Where In the World is the Church Emerging?

emergent is growing, but there seems to be no love when I show up to these churches. I don’t mean to step on toes, but if being emergent is just a saavy way of being christian in this world, it’s failing to reach thsoe that have a background in church.

At least it’s failing to meet me…at least halfway, at least with a hello at the door.

I have to say I have had similar experience’s as Sir Jorge. Maybe it is because evangelical churches usually station greeters at every door, or the service stops and everyone shakes hands and introduces themselves or because evangelism is such a core value that some Emergent churches can seem relatively cool, distant and clubbish by comparison. I’ve always thought of Emergent as the conservative Christian’s safe alternative to pentacostalism. After all, who wants to be thought of as foolish, gullible and bizarre with talk of divine healing, angels, glossalalia and aggressive evangelism. It is analogous to the men of Athens being willing to stick with Paul until they realized he was actually talking about a dead man being raised and appearing to him. Because conservative evangelicalism (also my background) is long on doctrine and short on the experiential, eventually some of its younger adherents develop spiritual anorexia. Emergent provides some social nourishment and a safe alternative to the embarrassing evangelical culture, ritual and language. Loss of faith is not an option, Catholicism and Greek orthodoxy too alien and pentecostalism too humiliating. Suddenly in the emergent world, we can hoist a pint with friends while reading the Bible. Swearing is permissable. I have no problem with any of this, it is a welcome change. But It’s a small rebellion. The doctrine hasn’t changed substantially, but the cultural stigmas have been dropped. Suddenly you can register democrat, distance yourself from narrow-minded pro-lifers, avoid the faux pas of being labeled homophobic and find an apologetic for avoiding disagreement. It is comfortable, cultural acceptance in the POMO world. This is a generation raised on LGBT clubs and diversity clubs in high school. Rather than be jailed for spreading the gospel in a muslim country, one can be celebrated for being inclusive of other religions. Yet this is a tiny minority of Christianity. It has its own rituals and special language like using the word “Missional” in every other sentence, talking about the “Conversation”, “Deconstruction”, and labeling everything POMO. By contrast, the Church is experiencing explosive growth in China (there are now more Christians in China than America), Africa and South America. It is a more experiential, charismatic expression with an emphasis on a direct knowledge of God, the leading of the Holy Spirit, Sola Scriptura and a first century attitude towards evangelism. I like my emergent friends and enjoy occasionally attending their churches, but I think the real story is happening in China, Africa and South America. I’m sorry for being critical, especially of another brother or sister, but this is my take on the Where of Emergent.

Well, I can’t speak to sir jorge’s or rick’s experience, but I know that at the emerging church we attend here in Austin, TX, there is a greeter at the door every Sunday, and the pastor hugs EVERYONE on the way out. And within a week or two of attending we were getting hugs from others in the church as well when we showed up.

And, up at the emerging church I used to pastor in the Chicago area, we had to talk to our regulars about not being TOO welcoming of newcomers and freaking them out right away by having a whole mob of people meet them at the door right away and want to get to know them. :)

Anyhow, that’s a shame if y’all’s experience has been different at other emerging churches. Maybe you should shoot their leadership an email and tell them about your experience so they can do better in the future!

BTW, Rick, your analysis is interesting, but I’m thinking perhaps you’ve only experienced a narrow slice of the emerging world if that’s all you think it is. I’ve visited a good handful of emerging churches and I can tell you they’re all pretty diverse both in terms of style, demographics, and doctrine. What you’ve described certainly is one piece of it, and there’s no doubt that the growth of the church in the global south is an exciting trend as well, and one that certainly numerically eclipses anything we’re doing here – but of course it’s not really a competition, and I don’t think what the Spirit is doing in other places somehow diminishes what she’s doing here as well.

Rick’s comment also raises another issue that I should have mentioned in the original post – this map is not intended to be limited to just the United States or North America. Please feel free to add any communities, cohorts or individuals in other countries as well.

Thanks for adding the Waco cohort. This looks great Mike.

Thanks Adam. And I hope you’ll add the VOID Collective as well. Just use a church icon for it if you want, though I know it’s not quite a church.

Where in the world is the church emerging? Good question- reading this and looking at the map provided one would be excused for thinking that the church was only emerging in the USA. The exciting thing about this whole conversation, for me anyhow, is that we can connect and discuss our faith with fellow believers across the entire world. The conversation will only grow and mature if ALL of us are included in the conversation, because we all have a vital and different perspective to share.

Exactly right Holly! Which is exactly why we’ve open-sourced this map, so that hopefully folks from all over the world will add themselves to it. If you are connected to any communities or cohorts in other countries (or know folks who are) please do add them!

