Emerging Church

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The Emerging Church (also known as "Emerging Conversation" and "Emerging Churches") is a decentralized, highly heterogeneous movement of different Christians who want to react to the challenges of postmodernism in their environment and in their respective traditions . The emerging church ("developing church") transfers current knowledge of biology, brain research, economics and philosophy to the situation of the community.

Names

The English participle emerging means something like "to be in the process of being created" and is used in various contexts in English. It is intended to indicate that the movement is in a state of flux, wants to constantly develop and describes itself as unfinished and fragile. Hence a certain reluctance to be too firmly fixed and defined. There has been some discussion as to whether one wants to call oneself a church or a movement, since this could be misunderstood as the homogeneity of one's own denomination . This is why many prefer the term “emerging conversation” because it is more inclusive (the threshold to participate in a conversation is lower than the threshold to join a movement or church).

Ryan Bolger and Eddie Gibbs titled their book, which was supposed to represent this movement, “Emerging Churches” to represent plurality.

In addition, the term "emerging" is to be understood as a reference to the theory of emergence , which u. a. describes the behavior of social systems with a flat hierarchy .

Emerging Church must be differentiated from organizations such as Emergent Village (USA) or Emergent Germany (D), which mostly consist of different leaders of emerging churches, but do not claim to represent the entire movement.

Different currents

A wide variety of people from different backgrounds take part in the emerging conversation : church founders, educated laypeople, artists, media professionals and academics. One can therefore make out various trends in the emerging church :

  • A strongly theological tendency that consists primarily of post- evangelicals and post- charismatics , but also increasingly of Catholic, (post-) liberal and Orthodox Christians; an example of this is the Baptist Scot McKnight.
  • Innovative evangelicals who want to change worship services without major theological changes in such a way that they are attractive to postmodern people. These include Dan Kimball , whose book “Emerging Church” was translated into German in 2005.
  • Crossing the border between theory and practice: Using sociological theories, you try to understand and shape the community as a network of relationships. In addition, they often create extremely innovative and creative liturgies. An example of this is the Alternative Worship movement, which originated in Great Britain and which arose quite independently from the American emerging church movement.

There are people who consider themselves not part of the emerging church movement and still share most of its values.

Personalities

So far, the emerging church has been particularly evident in the English and German-speaking world, where its forerunners, pioneers and representatives can also be found. However, not all representatives of the emerging church share this external assessment and classification:

In the English speaking world

  • Rob Bell (* 1970), American theologian, co-founder of Mars Hill Bible Church and author
  • David Bosch (1929–1992), South African Reformed missionary scholar at the University of South Africa
  • Spencer Burke , American evangelical theologian and pastor
  • Mark Driscoll (* 1970), American theologian and co-founder of Mars Hill Church and author
  • Michael Frost (* 1961), Australian missiologist and author
  • Stanley J. Grenz (1950-2005), American Baptist theologian and author
  • Alan Hirsch (* 1959), South African missiologist and author
  • Tony Jones , American theologian
  • Dan Kimball (* 1960), American evangelical theologian, founder and director of Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz
  • Scot McKnight , American Baptist theologian and author
  • Brian McLaren (* 1956), American English scholar, writer and church planter
  • Erwin Raphael McManus (* 1958), American Baptist theologian, founder and leader of the Mosaic Church in Los Angeles
  • Donald Miller (* 1971), American writer
  • Ian Mobsby , British theologian and church planter
  • Lesslie Newbigin (1909–1998), British missionary and missiologist
  • Leonard Sweet (born 1947), American Methodist theology professor and author
  • Frank Viola , American entrepreneur and author
  • Mike Yaconelli (1942–2003), American theologian, writer and author

In the German-speaking world

Dealing with postmodernism

According to Marc Driscoll, the history of the Emerging Church (in America) began around the so-called Leadership Network in the 1990s. This was a progressive evangelical group that initially dealt with how the Christian faith could be brought to " Generation X ". But it soon became apparent that these were much more weighty, intergenerational changes that were taking place in society. So one came across different theories of postmodernism : the questioning of the western worldview, which emerged in the wake of the Enlightenment and rationalism - René Descartes was the leader - and emphasized a purely rational argumentation and universal reason. Postmodern thinkers tried to question the paradigms of modernity, for example through deconstruction . When dealing with postmodern thinkers, some Christians noticed that their own traditions are often more shaped by modernist thinking than they had previously assumed. Today, however, these stand in the way of preaching and living out the gospel and should also be questioned and replaced.

