Is the Emergent Church for Me?

Is the Emergent Church for Me?

I have stumbled into an Emerging Church. Honestly, before I found my new church home, I had never heard of the Emergent Church Movement. The last time I sat down with some interesting, religious intellectuals we were discussing Liberation Theology, Situation Ethics, and debating if a feminist liturgy would be a valid liturgy. Then I left seminary, got a job doing computer stuff, made friends with a bunch of people more inclined to talk about art, went to a traditional Sunday morning sermon church, and my life went on.

My traditional Sunday morning sermon church wasn’t bad. I really did enjoy it there. We had an amazing music program. Being close to New York City and living in a wealthy area we had some of the most amazing musicians from Lincoln Center, recording studios, Julliard, and other colleges and universities at our church. We also had amazing lguest ectures, speakers, and seminars because of all the professors in our area. Most of these events were not specially about religion… we would hear about the professors area of knowledge… political science, philosophy, history, whatever… they would try to shape the topic into a Christian format, (e.g., what’s the effect of the moral majority on society as a whole, and Christians in particular.) The people were also very kind and giving. It was an awesome community to be a part of. But then I moved and I found myself Church-less.

I had the worst time finding a new church home here – I spent almost a year looking. But through a miracle, God lead me to my new church home. An Emerging Church. So, like I said, before this I had no clue about the Emergent Church Movement.

Lately I’ve been a little worried about what my dad would say in regards to my participation with this church. My dad was a Methodist minister. Some day, I’ll tell you my dad’s conversion story, but he was very, very attached to the Methodist Church. All through my life, when there were issues in the church or major theological differences between our way of thinking and the church doctrine, my dad would say… “You have got to work the system and make things right from the inside out.” So, the longer I’ve been going to this church the more I can hear my dad saying, “make things right from the inside out” I’m starting to wonder if he would approve of an Emergent Movement – just because it’s setting itself from the mainline church. It’s emerging from it.

But then I realized I really didn’t know what the “it” was that it was emerging from nor did I know where / what the goal of going / becoming was. So, I did the only reasonable thing in this situation… I surfed the net.

One of the first articles I stumbled on was, The Death Knell for the Emergent Church Movement. This article is written by Ron Gleason. The web site describes him as, “pastor, doctor of something or the other, and all-around nice guy.” Frankly, I didn’t find him to be a very nice guy! I’ll cut to the chase; Mr. Gleason thinks that the Emergent Church Movement is a false prophet. He claims the Emergents don’t take the Bible seriously.
Let me pause here and remind you that I have just started my journey with a single church that seems to fall into the emergent movement. I am not an expert on the topic, nor do I know much about the leaders of the movement. Therefore, I can only speak to the beliefs and actions of my friends and my church family. Please keep this in mind.

Given my disclaimer, I have to say that Mr. Gleason is very wrong. At my church the Bible is the central source for our teachings and lessons. We all take the Bible very seriously both for what it represents as well as what it teaches us about God’s word for today. Ultimately the issue seems to boil down to a question of the Bible’s inerrancy and authority. Mr. Gleason states, “While the mega-church movement at least held to a formal view of inerrancy and infallibility, we should not be at all surprised that some of the leaders of this movement [the Emergenct Church] will begin to tinker with their statements concerning the Bible.”

I’ve got news for Mr. Gleason, I never thought the Bible was inerrant nor did I believe it was infallibile. I think that the Bible is the inspired word of God, with emphisis on the word inspiered. I believe that God is so great, so massive, so amazing that a mere human couldn’t possibly take in all that is God. Since the Bible was written by men, even if God revealed to them perfection, how could mere mortals translate that perfection. It reminds me of Flat Lands… if a three dimensional creatcher came to live in a two dimensinal world, there is no way the 2-D people could even begin to comprend the wholness of the 3-D people. Isn’t it really arogent of us (2-D people) to think we can comprend and translate God’s word?

So, Mr. Gleason losses me with that complaint. If the Emergent Church is bad because it does not believe in the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible – then I’ve found a home on that point.
Mr. Gleason futher loses my sympathy with this line, “Whatever happened, the Bells did the unthinkable: They ’started questioning their assumptions about the Bible itself.’ Uh-oh.” He says, “Uh-oh.” Uh-oh? Why is that. Does Mr. Gleason want us to remain dependant on him to tell us what is right and wrong? I have found some of my most enlightening moments through questions and studing the Bible and my faith. I believe that I grow through study and asking questions.

The thing that I find funniest… often the things that make Mr. Gleason (and those like him) the most upset are the very things that are not clearly addressed in the Bible. Where in the Bible does it say that it is perfect? Where in the Bible does it say that you can’t study it's contents or ask questions about what it says. Mr. Gleason has not done his job very well… rather than turning me away from the Emergent Church he has just validated that the movement contains many of the elements I want in a church home.

As for my dad… would he approve? I’m starting to think he would. Not because the chruch is emergeing or because the church is / is not trying to work from the inside out. But he would approve because I’ve clearly found a church that loves God, a church that wants to grow closer to God through their worship expierences and their daily lives, and because it is a strong community that supports each other. Maybe Mr. Gleason should stop worring about inherency and come over to help us make dinner for the homeless!