Recently in Emergent Church Category

Last week at Christianity21, GENERATE Magazine debuted. With the tag line, "an artifact of the emergence conversation," it fit perfectly at the gathering. When I actually got around to reading it last weekend, I was truly surprised at how good it is.

There have been several efforts to begin a paper journal that capture the exploits of emergence, and none has quite succeeded. GENERATE does.

In our attempt to exterminate Christian euphemisms from our vocabulary, Nathan nominated thusly:

"Unbiblical" when what the situation really is is "I really, really DON'T like that" OR "I disagree" OR "Your words challenge my deepest held idolatries posing as genuine Christian faith."

This euphemism seems to be more prevalent today than I remember it -- or maybe I just ran into it less in the past. Of course, what it implies is that there is a consistent, reliable, and mutually agreed upon hermeneutic for a particular passage, or for the entire narrative arc of the Bible.

I ran into this at the Cornerstone Festival this summer, while on a panel discussing gays in the church. The two anti-gay members of the panel, both "ex-gays" who were affiliated with Exodus International, repeatedly stated that theirs was the "biblical" position, and that opposing views were "unbiblical." They said this with no anger, and really no passion. It was said matter-of-factly, and simply, as though no counter-argument could possibly be summoned.

As other bloggers have noted, putting the Christianity21 experience into words is nearly impossible. In short, it went even better than Doug and I imagined it. All of the pieces came together beautifully.

In fact, when people repeatedly stopped me in the hallways on the first day to say how well they thought it was going, I found myself giving the same response over and over: "The energy in that room is amazing."

If you want to find out about the nuts and bolts of C21, see this link for mui links, names, books, etc.

And you can read about all of the presenters here.  I dare not single out any of the presentations, since so many of them were so, so good. I'd rather write about my overall impressions of the event.

Due to snow in the Twin Cities, several C21 participants got held over for another night here, allowing us to revel in the glories of the gathering for another day.  But today holds a couple more airport runs, some packing, and beginning to decide what's next for JoPa. 

At Jay Bakker's request, I will be posting about the event, at length, in the next couple days.  Until then, enjoy the images of Courtney Perry:

Scot asked a good question last week: How come people who are clearly not evangelical keep getting upset about what evangelicals do? He asks this in response to the semi-furor around Rob Bell's (seemingly off-handed) remark to a newspaper reporter about why he abjures the "Evangelical" label.

Like many others, Rob has felt disenfranchised from the term "evangelical" because of the political activity in that name, as well as the general cultural distrust of that word, detailed in the book, unChristian (and others).

What's interesting right now is watching younger Christians alternatively embrace and shun the label "evangelical," which has been happening a lot longer than people have been wrangling over "emergent/-ing."  In fact, there might be some parallels between the two.

I was having a conversation with a friend about the evangelical interest in Jim Belcher's book, Deep Church.  Jim's written a good book, and I was happy to endorse it -- albeit with the caveat that he and I disagree...

I introduced Flory and Miller's book,  Finding Faith: The Spiritual Quest of the Post-Boomer Generation, earlier this week.  As sociologists, Flory and Miller have no axe to grind, thus I find their taxonomy of the emerging movement inherently more honest...

I've been generally unhappy with the existing taxonomies of the emerging/-ent church movement that are out there.  The most well known, I suppose, is Ed Stetzer's triptych:Relevants: "They are simply trying to explain the message of Christ in a way...

It seems that the "Church" of Scientology has jumped on the marketing language of the emerging church movement if their Google Ad Words campaign (on my blog feed!) is any indication. We have definitely jumped the shark.HT: Simon Willer (aka,...

My primary role at Cornerstone was co-presenting a three-part seminar with Phyllis Tickle, long-time friend and author of many books. We did a dog-and-pony show on the emergent/-ing/-ence movement that we've done before. IMHO, we work pretty well together, due...

Nick Fiedler: We didn't want Emergent to become the new club, but we wanted it to organize so that through gatherings, cohorts, and online social networks it could create it's own grouping and lovingly force some voices out into the...

Nick Fiedler is the latest to jump on the meme that emergent is fizzling, and he's disappointed. I am loathe to respond to posts like his. In fact, I rarely read them because I find them utterly depressing, and they...

In The New Christians, I wrote a section chastising liberals for censoring the Bible in the Revised Common Lectionary. Although liberals often criticize conservatives for cherrypicking Bible verses, liberals do just the same thing when they leave verses out of...

Next fall, Doug and I are hosting a learning party in the Twin Cities for people who love Christ, love Christianity, and are interested in the future. The two of us have been given the microphone a lot in the...

I've faithfully read your comments, and John's post, and here are my rejoinders-by-bullet-point:Ontological Shibboleth: I've been accused of creating a straw man in suggesting that denominational ordination tends to grant ontological superiority to those in the clergy caste. I agree...

I've got a bunch of people upset at me for encouraging my friend, Adam Walker-Cleaveland, to forsake the ordination process of the Presbyterian Church (USA) denomination. I even went so far as to post an online petition to attempt to...

