In case any of you are confused by new buzz words like “emergent” and “relevant” and “post-modern” and “missional” that are being thrown around church today, I thought I would give you a little summary and post some links to cool sites you can check out. I am definitely NOT an expert on this subject, but I enjoy it and I appreciate many aspects of this movement. I’m sure I’m missing a ton of stuff that could be here, but feel free to comment away if you’ve got other ideas. Here are some of the basics as I see them…
Emergent Christians like:
Contemplative prayer: Some people are discovering that the way Christians used to seek God is still good for today.
Social activism: Christians should be the ones championing causes for the poor and the environment.
David Crowder Band: Great music, don’t know why he’s specifically such a favorite.
Candles: Maybe the Orthodox Church was on to something with that whole engage all the senses during a service thing.
Helping the poor: Jesus was serious about this. We should be too.
Podcasts: Where would the EC be without blogs and podcasts? It’s built upon the backs of this tech savvy generation.
Social justice: No Christian should observe injustice and do nothing.
Ancient Christian writings: Did you know that Christians wrote a lot of good stuff before Yancy and Maxwell or even Lewis were around?
Art: Art has refound its place among expressions of worship. Contemplating and creating beauty transports us into God’s presence or expresses our prayers.
U2: Bono is a hero. Plus they make good music.
Discussion: Everybody has something to share. Nobody likes being preached at all the time
Blue Like Jazz: A really popular book by Donald Miller (who lives in Oregon!!)
Meaningful symbolism: The cross is very relevant, let’s not down play it to clean up Christianity any more.
Powell’s Bookstore: Who doesn’t love Powell’s?
Emergent Christians do not like:
The war in Iraq
TBN
Pews
Cultural Christianity
Major sites to check out (If you haven’t heard of these sites already, you either a) don’t have any Christian friends, b) don’t spend any time on the Internet, or c) are old. Just kidding. Sort of. It’s just that I run across these sites continually)
www.BurnsideWritersCollective.com
www.EmergentVillage.com
www.RelevantMagazine.com
Here are some Emergent Churches (note that all are in the Pacific NW. It’s kind of like the Emergent Mecca)
www.MarsHillChurch.org
www.ImagoDeiCommunity.com
http://evergreenlife.org/index.html
Some bloggers of this genre (some of these are well known, others are personal friends, others I just found while researching this post):
www.thelongbreak.com
www.theoblogy.blogspot.com
http://i-wonder-as-i-wander.blogspot.com/2006/10/myths-about-emerging-church.html
http://emergingwomen.blogspot.com/
http://nextreformation.com/?cat=9
http://nextreformation.com/?cat=18
http://desertpastor.typepad.com/paradoxology/
www.aaronstewart.blogspot.com
http://sunbean11.net/journal/index.php
Some other stuff:
Amazon recommended books on the EC
http://www.whatsremarkable.com/
www.lowercasepeople.com
I think there’s a lot of good things about the Emergent Church, but of course every movement has its pitfalls too. In any case, it is undeniable that it plays a big role in what God is doing in the US these days.
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6 comments:
It's funny to me to see my friend Josh as the first blogger on your list of EC blogs. I highly recommend it - his blogs are on my short list of web addictions. BTW, the proper spelling for his blog address is:
www.thelongbrake.com
A few opinions, for what they're worth:
I'm not that convinced that ancient Christian writings are yet on any major comeback (unfortunately!). EC is still much better known for Rob Bell & Donald Miller & other still-breathing authors than for actually reading Benedict, Augustine, Gregory the Great, etc.
The major weakness I see in the EC is that it's typically Bible-light. It's rare to find much serious exegesis. Much more common to stick to faddish (albeit sometimes very good fads!) topics & talking about what Scriptures say instead of actually digging into them to find what they say.
The big upside that I see in the EC is the emphasis on the relevance of Christ to our lives & the world in which we live. As a part of that, I love the emphasis on community & helping the poor.
That's hilarious... as soon as I posted that comment, I thought... "I wonder if she got Longbrake off of my blog"... sure enough, there was a comment from you there. Guess I'd better post a decent blog this weekend...
Thanks for the commentos, John! Yes, I stole Longbrake from you, although judging from the stats on his blog, he's a pretty popular dude. You're friends with him?! Wanna hook us up? JK!
Jessica! You are SO amazing! I miss you so much!
This is so awesome, Jessica! Look at you, being all resourceful again. One of the many things I love about you. I'm totally gonna use these links, etc, etc. I've found from my interactions with Postmoderns here that even when I have answers to their questions, it doesn't matter. The answers aren't good enough, even if they're good and true! They can't be reached with information.
Another great site that was created for the purpose of "assisting the development of emerging theology" is Open Source Theology (www.opensourcetheology.net). All sorts of dialogue is going on there! Some of it is above my head, but it's fun to check out.
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