iChurch (defining the Emerging coversation)

The church began as a missionary movement in Palestine, it moved to Rome becoming an institution and as it spread over Europe it became a culture all of its own. In two thousand years the church has stretched across hemispheres and encountered nearly every people group and while the message of the Christian faith has not changed the story of God’s revelation but has contextualized around each culture. Although the gospel has not changed the ideas that shape our understanding of God’s revelation have. In the past forty years the world has grown smaller. Information, ideas and beliefs cross the globe at breakneck speeds thanks in part to the internet. We are a world at war; no longer afraid of tanks and troop deployments, we now fear commercial airliners, tennis shoes and dirty bombs. The rationalism and sense of civic duty embraced by our parents and grandparents has gone sway for something completely different. Now the church must engage with the emergence of a postmodern society, reforming to the context of a people so overwhelmed by information they overlook the longings of their heart.
In his introduction to Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches, Robert Webber illustrates that over time history reveals reoccurring cycles in society and culture; first with an upbeat era, followed by a spiritual awakening, then by the eventual unraveling of institutions and finally a decisive era of crisis and revolt. The church that bore our parents could be considered the beginning of the cycle (1950-1960) and the high point of evangelicalism. Fifty years later, we now find ourselves at the end of one revolution and at the beginning of another. “As evangelicalism now seeks to thrive in this new cultural context, it faces new challenges that demand new ways to think and speak the Christian message.” (Webber 9) The emerging church is a hero generation born out of an unraveling era, a decisive generation of the fourth turning ending one epoch and beginning another.
To distinguish between the modern church and the postmodern take two Jigsaw- puzzles for instance. Generally on the outside of the box there is an image of whatever it is you are going to try to piece together. The contention among the emerging churches is that the church over the past fifty years has taken the lid from the box and switched it with another lid. The faith they have lived out and taught does not correspond with the scriptures. The faith of Christianity in the modern era seemingly disregarded the study of scripture and theology and focused primarily on its own needs and self interest. ” From the perspective of the emerging church…,a Christianity shaped primarily on need, private interest, and self misses the point of a biblical and historic Christianity.” (Webber 15) And it is this matter that drives this new generation.
The emerging church reflects a growing concern to bridge the gap between theory and practice. The contention is that how a person lives is more important than what he or she believes. Experience does not prove that those who believe the right things live the right way. The emerging church is on a journey that may bring theological reflection back to practice in the body of Christ honest with its skepticisms, doubts and fears. It can then be said that the emerging church has the potential to form a new kind of evangelicalism that will relate to the current culture. The emerging church will form a new identity marked by new insights, new concerns and new patterns of theological application, biblical worship, and a fresh spirituality and ministry as compared with the old.
Along with the return to a foundation of scripture, the emerging church also seeks to incarnate the faith by reaching into the brokenness of life, ceasing to be a system but instead becoming more like Jesus for others. Portions of the emerging church are led by a call to become missional with their theology by participating, with God in His redemptive work throughout the world. These churches believe manifesting the credibility of the gospel is to exist within a holistic community, as seen in the ministry of Jesus. Christ sought out the marginalized and the lame, not just the tax-collectors or the lepers but both; caring for whole persons and whole societies. This concept can be seen in Acts 17 where Paul shares the gospel at Mars Hill not by quoting the Old Testament but rather using excerpts of Greek poetry. Paul conveys spiritual truths about God in a context the Greeks were familiar with. For example, Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church (Seattle) often describes his church as being a missional body of believers being theologically conservative yet culturally liberal; meaning they love the Bible, beer and tattoos.
Living as a Christian in a postmodern context means different things to different people. Although the majority of emerging churches seek biblically sound ways of ministering to post-moderns, as if they were stuck down in a muddy trench of relativism, there are others still that see the postmodern dilemma differently. Other emerging churches minister with post-moderns accepting their doubts. These believers hold post-modernity as yet another context in which to share their faith. Yet, others among the emerging churches decide to minister as post-moderns, embracing the idea that we can not absolutely know truth. They convey ideas as metanarratives and social conditions as the context of known truths in shaping worldviews. The postmodern dilemma is unavoidable and to define the emerging church without its mention is less than adequate. However, the emerging church as a whole is still less concerned with moral relativism than it is with a reformation of methodology.
Emerging churches are communities that practice the way of Jesus within postmodern cultures. This definition encompasses identifying with the life of Jesus, transforming the world around them and living highly communal lives. The emerging church is a far cry from the prevailing evangelical community of the modern era and farther still from the missionary movement stretching forth from the hills of Galilee. Until Jesus returns it appears that that which is emerging into our information age is the church in which we will grow old and raise our children. Until they decide to come up with something even newer, ministering ancient words changing the lives of those around them.