emergent church

Denver Post Declares Emergent Church UnDead

April 23, 2012 By Tony Jones 4 Comments

Highlands Church in Denver, prides itself on accepting anyone and everyone, whether they are married, divorced, single, conservative, liberal, gay, straight or bisexual. "(This movement) is just disentangled from the belief that 'if you take the Bible seriously, you have to be a Republican,' " says the Rev. Mark Tidd, pastor of Highlands Church. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

From a Denver Post article on the (not-dead-yet) emergent church:

For a rising tide of the righteous young, faith is more about doing right than being right, including being politically “Right.”

This growing representation of young Christians — who either formerly or currently identify with aspects of evangelicalism — are drifting away, and sometimes divorcing themselves from the conservative politics handed down to them by their generational predecessors.

Frequently discussed in the past decade, but often dismissed as a temporary wave of angst, the metamorphosis of this Christian movement has been subtle but strong. What surfaced at the dawn of the 21st century as an amorphous dialogue of questioning, has gradually organized and established itself as a cultural game-changer, now reaching a level of political relevance.

Read the rest: Younger Colorado voters are united by faith, but divided by politics – The Denver Post.

Filed Under: christianity in america, emergent church 4 Comments

Watch Sarah Pulliam Bailey Destroy The Atlantic

April 16, 2012 By Tony Jones 6 Comments

Sarah Pulliam Bailey

Sarah Pulliam Bailey, writer for Christianity Today, is one of my more favorite writers in the evangelical-journalist community. Like me, she was emailed a downright absurd article posted on the Atlantic‘s website last week, linking KONY2012 to the emergent church movement.

In our world, the Atlantic is supposed to represent good, serious reporting. And Christianity Today is supposed to represent slanted, non-objective reporting.

Well, read Sarah’s piece if you’re ready for your categories to be upended. She completely pwns the Atlantic at Get Religion:

Earlier this week, a reader sent us a “slightly alarmist” piece from The Atlantic on a Christian sect driving Africa. Can you guess what might be “The Upstart Christian Sect Driving Invisible Children”? Wait for it: the emerging church. That’s right. The movement that no one is talking about anymore.

I asked Tony Jones what he thought of the piece, given that he has been one of the leaders of the Emergent Church Village, and he had some strong words.

I read the Atlantic piece on KONY and the emerging church, and I was dumbfounded. Firstly, I found the article nearly indecipherable. But even more troubling was the supposed connection between Invisible Children and the emergent church movement is ludicrous. But then, when the reporter referred to Mark Driscoll as a liberal, we all knew that he had no idea what he was writing about. That should be enough for the Atlantic to take the article off their website, and fire the editor who greenlighted it.

Why does Jones feel so strongly about this piece? Walk with me through bits and pieces to find out why it’s such bad journalism.

Please read the rest of Sarah’s paragraph-by-paragraph deconstruction of the Atlantic article here: Correction please on The Atlantic’s lol Kony report » GetReligion.

Filed Under: christianity in america, emergent church Tagged With: christianity today, sarah pulliam bailey 6 Comments

Is the Emergent Church Dead?

April 14, 2012 By Tony Jones 15 Comments

Brian McLaren thinks not:

If we use Phyllis Tickle’s term “Christian Emergence” or “Emergence Christianity” to describe a broad phenomenon that is occurring across the spectrum of Christian communities (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant …), I think the movement is stronger than ever.

In Evangelical and Charismatic circles, many Evangelical/Charismatic gatekeepers have successfully driven the emergent conversation underground. They don’t talk much about emergent figures – except negatively. And people who “come out of the theological closet” are pressured and often nudged out. But there are so many people like you – who are rethinking and going through a deep awakening spiritually, and are just circumspect about it in their ecclesial circles. And surprising numbers of Evangelical/Charismatic leaders are far more sympathetic than you would expect.

In Mainline circles, there is broadening and deepening engagement at all levels.

In Catholic circles, there are growing pockets of engagement on a grass-roots level, and there are small pockets in Orthodox circles too.

Read the rest: Q & R: Is the Emerging Church mo – Brian McLaren.

Filed Under: christianity in america, emergent church Tagged With: brian mclaren 15 Comments

Philip Clayton [Hearts] Emergent

March 28, 2012 By Tony Jones 23 Comments

Phil published an Op-Ed in the LA Times over the weekend:

Although a recent bumper crop of pundits likes to proclaim that we’d all be better off with no religion, I suspect that the majority of us believe that religion, in spite of its flaws, offers individuals the inspiration to be better people and to create a better nation. Seminary and church leaders, in particular, are highly motivated to staunch the decline. Unfortunately, many of them believe that what’s really needed is a return to the “faith of our fathers,” stricter adherence to creeds and (this is America, after all) better marketing methods.

I advocate a radically different solution: the Emerging Church. It’s a movement based on understanding the reasons for mainstream religion’s dramatic decline: improved scientific understanding, changing social norms, an increasingly pluralistic religious culture and more freedom to doubt and question — a freedom that until the last three centuries was mostly absent or suppressed and that is still resisted, sometimes violently, in much of the world today.

READ THE REST: Religion and the ‘rise of the nones’ – latimes.com.

Filed Under: christianity in america, emergent church Tagged With: philip clayton 23 Comments

Too Late for Emergent?

