What is The Emerging Church (and Is It Safe)?
by Brian McLaren
"The Emerging Church" can be a defined in a few ways, but I think it's best to be broad and global and say it like this: the church around the world, in all its denominations and forms, is continually emerging. Some move faster and others slower, but all of us are continually adapting to changes in our world.
The early church emerged from a period of persecution into a period of acceptance and endorsement, for example, under Constantine. The church of the Middle Ages emerged into the modern era through the work of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others. And now, in many varied ways, the church of the modern, colonial, industrial, Enlightenment world is emerging into the postmodern, postcolonial, post-industrial, and post-Enlightenment world.
It's a complex process, and it looks different in Buenos Aires than in Boston or Berlin or Kuala Lumpur, but the similarity is that people are seeking to be faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ in a changing world.
Transitions like these are never safe: we can seek to retain things that should be let go, and we can let go things that should be retained. We can cling to the past in an unhealthy way, or we can lose connection with the past in an equally unhealthy way.
Those of us who are moving forward, seeking to live out Christ's ongoing incarnation and mission in the emerging context, will no doubt make a lot of mistakes. But then again, there are mistakes to be made by avoiding risk and playing it too safe and being excessively conservative.
That's why I hope that those of us who are moving off the map and into new territory will keep listening to and learning from our critics, and I hope that our critics will avoid seeing us as enemies but rather as colleagues in mission.
[Brian McLaren is the author of the recent book, Everything Must Change, and will be a main session speaker at Shift 2008.]
"The Emerging Church" can be a defined in a few ways, but I think it's best to be broad and global and say it like this: the church around the world, in all its denominations and forms, is continually emerging. Some move faster and others slower, but all of us are continually adapting to changes in our world.
The early church emerged from a period of persecution into a period of acceptance and endorsement, for example, under Constantine. The church of the Middle Ages emerged into the modern era through the work of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and others. And now, in many varied ways, the church of the modern, colonial, industrial, Enlightenment world is emerging into the postmodern, postcolonial, post-industrial, and post-Enlightenment world.
It's a complex process, and it looks different in Buenos Aires than in Boston or Berlin or Kuala Lumpur, but the similarity is that people are seeking to be faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ in a changing world.
Transitions like these are never safe: we can seek to retain things that should be let go, and we can let go things that should be retained. We can cling to the past in an unhealthy way, or we can lose connection with the past in an equally unhealthy way.
Those of us who are moving forward, seeking to live out Christ's ongoing incarnation and mission in the emerging context, will no doubt make a lot of mistakes. But then again, there are mistakes to be made by avoiding risk and playing it too safe and being excessively conservative.
That's why I hope that those of us who are moving off the map and into new territory will keep listening to and learning from our critics, and I hope that our critics will avoid seeing us as enemies but rather as colleagues in mission.
[Brian McLaren is the author of the recent book, Everything Must Change, and will be a main session speaker at Shift 2008.]
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posted by Brian McLaren at 9:32 PM
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