Theological tendencies

There is no homogeneity in the emerging church movement, including when it comes to theology . Many basically try to remain faithful to their tradition theologically, but to set certain new accents. Nevertheless, some theological tendencies can be identified, even if they are not shared equally by everyone:

incarnation

The incarnation is very central - the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ . This is taken as a starting point to show that one also has to incarnate the gospel in different cultures . This is different from the idea of ​​bringing the gospel to other cultures, as the former means a great interaction between culture and gospel. This view, which emphasizes that one must live in this world and not flee from it, is also a counterweight to the strong subculture formation in free church Christianity.

Kingdom of god

A strong focus is also on the kingdom of God . In an attempt to emphasize the Jewish roots of the Christian faith more strongly, one tries to put a special emphasis on the kingdom of God. Related to this is the expression “ missional ”, which is to be distinguished from “missionary”. It is the attempt to find a holistic concept of mission that includes social and cultural engagement. What is essential for this is that mission is not an activity of the church, but an act of God in society that the church can support, but also hinder. In the evangelical field this often means turning away from a premillennial eschatology (expectation of the second coming of Christ before the entry of the biblical “ millennial kingdom ”), which is perceived as cynical, towards models that are seen as more hopeful.

Communitarianism

There is some content-related overlap with communitarianism (consciously or unconsciously), as it is criticized, for example, that Protestant Christianity, as a result of the Reformation, places too high value on the individual and his relationship with God and neglects the aspect of community. Some emerging churches are also trying out new, monastery-like models of church.

Narrative theology

Emerging Church emphasizes the narrative aspect of theology. This takes place on two levels: on the one hand on the stylistic level, on the other on the theological level. On the stylistic level, history is preferred as a means of communication to an abstract, systematic sermon . History can mean the telling of personal experiences, parable-like fictional narratives or artful, ambiguous texts that are used in worship. On the other hand, many see the Bible itself as a great story. It is no longer necessary to systematically extract abstract dogmas from history through analysis, but to retain the form of history and learn to empathize with it. An example of this is Brian McLaren's The story we find ourselves in (2003), an apologetic book written in the form of a story.

Ecumenism

Since a core value is the willingness to enter into dialogue, the focus is on learning from other traditions. The approach to the topic is less - like the previous model of ecumenism - “ top-down ”, that is, characterized by the writing of joint theological declarations, than “ bottom-up ”, ie more focused on networking among interested laypeople and on cooperation.

practice

Blogs

The emerging conversation is primarily characterized by the fact that a very large part of it (in addition to traditional forms such as congresses, panel discussions, etc.) is located on the Internet . Most of the theological and practical debates take place on blogs . As a result, the emerging conversation has the character of a global network.

Church as a network

When adopting certain sociological theories, the church is increasingly understood as a decentralized network . The institutional and formal aspects of the church should be restricted, hierarchies should be flattened; this is intended to achieve greater participation by all participants. This corresponds to the Reformation emphasis on the priesthood of all believers .

Cultural relevance

Emerging Church can be understood as an attempt to put the Christian faith in dialogue with culture. That is why it is important for almost all emerging churches to know the current culture, to live in it and to actively participate in cultural creation.

social commitment

From the broader concept of mission and the requirement that orthodoxy (the right belief) must go hand in hand with orthopraxy (the right action), there is a strong emphasis on social engagement. On the one hand, this can include classic diaconal activities, on the other hand, advocacy for social justice is required. In America parts of the emerging church are also positioned against the Christian right because they neglect this aspect too much.

Inclusivism

Emerging Church also means trying to integrate different cultural backgrounds into the church. It is no longer just the bourgeois middle class that should be the bearers of religion - whatever would be associated with demarcation and exclusion - but different cultures and subcultures should be welcome.

