesiastical communion are overcome, all Christians will be gathered, in a common celebration of the Eucharist, into the unity of the one and only Church, which Christ bestowed on his Church from the beginning. This unity, we believe, subsists in the Catholic Church as something she can never lose, and we hope that it will continue to increase until the end of time." - Second Vatican Council "Decree on Ecumenism," no. 4.

ECUMENISM

The modern movement toward Christian unity, whose Protestant origins stem from the Edinburgh World Missionary Conference in 1910 and whose Catholic principles were formulated by the Second Vatican Council in 1964.

These principles are mainly three:

1. Christ established the Church on the Apostles and their episcopal successors, whose visible head and principle of unity became Peter and his successor the Bishop of Rome;

2. Since the first century there have been divisions in Christianity, but many persons now separated from visible unity with the successors of the Apostles under Peter are nevertheless Christians who possess more or less of the fullness of grace available in the Roman Catholic Church;

3. Catholics are to do everything possible to foster the ecumenical movement, which comprehends all "the initiatives and activities, planned and undertaken to promote Christian unity, according to the Church's various needs and as opportunities offer" (Decree on Ecumenism, I, 4).

All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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