The Whitworthian

Issue date: 11/20/07 Last Updated: 11/21/07

Church pews are swapped out for couches now arranged in co-centric circles. “Sermons” are filled with questions from the audience and in-depth conversation. Prayer labyrinths abound. This seems different.

Emerging church author, pastor and leader Brian McLaren speaks of a “deep shift.” Emergent Village Coordinator Tony Jones talks about “dispatches from the frontier.” While these terms might be overstatements, the emerging church is indeed alive, active and, well, emerging across America.

On November 9-10, Whitworth hosted an Emergent Mainline Dialogue conference. Difficult to pin down, the “emerging church movement” purposely resists labels and definitions. Hence, even terms like “movement” and “church” must be taken with a grain of salt. While many elements of emerging churches are encouraging, some potential dangers exist. Thoughtful, open reflection is needed, both for the sake of the emerging church movement and more mainline churches. 

Is plurality OK?

Central to emerging church thought is an affirmation of plurality as a blessing of God rather than a problem, theologian John Franke says. Operating out of a partially postmodern epistemology, many in the emerging movement emphasize the limits of human knowledge. Each person relates to God and the world from a specific situation and can never fully transcend those limits to gain a “birds-eye” view of reality. This humility comes across as refreshing and realistic, in a Christian culture often saturated with easy answers, assumed perfect objectivity and a lack of self-critical reflection.

What about scriptures and Jesus?

Scriptures are thus seen not as teaching a single set of doctrines, but rather each text maintains a distinct voice and comes from a specific historical setting. In many ways, this view better honors the historical reality and unique personality of the Biblical texts. Pulling passages scattered across the Bible to support certain views does not work. Scripture instead has to be understood within the broader picture of God’s work in the world. Implicit and explicit narratives abound throughout Scripture and are essential to a proper understanding of the literal texts. Unlike many postmodern thinkers, most in the emerging church seem to accept the Biblical story as a true narrative.

In most emerging church thought, Jesus is central. However, our definitions of Jesus or the Gospel are always recognized as limited. Understandably, there are dangers with living on this epistemological slippery slope and placing Jesus there. This is the single most important issue to wrestle with regarding emerging church thought.

The challenge of cultural hegemony:

Another challenge the emerging church faces is the danger of cultural hegemony and elitism. For instance, Tony Jones, a conference presenter and leader of the Emergent Village, is a white, well educated, middle class male. Many of the leading voices in the emerging movement fit this similar profile, as do I. Franke talked specifically about this issue in his presentation, noting the need for many in America to notice the framework of white European theology, often at the expense of considering other views.

Theology is always shaped by our context and experience. Yet, I am not sure how well emerging church thought would connect with many people in Africa, Asia and even much of America where the challenges of post-modern thought is simply not an issue.  Many practical aspects of church may still be learned from emerging churches, but if the underlying philosophy is not embraced, the impact will be more limited.

Communities of theological participation and imagination:

Another challenge regards the role of teaching and education in emerging churches. While I greatly appreciate the emerging focus on discussion and conversation, there is also a need for guidance. Complete free-for-alls are not always entirely helpful.

On the flip side, I applaud one of pastor and conference presenter Doug Pagitt’s primary points about how “churches ought to become communities of theological participation and imagination.” Rather than franchising and mass merchandising a Gospel for easier distribution, each person in the Christian community should be called to question, learn, think well and to share in the theological processes of the church. This helps cut down the barrier between clergy and laity, and ideally eliminates the uncritical transfer of information present in some churches today. Everyone is active and everyone is involved.

A final challenge:

A final challenge for the emerging church is recognizing the need to relate with mainline churches. At times, this is an immense struggle. Positive aspects of emerging thought can potentially influence any denomination or any church and vice versa. Change within the church should be done carefully, thoughtfully, intentionally and critically, with one eye on the past and other looking towards the future. Much is at stake. Yet, at least here in America, change should happen. In fact, it must happen.

John Williamson is an opinions columnist and a senior majoring in communications. Contact him at john.williamson@whitworthian.com. 

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