Is Redeemer Church Emergent?
So what is it to be emergent? Is it worthit to coin a church as emergent? Is there a difference between emergent/non-emeregent churches? Can a traditional church be and emergent church? What defines the emergent? What does it mean to be emergent?
Way of the(non-emergent)Pastor,
Joe
The biggest problem here is that because emergent is the new buzzword people have construed a lot of misconceptions about what it is. I've said before in other places that the emergent is its best a conversation and at its worst a movement. This is important because if it is a movement then we are right to be very skeptical and guarded. But if it is a conversation then maybe we should listen and be part of that. Emergent isn't an age demographic, but I do think that some of what happens in the emergent context is birthed out of folks with a passion for the post-modern generation. That alone has caused no end of misconstrued ideas about the emerging church. The fact is that every generation has had emerging movements, all of our established denominations began as movements that emerged from other contexts. However, what is wonderful about what is emerging today is that most of the real solid players (conversants) are not jumping out of their church contexts, but rather coming together and sharing their ideas. As a result there is no way of identifying a church as emergent or non-emergent. With maybe the exception of if the community resonates with the emerging conversation, but even still they are usually something else first (for example I am a Vineyard pastor but I am very comfortable in the emerging conversation). The key question you posed is if there is value in using the label emergent. I think there is if you want to identify the conversation, but if you are forming a movement that puts itself at odds with the rest of the Church then I think the only value is a negative one.
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