Nick Fiedler recently wrote a post on The Great Disappointment (A post about Emergent). Here is the response I left there. What are your thoughts?
We really must keep moving toward the Kingdom of God, whatever that means for each of us individually. Emergent has awakened me to much, and although I am Emergent to the core, my life is still my life, my calling is still my calling, and my dreams are still my dreams. I must forge ahead with what I have received and continue to let the Spirit of God guide and direct me. After all, what is Emergent other than a vast array of people who are hearing from God that he has given his Bride a heart transplant, but that many parts of her body have rejected it. Will we now reject what God is doing? No. Will we stay in one “new” place, one conversation, and become stale? No. The people who are known for being emergent because they are vocal, famous, etc, are still people following God’s call in their lives. We must be the same. What are you doing to make sure you do your part to help “everything change”? And how long do you think something like this might take? Surely more than ten years. A heart transplant is a lengthy, costly procedure. The goal is not the transplant though! The goal is life. The heart facilitates that, but the heart is not the prize. Life is. Life more abundant. Life in the Kingdom, today, and tomorrow, and forevermore.
Hey Theresa,
I think you and I are on similar tracks. I don’t think I ever put the hope Nick put into Emergent. I never had any expectation it was going to take shape and organize like the movements we are familiar with. I.e. The Vineyard, Calvary Chapel, or Sovereign Grace Ministries. All different, but movements outside denominationalism.
For me, Emergent is an instigator and a catalyst to get people of all brands moving in a new direction, thinking new thoughts, re-imagining theological impact, etc.
For some, they had the hopes that the Emergent would become the new Vineyard or something. (btw, I just found out that the Pastor that replaced Brian McLaren at Cedar Ridge is a Vineyard guy! I thought that was intriguing.)
I think the potential of Emergent is to rally people of all brands to a new ecumenism. Where the poor are remembered, the widow and the orphan are taken in, the oppressed are freed, the blind can see and the “meta-narritives” of America are exposed as the idols they are.
Unfortunately, the conservative side of the house has labeled McLaren, Jones and Pagitt heretics. It makes it more and more difficult to stand with them.
I think we will all look back in 20 years and think, “Now, why were those guys heretics?”
The thing is, those guys are just popularizing theological thought that is 20 to 50 years old. Newbiggin, NT Wright, Michael Polanyi, C. S. Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, etc. are just being reinterpreted into the current context.
I didn’t mean to go on like this in a comment, but…
One of the things that frustrates me about a section of those engaging the Emergent conversation is that they have left the Church. I know that gets spun a lot of different directions, but this Christian Life is meant to be lived out together. Forsaking meeting with each other is not the answer. I recommend guys like Nick start a church. (Whatever that looks like? House or Traditional?) Sitting on the sidelines indefinitely doesn’t seem to be the right move.
One of the reasons Emergent hasn’t taken the shape desired is the “famous” voices are too busy pastoring churches. And, Tony and Brian M. are doing other things (PHD’s and Consulting), but both are deeply involved in their local church (Tony at Solomon’s Porch and Brian at the church he founded). I think of guys that had a voice early on, like Tim Keel, Chris Seay, Dan Kimball, Mark O at YS, etc. All these guys were speaking out of spaces where they were doing it. Hoping Emergent will take some form was overshooting the bar a little much I think. And, one of the things I appreciate about Emergent is that it is/was developing out of praxis in these different spaces.
Ok, enough ranting. Thanks for posting.
Jason
Jason, thank you for your comments, and welcome!
I think we need to be careful when we say someone has “left the church” though, because that doesn’t always mean they have left the fellowship of believers. They just have left the institution as we know it. The Church is a body of followers in the Way of Jesus. For many, including myself, our faith community – the people we seek God with and are accountable to, and spend our lives together with – are not people they know/knew in the institution. But they are indeed part of the Body of Christ. Do you get what I am saying?
I think what some people have a tendency to forget is this: Change isn’t always good.
2nd response after reading the blog you linked to: 10 years in and you’re throwing in the towel? While I believe the Church hierarchy was there from the start- do remember that the first 4 Popes died in office- martyred by the Romans over several decades. Almost none of the Apostles lived to see a natural death.
The first 50 to 150 years of ANY new sect of ANY religion (not just Christianity) is a time of great oppression and persecution. If you’re going to give up on a movement after only 10 years, then I’ve got to say you didn’t have much faith in the movement to begin with.
I’ve got my own hopes that emergence will be the final death knoll of the Reformation; and certainly many emergence theologians are finding homes in orthodoxy- both Western and Eastern rites. But if it is, it will take several generations to finish- none of us will live to see the end of what Emergence may yet become.
As you said, Ted, none of us will live to see the end of what Emergence may yet become. I am not throwing in the towel, neither are many, many others. Just because some people, like Nick, are feeling that they cannot hold on for the long haul with the movement itself, does not mean we are all throwing in a proverbial towel.
It also does not mean Nick is forsaking what Emergent has meant to him, and has provided his walk with Christ.
I just wanted to point out this isn’t like the “Great Disapointment” of the Seventh Day movement, when Christ failed to rapture everybody on October 22, 1844.
Emergence is a bit larger than the failures of previous pre-tribulation rapture predictions. And a bit stronger. It will go on for decades yet to come.
Jason
Have you seen the following blogs about Sovereign Grace Ministries:
http://www.sgmrefuge.com
http://www.sgmsurvivors.com
Hope this helps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOBt0PMCH3g
Check out Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones discuss this topic here. I love these guys.