Liturgical innovations

The liturgical innovations are certainly the most striking feature of emerging churches . It is often emphasized that the emerging church actually places less value on the worship service as a central element, nevertheless many emerging churches put great energy into the design of new forms of worship. The participatory approach also plays a role here: many should participate in the organization of the divine service and not just consume it passively. Certain objects from the everyday world, creative contributions, the use of new media and old forms such as incense can come into their own. The entire service should communicate a message instead of limiting the content to a central sermon .

criticism

The emerging church movement has so far been criticized in particular by conservative evangelicals . Central to this is a book by Donald A. Carson. The views of a leader of Emergent Village , Brian McLaren, are particularly criticized. It was replied that Brian McLaren was not representative of the movement. Andrew Jones has put together an overview of various reviews.

Various points of criticism are:

  • Relativism: The emerging church, according to conservative critics, places too much emphasis on plurality and thus loses sight of the absolute truth of the gospel. The critics especially lack the exclusivity of salvation in Jesus Christ in some utterances.
  • Theology of the cross: Where voices are raised in the emerging conversation that do not represent a typically Reformed theology of the cross , they are heavily criticized.
  • Secularization: Adaptation to the zeitgeist and lack of criticism of society.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Eddie Gibbs, Ryan Bolger: Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures , Baker Academic, 2006.
  2. ↑ Scot McKnight's Blog: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/
  3. ^ Dan Kimball: Emerging Church. The postmodern church. Spirituality and Church for New Generations. Gerth, Asslar 2005, ISBN 978-3-86591-042-4 .
  4. ↑ For a compact overview of the recent liturgical debate with regard to representatives of the emerging church movement and contextually relevant forms of worship, see Rainer Schacke: Learning from Willow Creek? Church Services for Seekers in German Milieu Contexts , Cuvillier Verlag, Göttingen 2009, pp. 594–597.
  5. ^ Donald A. Carson: Emerging Church. Farewell to biblical teaching? , Christian literature distribution, Bielefeld 2008, ISBN 978-3-89397-989-9 , page 9
  6. ↑ Youtube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcbnGXSYxuI . As of May 6, 2007.
  7. ^ DA Carson: Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications , Zondervan, 2005.
  8. ↑ Andrew Jones' blog: http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/2004/12/the_skinny_on_e.html

literature

  • Rob Bell: Jesus unplugged. Authentically lived Christianity for today's generation in the 21st century. Brunnen , Giessen 2006. ISBN 978-3-7655-1974-1
  • Kester Brewin: The Complex Christ , German title Der Jesus-Faktor - A passionate theology of change . C & P Verlag, Glashütten 2005, ISBN 3-928093-73-8 .
  • Tobias Faix and Thomas Weißenborn: ZeitGeist - Culture and Gospel in Postmodernism. Edition Emergent. Francke , Marburg 2007. 2nd edition. ISBN 978-3-86122-967-4
  • Tobias Faix, Peter Aschoff and Thomas Weißenborn: ZeitGeist 2: Postmoderne Heimatkunde. Edition Emergent. Francke, Marburg 2009. ISBN 978-3-86827-121-8
  • Tobias Faix , Johannes Reimer and Volker Brecht : Changing the world. Basic questions of a theology of transformation. Transformation studies Volume 2. , Francke, Marburg 2009. ISBN 978-3-86827-122-5
  • Tobias Faix and Johannes Reimer: Understanding the world. Context analysis as a visual aid for the community. Transformation Studies Volume 3. Francke, Marburg 2012. ISBN 978-3-86827-319-9
  • Tobias Faix, Arne Bachmann and Tobias Künkler: Understanding the Emerging Church: An invitation to dialogue. Francke, Marburg 2012. ISBN 978-3-86827-353-3
  • Tobias Faix, Volker Brecht, Tobias Müller and Stefan Bösner: Tat. Place. Faith. 21 inspiring practical examples between community and society. Francke, Marburg 2013. ISBN 978-3-86827-385-4
  • Tobias Faix, Robert Badenberg, Friedemann Knödler: Evangelism and Transformation: Two Coins or a Coin with Two Sides? "Lectures at the 2013 Annual Conference of the Working Group for Evangelical Missiology. VTR 2013. ISBN 978-3-941750-79-1
  • Tony Jones: The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier . Jossey Bass 2008. ISBN 0-7879-9471-5 .
  • Dan Kimball: Emerging Church - the postmodern church. (Original: The Emerging Church ) Gerth Medien , Asslar 2005, ISBN 3-86591-042-4 .
  • Fabian Vogt : The 1x1 of the emerging church . C & P, Glashütten 2006. ISBN 978-3-86770-078-8 .

Web links

Critical web links