March 27, 2012 By Tony Jones 10 Comments

Bill Walker has a very thoughtful post that is only partly about my new book on the atonement. More importantly, he has some excellent reflections on the theology — or lack thereof — of the emergent movement:

Over the past five years or so there seems to have been a climax and subsequent decline in optimism and enthusiasm surrounding the Emergent Church conversation. Of course those on the conservative evangelical side have always dismissed the movement as heterodox and a return to theological liberalism, but even some of the more sympathetic critics that often describe themselves as “missional” have expressed concern about a lack of theological leadership. There’s been no shortage of deconstruction and even ecclesial innovation amid this group, but the common question remains: what is it exactly that so-called emergents believe?

Be sure to read the rest: Bill Walker | Blog.

Filed Under: books, emergent church 10 Comments

Mark Driscoll’s House of Cards

March 22, 2012 By Tony Jones 94 Comments

Mark Driscoll

Believe it or not, I take no pleasure in the flailings and failings of Christian leaders who hold dissimilar views to me. I’ve had my own failings, including divorce and foreclosure. And these failings have humbled me. I’m regularly told by friends and acquaintances, especially those who’ve not seen me for a few years, that I now seem more gentle, more humane. I attribute much of that to the love I’ve experienced, most notably from Courtney, Doug, and my family.

Mark Driscoll and I were never close. In the early days of proto-emergent, I was on the fringes and he was an intimidating figure in the inner circle. He made it abundantly clear that he had no respect for a youth pastor like me. By the time I made the inner circle, he’d left. I’ve attempted to correspond with him since — even to get together with him when I was in Seattle — with no success.

I say all that as prelude to the buzz that’s been making the rounds this week. A pastor who was fired by Mark a few years ago, and the pastor’s spouse, have gone public with their story. It is, I think you will agree, a chilling story. It’s full of intrigue, and could easily devolve into a gossipy sin feast.

But that’s not why I’m posting it. [Read more...]

Filed Under: christianity in america, emergent church Tagged With: mark driscoll 94 Comments

What’s After Postmodernism?

March 5, 2012 By Tony Jones 7 Comments

Geoff Holsclaw attempt an answer:

If you missed it, postmodernism died on September 24th, 2011. Yup. At least if you take the word of Victoria & Albert Museum in London, which opened its “Postmodernism—Style and Subversion 1970-1990″ on that day…

But if postmodernism is dead, is over, is done with, what comes after?

Isn’t this the question we always want to ask, that we have to ask? If postmodernism indicated that which follows modernism, which being integrally an extension of it (i.e. modern is still with the very name), don’t we have to ask what is after it? Which is really not a postmodern question, but a modern one, for modernity trained us to expected the new, the next, the upgraded against the old, traditional, normal.

READ THE REST After Postmodernism? “True, but still…” : the church and postmodern culture.

Filed Under: christianity in america, emergent church, philosophy Tagged With: postmodernism 7 Comments

Young Creatives Are Fleeing Evangelicalism

February 14, 2012 By Tony Jones 17 Comments

The Barna Group* has a new study out, and it shows that the future is bleak for the evangelical church in America. That’s because young, creative evangelicals are leaving the church in droves:

The results of a five-year study of the Millennial Generation—people born between 1982 and 1993—are in. Thanks to the Barna Group, a 28-year-old, California-based, Christian research firm, we now know that conservative evangelical churches are losing formerly–affiliated “young creatives:” Actors, artists, biologists, designers, mathematicians, medical students, musicians, and writers.

Some leave because they oppose the church’s doctrinal stance. Others are turned off by its hostility to science, and still others reject the limitations placed on permissible sexual activity. The report cites the tension felt by young adults who find it difficult—if not impossible—to remain “sexually pure,” especially since most heterosexuals don’t marry until their mid-to-late twenties. [READ THE REST]

This comes as no surprise. As I wrote last week, a significant impetus for the birth of the emergent church movement was to find solidarity with cultural creatives. At least at Solomon’s Porch, we’ve been successful at that.

HT: Rollie

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*I am always suspicious of research from the Barna Group. George Barna is not a neutral, disinterested pollster. He is an activist partisan who has written many books; he’s advocated for the demise of traditional churches and the rise of house churches; and he recently endorsed Newt Gingrich for president. He is the FOX News of polling; that doesn’t mean that he’s not accurate, it just means that he’s not neutral.

Filed Under: christianity in america, emergent church Tagged With: evangelicalism, george barna 17 Comments

A Mockumentary on the Emergent Church

January 23, 2012 By Tony Jones 59 Comments

What do you get when you mix a bunch of YouTube videos, interviews with a few ultra-conservative Christians, and some scary Danny Elfmann knock-off music? This:

Filed Under: emergent church 59 Comments

A Flat Church in Action

January 22, 2012 By Tony Jones 1 Comment

If I had the chance to do my dissertation research today, instead of 2005, there are a few other churches I’d use in the study. One of them would surely be Common Table in Washington, D.C., where Mike Stavlund and Co. are doing what they can to embody the flat church that I hope for in my latest book. Here’s a something Mike wrote recently for the Emergent Village Blog:

Mike Stavlund

Listening to a recent ‘On Being’ podcast with the venerable and feisty Walter Brueggemann, I was struck by what seems at first to be rank overstatement. His contention is that the ancient Hebrew ‘prophetic/poetic messengers’ serve to critique everything: all political, social, and religious systems. In Brueggemann’s opinion, the worst thing we can do with these Biblical messages is to organize them, domesticate them, and to “create another ‘ism’”.

Surely, part of the reason emergence churches like Common Table don’t get more organized is because we lack that kind of drive and motivation. We might get around to establishing a denomination, if we had the time to do it. We might try to create some kind of legacy, it it wasn’t such a burdensome project. No, we’re too busy with Twitter, Facebook, fixing our hair, and with finding the perfect hipster glasses to get much done.