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Note: these excerpt threads are subject to continual revision and updating as opportunity and priority permits Tony Jones: "Across the emergent church landscape, characters like Chad defy easy classification. Is he an evangelical? He's unhinged from any denominational structure, and obviously he feels the freedom to start up a church wherever and whenever and with whomever he wants. These are evangelical characteristics. Or is he a mainliner? His openly gay barista friend feels welcome at his church, and her boss would surely like to expel emergent churches from the evangelical fold. This kind of inclusive spirit is characteristically mainline. As a result of these category-defying characteristics, many emergents feel homeless in the modern American Christian church... First, these are largely people who feel great disappointment with modern American Christianity. The bipolarities of left versus right were often noted... The second characteristic of emergents is a high -- if tortured -- desire for inclusion. In interviews, similar comments were repeated in all eight churches: openness, nonjudgemental, wherever you are on the journey, inclusive. But they were quick to point out that this doesn't necessarily mean liberal or relativistic... The third defining characteristic among emergents is a hope-filled orientation. Emergents generally view the future with optimism, in stark contrast to the large number of American Christians who decry the present state of affairs, confident that Jesus' imminent return hinges on disasters, wars, and evil. The hope of emergents is not an Enlightenment-influenced hope in human progress but what theologians call eschatological hope. That is, they interpret the Bible in such a way that Jesus brought good news (aka gospel) and there's more good news to come..." [70-72] The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier "When I ask what's the core of their loyalty, twenty-four-year-old Gary gives the credit to the Anglican liturgy. Unlike the conservative caricatures of Episcopal liberalism, he says that the liturgy is founded on scripture but does not espouse on particular doctrinal viewpoint. 'It provides a safe place for us to step into relationships with people who are different from us,' he says. Every week, the creative team gathers to plan the worship around the liturgy, making a special effort to create open space for new people. 'It's not an evangelistic moment where we're trying to get people to make a decision,' Gary continues. 'Rather we're trying to get people to know each other, and every new person at COTA necessarily changes the community and takes it in a different direction, I think.' The word liturgy comes from the Greek leitourgia, which literally translates to work of the people. It probably comes as a surprise to some readers who think it would be more accurate to say that the liturgy is the work of the priest while the congregation just sits passively and listens. But a sign of emergence at COTA is that the liturgy is truly the glue that binds the community. At the end of our conversation, I ask what concrete practices make COTA what it is. 'The liturgy' is the first response. 'It initiates individuals into community -- brings one context into another.' There's a rhythm in COTA's liturgy, says someone else, that moves from communal singing into open space in which individuals get to work out what's between them and God. 'But there will also be a communal dinner tonight,' says Mary, 'which is a natural outgrowth of the liturgy.' Gary nods in agreement: 'I think that a big part of what makes up COTA is that we're not just a church that meets once a week; we're a church outside of church. We have community and we have church with each other in smaller groups or bigger groups in a variety of settings, doing a variety of different things. And most of it's disorganized.' But, he reiterates, for them it all flows outward from the liturgy." [208] THE NEW CHRISTIANS: DISPATCHES from the EMERGENT FRONTIER Dispatches: 1-20 | Pages: 8, 20, 36, 41, 52, 75, 78, 81, 105, 111, 115, 144, 153, 163, 176, 180, 202, 204, 213 "Emergents find little importance in the discrete differences between the various flavors of Christianity. Instead, they prace a generious orthodoxy that appreciates the contributions of all Christian movements. Emergents reject the politics and theologies of left versus right. Seeing both sides as a remnant of modernity, they look forward to a more complex reality. The gospel is like lava: no matter how much crust has formed over it, it will always find a weak point and burst through. The emergent phenomenon began in the late 1990s when a group of Christian leaders began a conversation about how postmodernism was affecting the faith. The emergent movement is not exclusively North American; it is growing around the globe. Emergents see God's activity in all aspects of culture and reject the sacred-secular divide. Emergents believe that an envelope of friendship and reconciliation must surround all debates about doctrine and dogma. Emergents find the biblical call to community more compelling than the democratic call to individual rights. The challenge lies in being faithful to both ideals. The emergent movement is robustly theological; the conviction is that theology and practice are inextricably related, and each invariably informs the other. Emergents believe that theology is local, conversational, and temporary. To be faithful to the theological giants of the past, emergents endeavor to continue their theological dialouge. Emergents believe that awareness of our relative position - to god, to one another, and to history - breeds biblical humility, not relativistic apathy. Emergents embrace the whole bible, the glory and the pathos. Emergents believe that truth, like God, cannot be definitively articulated by finite human beings. Emergents embrace paradox, especially those that are core compoents of the Christian story. Emergents hold to a hope-filled eschatology: it was good news when Jesus came the first time, and it will be good news when he returns. Emergents believe that church should function more like an open-source network and less like a hierarchy or a bureaucracy. Emergents firmly hold that God's Spirit - not their own efforts - is responsibile for good in the world. The human task is to cooperate with God in what God is already doing. Emergents downplay - or outright reject - the differences between clergy and laity. Emergents believe that church should be just as beautiful and messy as life." THE NEW CHRISTIANS |