I just had to mention that if u are a former Pentecostal- that is where the conversation stops. I can’t tell u how many times I’ve been at a cohort or a gathering or something “emergent” & mentioned my Pentecostal roots and everyone seemed REALLY uncomfortable. For all the talk about inclusion and conversation there doesn’t seem to be much room for a Pentecostal expression within the ec right now. I do think that Pentecostalism has slot to say to emergent I just think that emergent is a little uncomfortable with that. Pentecostals are BIG on experience and more loose with scriptural interp. I don’t get why so many emergent types are uncomfortable with it- I guess it’s hard to be hip when your speaking in tongues;)

Daniel, I think generally what you are saying is true. Why is that? Could be that underneath Emergents are really conservative dispensationalists. I chortled, nay, I guffawed when I read your comment “I guess it’s hard to be hip when you’re speaking in tongues”. Sounds like a Huey Lewis and the News Lyric.

Coincidentally Daniel, we were just talking about that issue over at my wife’s blog, and in response to one person’s question I listed a number of places to find Pentecostal/charismatic folks in the emerging church. If it would be helpful to you, you can find that here.

I’d especially recommend checking out the Vineyard Churches. I’ve found that as a whole they tend to be a very open to emerging church stuff, and I personally know of several specific Vineyard churches and pastors who are very emergent.

Hmmm, I guess html doesn’t work here. Anyway, if you’re interested, the post I was referring to can be found at http://tinyurl.com/nsg84j

i’m excited about the map that’s open to all. i’d like to add myself, but i can’t seem to figure out how. i’ve signed into my google account, but i don’t see any link that would allow me to add myself. please help!

vangelique- near the title of the map on the left-hand side there should be an “Edit” button. Click that. Then you should see some buttons in the top left-hand corner of the map that will let you add placemarkers. Click “Save” then “Done” when you’re finished.

Hi everyone!

Here in the UK there are key elements of the emerging conversation that grew out of conservative evangelicalism and have retained its suspicion of the supra-rational. Greenbelt Festival invites charismatic worship leaders to participate but has never really incorporated charismatic theology in its seminar programme.

However, it’s my perception that most under-40s who have grown up in church in the UK have been influenced by the charismatic movement. Some have been deeply harmed by the usual dysfunctions, but the vast majority retain an openness to God working in their lives. That means that the future church is going to be much more chilled about things of the Spirit, I think.

As has already said, the pentecostal/charismatic movement already has a complex interpretative framework involving scripture, experience and tradition, and therefore can be more open to new ways of thinking (sometimes). Leadership styles and structures continue to remain a stumbling block, though.

And I’d vouch for The Vineyard, too…

Hi Mike,

i tried to add our dutch network to the map, but i think i ruined it, it doesn’t do what i intendede. so, if anything looks strange, please don’t shoot me, my humble excuses, and i’ll ask someone who knows how to handle google maps befor i’ll try again…
great idea, btw

peTer

thanks for the instructions mike! mostly went ok… i had the generic marker and some basic info. then i went back and tried to edit in order to change the icon and add some info. though it appeared i was editing the existing marker, when i saved, it now looks like there are two markers for me, one on top of the other. weird. can’t firgure out how to delete the original marker. it will let me delete the marker i want to keep, but not the older one. would just delete the new and try to edit the old, but it won’t let me do that either. sorry that i’ve cluttered my little corner of the globe!!

Hello everyone,

I am DESPERATELY trying to find an emergent/emerging church in the Inland Empire area of Riverside County (Hemet to be more exact). Could anyone help me or give me any advice at all to help me?

Thanx a bunch :)

I’m also desperately seeking an emerging church in the Inland Empire. I’m in the mountains in Running Springs close to Lake Arrowhead, Big Bear, Crestline or Riverside/San Bernardino/Rancho Cucamonga

since Pentecostalism is a secondary topic here I just wanted to also add some thoughts that Phyllis Tickle said when she was in town speaking at a church nearby. She said that charasmatic ideology was the one expression that was present in almost all other forms of Christianity. ie- charasmatic baptist, catholic, Methodist, etc. When asked about the future of the emerging church and it’s leadership she said- (paraphrased) “Im not sure where the authority will be in the future of the ec but the charasmatic/Pentecostal expression will probably be the first plank in the line of authority.” I believe she’s on to something. Pentecostal Christianity is just as screwed up as the rest- it’s jjust not as hung up on rational, logical, and reserved expressions of our faith- this could be helpful to the ec.

After study of “emergent philosophy” for over a year, I find it’s definition is somewhat subjective. That said, my take on “emergent” is that it is leading to the further diminishing of the Bible as God’s inspired Word, into a type of “contemplative spirituality” offering new spiritual formation practices/prayerforms rooted in ancient eastern and medieval Catholic practices, and professing a global/social gospel agenda message of unity rather than the gospel of personal salvation through relationship with Jesus Christ. My belief is that those who are from the more fundamental/biblical evangelical backgrounds would call “emergent church philosophy” the former “new age” stuff with a “Christian” label and these biblical centered believers will reject this movement and those professing it as the coming apostasy warned of in 2 Tim 3.

miachris2 & Sandra –
I’m afraid I’m not personally very familiar at all with what’s going on in that part of California (in fact, I even had to look up what the “Inland Empire” was to know that y’all were even in California. :) However, I would encourage you both to add yourselves as individuals to the map and hopefully that will encourage other from your area to also make themselves known. As this map continues to be circulated hopefully you’ll eventually find enough other folks in your area to connect with.