My friend, Adam Walker-Cleaveland, has once again been thwarted in his attempt to be ordained as a "minister of word and sacrament" in the Presbyterian Church (USA). First it was because his presbytery in Idaho objected that he asked his...

At JoPa Productions we know how important leader networks and informal blog communities are for those working on new and emerging ways of Christianity. And, we know how important face-to-face meetings are in the development of these communities. So, we...

That's the question that I tweeted yesterday. And then last night, before her talk, I introduced her by reading the tweets that came in. A couple people have asked me to post them, so here they are:As much as she...

Adam has convened a great conversation at Pomomusings called Plurality 2.0. My friend, Phillip Clayton posted last week.  Money quote:I'm guessing that most readers of this post in fact already live in Pluralism 2.0. If you're one of those people,...

Well, not exactly. Tad DeLay, a fan of things emergent, was a music pastor at an evangelical church plant. But he was fired for the direction his theology was taking.  He performed this song, indicative of his theological musings, a...

From John La Grou: Volume Two of the Wikiklesia Project has been announced. Taking Flight: Reclaiming the Female Half of God's Image. A Journey of Freedom and Reconciliation The award winning Wikiklesia Project (www.wikiklesia.org) broke new ground as a crowd sourced, collaborative...

D.Min. Students Take Note:Both of the events listed below are being offered for credit at Fuller Theological Seminary. Fuller is offering 4 credits for each event, and Tony Jones will be the professor of record. The course will consist...

You may recall that Kevin DeYoung, co-author of the book, Why We're Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be), was on a panel discussion with me a few weeks ago at the Christian Book Expo in Dallas. I have...

The doods at Homebrewed Christianity have taken my conversation with Bart Ehrman about his book, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don't Know about Them). You can, of course, get it on iTunes, or...

I ran my book, The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier though Wordle. It's 87.790 words, and this is what I got:...

Find a location near you....

Leave it to Rick to finish his countdown of emergent music by naming a band that no one has ever heard of as the official band of emergent Christianity.OK, I suppose that some people have heard of Arcade Fire. But...

I'll be on Think with Krys Boyd on KERA in Dallas, and available online.  You can call in with questions, too.1pm: How is religion changing in America and how does the new Christian practice differ from the traditional church? We'll...

I've already blogged about this a couple times, but here's the video artifact of the panel at the Christian Book Expo.  If you've got 90 minutes to spare, you can decide for yourself about whether Scot's (and my) charges of...

Christianity21 is an event that JoPa Productions is producing next October 9-11.  And it's the first event of its kind -- historic, you might say.You see, we have invited 21 of the most compelling voices we can find to...

There's been some pretty good stuff floating around the interwebs recently on emergent/ing church movement.  I wrote about my experience at the Christian Book Expo last week.  Meanwhile, there was an historic meeting of over 900 at the first-ever Catholic-Emergent...

I'd been waiting for Publisher's Weekly to file a report on the Christian Book Expo of last weekend, and now they have.  Marcia Nelson begins with this ominous lede,Stacks of unsold books and glum publishers stood for three days inside...

Two announcements this morning: 1) The Emergent Village podcast relaunches with an interview of Daniel Harrell, author of Nature's Witness.2) Generate Magazine launches -- it's by and about the emerging church conversation, broadly conceived....

In my latest book, The New Christians, I cast Brad Cecil as the unheralded protaganist of the emergent movement .  In many ways, he was.  Coming from an ultra-conservative world of youth evangelism, he volunteer-pastored at a Texas mega-Bible church. ...

Phillip Clayton and I sat down on Friday night for a conversation about emergence science and emergent church.  Here's part one of the video:Thanks to videographer Ryan Parker....

Well, my time here at Claremont is just about up. I'm sitting in Mudd Auditorium, listening to the second of two public panels.  Here are my reflections, looking back on the last three days.First, I have to note that...

Later this week, I'll be in Southern California at the Transforming Theology for the Church consultation.  A couple of the events are public, so I encourage you to come if you live in SoCal.  But if not, there are lots...

Here's my response to Phillip's call:...

Scientist/Theorist/Philosopher of Emergence Biology, Phillip Clayton, speaks directly to me and you.  Honestly, the importance of what he's saying cannot be overstated.  Watch it...twice.  Then go to YouTube to see my response....

Drew Tatusko drops a very thoughtful comment Re: Mark Driscoll.Postmodern and post-structuralism aside (since this will sound to some like that but is not), gender is different than sex due to its psycho-social construction. Since it is this, anyone can...

The always thought-provoking Richard Beck defends Mark Driscoll's attempt to masculinize the church.Here's my point. People tend to confuse gender role interest and agenic personality motives. If "Joe Six Pack" shows up at church and gets the vibe that he...

Rick is honing in on his finalists.  Hilarious:David Wilcox- white guy folk singer. Cannot do it. Of course, he deals with spirituality in a way that is emerging and is one of the only white earnest folkies I can stand....

For the sake of our discussion of Original Sin, commenter Brian has translated Romans 5 [UPDATE: it seems to be Romans 14-15] on our behalf.  Thanks, Brian!  (N.B., mean-spirited comments about his translation will be immediately deleted.  Thoughtful, albeit critical,...

