What Are Emerging Churches Doing to Reproduce Themselves?

Is the goal to “have impact” or is the goal to fulfill our mission in the world? Is the goal to make emergence the new orthodox majority model or is the goal to pursue our own relationship with G-d and each other? Is the goal to make emergence the Starbucks of Christianity or is the goal to actually offer the world a decent cup of coffee?

These sentiments sound like a business man to me.

Good point, Jhimm. Thanks for commenting.

I do think that Easum buys into the principle that size = power/influence. Jesus spoke of the mustard seed—I need say no more.

I completely agree jhimm. In this comment, Easum seems most concerned with influence as opposed to faithfulness. While I assume he would counter that his faith calls for him to have influence on the culture, I am not sure that a small group of committeed citizens cannot make a big influence on the world (Margaret Mead paraphrase).

I’ve met the other half of Easum/Bandy. Tom (Bandy) I think would put it in the language of: are emerging churches (or any church) sustainable over time? Is there longevity? It doesn’t have to be huge, but will it be multi-generational and will it create NEW disciples? Now if it wants to do it with candles and insense, or justice base mission work, or post-evangelical ecclesial forms….who cares….they all have their good and bad points. But we are called to make disciples, and that is a generational, “reproductive” call. So can an intimate church be generationally reproductive so that 25 years from now there is still an intimate church…but with new people in it (along side the elders who started it)? We must think in terms of discipleship and mission and both of those have some aspect of numerical growth attached to them.

That’s my two cents….Hi Tony. Have you talked to Shane Hipps lately?

Maybe bigger isn’t better when it comes to the emerging church. Maybe as diversified as possible is a good way. Heck, maybe totally flying under the radar is even better!!

DIscipleship? Social service? Isn’t that reproduction of the Kingdom of God? Are emerging churches insular? I would hope this would go entirely against the emerging culture. I think Jason clarified things really well—otherwise Easum’s concern is a hollow noise to well. Reproduction—as in discipleship—is and hsould be a major part of the emergent mission—in a way, it’s the whole of it. But Emergent is picking up steam among those who don’t go to church, don’t identify with church, and that’s happening in the context of human relationships—where I would gamble God is and church should be. I would call that a form of discipleship. In its honest sense (IMO) this is something you will never be able to track. The city on the hill is bright, but you’ll never know the real population, because it’s a major port city, and who knows who’s imigrating/emigrating?

I question the question. If the church is a body so often found in a marriage metaphor, isn’t it ill if it doesn’t reproduce? Why the question? Any teen knows how to reproduce. But in a marriage, a context of love, care and nurture, reproduction occurs without study or debate. It seems to me that the question really flies in the face of the intention of emergence. Doesn’t the question of church size, sustainability and reproductive technique jerk our necks back to the tired old interminable debates of evangelicalism? It seems to me that passion for God and compassion for one another in our extended communities would in a natural way generate new—some big, some small, some house, others not. Aren’t they all valid families of God? Isn’t Grandpa always proud?

Jason, you make a good counter point. I would suggest that the answer may lie in the fact that emergence does not rely as heavily on brick and mortar churches. The “concept” of emergence can live on even as individual “cells” live and die, so that generations of emergence may occur without any one particular cell having a life cycle beyond its founding members. Will this prevent emergence from developing “muscle” throughout Christian culture? Probably. Is that ok? Probably.

I think Easum is still stuck in the “modern” concepts of living faith in an institutionalized church. I read the obituaries and see that very few of the deceased are connected with a traditional church burial. There seems to be a big movement that is getting away from the “mega” church or mainline church model. My point is that we are transitioning to a post-modern culture that is seeking relevancy and authentic spirituality in their faith walk. My little house church may not be much for Easum to consult on, but we are extending our hand out to those who are seeking spirituality and not connecting to a modern church. I think there is more people seeking spirituality then those seeking institutionalized , civic church. My thoughts anyway. Thanks for listening.

i dont know if we should be talking about reproducing. i dont think we are marketing a product. as long as churches continue to think and act missionally, there will always be a place for the emerging church.

The key is not in reproducing an organization but in reproducing individually. If I reproduce myself by being a disciple who makes disciples- by being an evangelsit that makes evangelists and so on then that is where life lies… that is where longevity carries forth. It may not look the same in a generation or so, it may not be called emergant- but that’s not the point anyhow, is it?

jhimm – I’m with you on this one. “reproducing”, “expanding”, “growing”, “multiplying” are all fine expectations as long as we blow away our preconceptions of what that looks like.

Our little community here in Colorado is “expanding” but we have no more people in our Sunday gatherings this month than we did 5 months ago.

The reality is that for 99% of Western Churches and Western Christians reproducing is a fantay that will never happen no matter how many conferances and books we read on the matter, so we need to stop and say “Why?”

I like what Makeesha says
“reproducing”, “expanding”, “growing”, “multiplying” are all fine expectations as long as we blow away our preconceptions of what that looks like.