And if anyone else here is more familiar with that area, please chime in, or add the information to the map.

Through facebook’s “Iglesia emergente” group I found some chilean fellows who consider themselves as emergent/emerging (I use both words since I’m not so sure about their meaning). There’s also one friend in Rep. Dominicana. Does any of you know if there’s some emergent-like church/group here in Colombia?

Good luck and blessings to all of you

Sebastián Nieto

I found this discussion interesting, as a Catholic who has been hearing about the “Emerging Church” movement and is curious to know more. It seems like emergent communities tend to appropriate older Christian forms of worship and practice, on the one hand, while on the other, trending postmodern on sociocultural issues.

Writing from an admittedly Catholic bias, the former tendency seems an authentic movement of the Spirit to recapture spiritual treasure largely lost since the Reformation. The latter, however, feels uncomfortably like the inherent Protestant dynamic (as many Catholics view it) of shape-shifting to conform to the regnant cultural environment, rather than tranforming that culture with the Gospel.

I’m sure most here would disagree with at least part of that impression (admittedly superficial and based on much ignorance), but thought I’d throw it out there as something from a faith perspective a little “alien” (to use one commenter’s modifier of Catholicism) to the current conversation.

I’m an American who has been living outside of the US for the better part of 25 years, currently calling Norway home. I must humbly admit that I never heard of the Emergent Village until just two days ago, when I found a copy of “The New Christians” by Tony Jones (whom I also never heard of before) laying on the coffee table of some friends of mine here. I recognize myself in much of what Emergent means, but have some gnawing questions. The main question right now- What do emergents think about sin? The concept or theology of sin seems to be a bit relative in the emergent church, as far as I can see in my very limited exposure to all this thus far. Can you give some input into this (and please be gentle…. I really am trying to sort all of this out as I am having a major, major paradigm shift going on right now…). Thanks, Tom.

I do not claim to speak for emergent village, emerging people, or anyone else for that matter but here’s my rule of thumb on sin:

If we agree that God cares about the heart and not the actions, and then to try and define sin by outward actions, then we’re really missing the point of the former statement. For instance, the scriptures teach us that anger is murder in the heart right? So who can play judge on the sin besides the person being angry? After all, the scriptures also teach us to be angry but not to sin, so there are times that it seems acceptable to be angry and yet not sinning. So to simply dumb down “sin” to a violation of things in God’s so-called rule book leaves much to interpretation and will also leave out much that needs to be examined. So i think we take principles of the scriptures and try to grapple with them the best we can.

For instance, wrestle with the idea that anger, in a given situation, is potentially becoming “sin” and internally seek peace. This takes a knowledge of the scriptures but also an engagement of the individual to seek truth and motive his/her heart. It is in this place where the contemplative mind can find awareness not necessarily “sin” or not sin, right or wrong, but maybe something far more transcendent… things like: is it healthy or unhealthy, loving or unloving.

“Sin” is truly a super-charged word that carries with it not only many meanings but also a huge pressure for people not to internally want to confess to being a part of. It creates in us a dualistic mindset that is confined to blacks and whites in a grey world. It keeps us busy creating new standards and ethics for a christian club rather than being christ-like and bestowing love and grace. So often I ask myself those two questions when dealing with the “sin” issue. (1) is this healthy? (2) is this loving?

I’m not sure what paradigm shift you’re going through right now Tom but I had a major one years ago when I asked myself how the people in my circle could clearly define sin with chapter and verse and yet lived such hyper-judgmental and unloving lives. It made me beg the question of why this world looked nothing like little Jesus’s. The answers I’ve found in this emergent circle were not only ringing truth but also gave me a sense that maybe it’s worth changing my paradigm long enough to discover something that makes sense. What i’ve found is freedom… and not a freedom to “sin” but a freedom to actually love for the first time.

Hi, Tom.

I can’t speak for other “emergents”, but I’m happy to share what the idea of “sin” looks like for me.

I have to wonder how we came up with a word like “sin.” I mean, these words are translated from Hebrew and Greek into our language. If the translation were done now, the translators would look for a word in 21st Century English to closely match the word(s) in the original. As far as I can tell, “sin” isn’t really a word in 21st Century English.

I’m no Bible scholar, but I’m told that there are several different words translated as “sin”; one of the more common means “missing the mark.”

This matches my understanding of God, and the nature of things. If I “miss the mark” I can really mess things up. It seems to me that we are called to pay attention, wake up, and follow the love.

But of course, we do screw up. We “are sinners” in that sense. I’m just not at all sure that the shameful, judgmental way we often hear that word matches very well what was intended, or what God wants us to hear.

I hope you’ll post again, and tell us more about your own process, and where you are with all these questions.

Angela