Brian has a warning for Mark Driscoll and other expanding evangelical ministries:Thanks for this post. This is depressing news. I don't mean any disrespect to these folks personally. I know they can be very kind, good people in person. So...

Mark Driscoll watchdog, Bob Hyatt, has some concerns about a possible Mars Hill franchise coming to Portland.Please understand- If you want to listen to Mark's podcast/watch his vodcast, I think you should go for it- I subscribe to his podcast...

Under Original Sin: Paul, Romans 5, and the Heart of the Issue, Brian provides with a helpful primer to the various views of interpreting Romans:Romans is important to the conversation about the doctrine of "Original Sin" for several reasons. First,...

Rick takes a break from telling us how the music that we love (read, Coldplay) actually sucks :-) to round up many of the new hyphen-mergent groups:Relevemergentthe fine line between Relevant magazine, cool churches with smoke machines, killer bands and...

Do you like to read theology? And you've got a blog?  Then check this out from Tripp Fuller:I am helping to organize a series of conferences as part of a grant at school called Transforming Theology.  We will have a...

Geez, I had no idea.  It's actually Interfaith Heroes Month, at least according to David Crumm, late of the Detroit Free Press and now the editor of ReadTheSpirit.com.  Today he asks one of my favorite persons in the world, Sheryl...

As usual, lots and lots of mean-spirited commentary around GLBT issues here yesterday, but a couple of poignant comments stuck out under yesterday's Comment of the Day and Sunday's Announcing Queermergent. First, Kristi:done talking? done listening? i don't understand what...

Peter Rollins and Stephen Shields have begun a bit of a back-and-forth under the post, Ten Years of Emergent/ing.  Here's Pete's response to Stephen, and here's hoping they'll continue the conversation (here or elsewhere):Hey there Would love to chat, and...

Adele Sakler, whom I've known for a few years, has started yet another "hyphenated" group within the emergent network-of-networks.  She's calling it "Queermergent," and, as you might guess, it's focused on GLBTQ issues....

Next Wave E-Zine has a ten year retrospective of the emergent church movement by Stephen Shields that is, as we would expect from Stephen, comprehensive and even-handed. Money Quote:And so the tenth anniversary of Next-Wave arrives at a critical moment...

Back when Patton Dodd asked initially asked me to consider blogging for Bnet, he wanted to play on the "Dispatches" subtitle of my book.  That is, he wanted to take advantage of my frequent travels to write about how the...

Matt Cleaver, a seminary student who visited last Sunday, has a good take.  Money quote:I thought this would be a cool opportunity to see in real life all that I had been reading and hearing about, and it was honestly...

I'm fairly certain that most of what we attempt in the way of spiritual formation for children gets in the way of what God is doing in the way of spiritual formation for children. Thank you all for your thoughtful...

"Find God in all things" - Saint Ignatius of Loyola "the blues is an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of a brutal experience alive in one's aching consciousness, to finger its jagged grain, and to transcend it,...

Filling in for Tony this week means I have to charge up a few parts of my brain that have been in sleep mode for about a decade.I will post a more involved blog later today, but I wanted to...

Christianity Today, never a great fan of the emergent movement, seems to think that said movement is in need of revitalization, at least according to the subhead of their article on my exit as national coordinator of Emergent Village.  Final...

HT: Mike Morrell...

Adam Walker-Cleaveland's posts have lessened in both frequency and profundity since he graduated from Princeton Seminary and entered the workaday world of church ministry.  But occasionally he drops a gem that reminds us of why Pomomusings charted the course for...

From Darin Peterson this morning: Call for visions and voices in our premier issue. DATE:  Spring 2009 (March) GENERAL THEME:  Resurrection Stories WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR: At the core of all Christian belief is this bizarre, astonishing, and absurd claim: ...

Church of the Beloved is an Anglimergent church in North Seattle and a daughter church of Church of the Apostles.  They've produced a wonderful album called Hope for a Tree Cut Down, and it's available for free on their website. ...

Friday and Saturday of last week marked the inaugural event of JoPa Productions, a partnership between Doug Pagitt and me.  Doug and I are involved in the publishing industry both as authors and as editors/consultants/gadflies.  And just when it seems...

Here are the assembled Tweets from The Great Emergence National Event:...

Over at Presbymergent, Leon Bloder has posted an open letter to his congregation, First Presbyterian of Eustis, Florida.  In it, he urges calm among congregants who are either ecstatic or in despair over BO's election victory.  Money quote:As the Church,...

That's the best phrase I can come up with to describe Trinity Church, the folks with whom I spent the last three days.  Trinity is a funny place -- I should say, they are an unlikely church in a strange...

The other night in Greenwich, Pete Rollins and I were asked to introduce one another.  Pete said some gracious things about me, and I did my best to express my love for him:...

I'm in Greenwich, Connecticut for the next few days, speaking at various events at Trinity Church.  Trinity is an exceptional church -- emergent by any measure -- in an area not exactly known for innovative churches.  I've known a couple...