Tag: emergent christianity

Nine practices of the emerging church

A couple weeks back I shared a series of posts on on what I saw as the defining characteristics of the emerging Christian movement.

And Wednesday, I found that Urban Theologian (HT @knightopia) shared nine practices of the emerging church, according to Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger in their book “Remembering Our Future: Explorations in Deep Church.”

If you are unclear about what an emerging church is, Gibbs and Bolger define emerging churches as “missional communities arising from within postmodern culture and consisting of followers of Jesus who are seeking to be faithful to their place and time.” The nine “practices” are:

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What is emergent? Trinitarian based values

what is emergent?

Read Part 3 :: What is emergent? Missional

From what I’ve seen of the emerging conversation, Trinitarian based values aren’t something that come up on a daily basis, but a number of folks are pointed to it as one of the great strengths of the movement. In fact, I can’t think of it being mentioned in any of the books I’ve read (I apologize to any authors that may have brought it up and I’ve overlooked it), and I don’t exactly recall it being brought up in any Bible classes in college (granted I didn’t make much higher than a C in any of them). But regardless of if it’s talked about, written about, or not — it still seems to be a strong point in the emerging conversations I’ve been a part of.

Perhaps Ian Mobsby (as quoted on Wikipedia) explains this idea best…

I suggest that perhaps the Emerging Church had found, or been led to a Trinitarian ecclesiology which had inspired a model, the values of which reflected God’s desire for what the emerging church should be. This is what Volf is talking about in After our Likeness. A Church whose values reflect the Trinitarian God. This development appears not to have been a consciously mediated action, but to have emerged out of the experience and practice of those involved in the projects. Is this a God-led re-imagining of the Church? I believe that it is.

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What is emergent? A generous orthodoxy

what is emergent?

Read the introduction: What is emergent?

“I offer this book with the heartiest sentiments to all the jolly people who hate what I write, and regard it (very justly, for all I know), as a piece of poor clowning or a single tiresome joke.” – G.K. Chesterson (Orthodoxy (Moody Classics))

I came into the emergent conversation probably a little bit later in the game than many. I didn’t even start hearing the name emergent until after college (circa 2003-2004).

As I started tracking blogs and other online conversations I began seeing the term more and more. And once I launched my own blog in 2005 and began making connections with folks in the UK, I started hearing from people who were actually taking part in the conversation.

In March of 2006 Thomas introduced me to the blogs of Jonny Baker and Andrew Jones, referring to them as the “grandfather’s of the emerging church” (and even then I didn’t get their names right).
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