Markers along this road might include:
1. Becoming incarnate into the emerging culture
Matt Glock is an American who runs an emerging church in Grenoble, France, where he’s worked for eight years. He identifies the challenge for mainstream churches as being comparable to language learning: “My experience of learning a second language and culture helps me to understand what the church needs to be doing. The process demands a willingness to lose oneself. I remember when I started to understand French but could not speak it. You want to scream because you have something to say but you can’t say it. How many churches are willing to confront their inability to speak a language that can be understood by the emerging generation? How many churches are willing to learn that language, to learn that culture in order to incarnate the Gospel?”
“Loosing oneself” is more than buying the book and learning the theory. It’s incarnating into the culture in order to impact it, as Jesus did.
2. Returning to missionary roots
The church must return to its pioneering edge. As Hudson Taylor threw away his English clothes when he entered China, mainstream churches wishing to reach the emerging generation must do the same.
Pete Greig sees it as the difference between having a cultural presence (a place in the culture) and trying to be culturally relevant (having no place in it, just entering to ‘redeem’ people out of it). Those who enter not because it’s their culture but because they want to save people from it will stand out a mile. Emerging culture itself is no worse or better than baby-boomer culture.
Simon Hall, leader of Revive, adds, “as long as the emerging church is growing out of the established church it will have limited success”. As an accredited Baptist minister who runs an emerging Baptist church plant, he is not suggesting mainstream denominations cannot pioneer emerging churches. Rather, that any plant must be allowed to submerge itself in emerging culture and cease growing out of its mother congregation.
3. Differentiating whole-life from programme-led
“Younger Christians in the emerging church are more open to a radical whole life faith than older generations that have often given their first allegiance to modern culture”, argues Christian author and futurologist Tom Sine.
Pete Greig is founder of the 24-7 prayer movement. He agrees. “Church planting over the last 50 years seems to have been about planting meetings”, he says. “This leads to a programme driven approach rather than a people driven approach which is very convenient and effective among the middle classes with their very busy diaries. But I’m not sure that’s right. The emerging church is driven by community rather than platform”.
4.Raising, not lowering the stakes.
Lazy, consumerist, materialistic and not believing in truth are accusations often levelled at the emerging – or post-modern – generation. Evidence suggests however that this is not the case. Movements such as 24-7 prayer and The Order of Mission place high demands upon those choosing to involve themselves. And thousands do.
Andrew Jones suggests that, “there is a new asceticism that is a godly response to our new wealth. There is an approach to truth that is more relational, narrative, participatory and experiential. The ethical code is strong. Yet it is a culture in need of redemption, as all cultures are.” The challenge facing the church is to harness this energy for the cause of Christ.
Emerging obsession?
The emerging church is an obsession for many involved in it. It is their lifeline, their hope of a spiritual community appropriate to their culture. For many mainstream churches, emerging church is also an obsession – but sometimes for very different reasons. The challenge for all followers of Christ today is to allow the emerging church to be what its name suggests – something which has come out of and moved on from what went before.
What will it take?
Andrew Jones, emerging church consultant and practitioner believes the road towards an emerging church is not an easy one…
The church has to go as far as Jesus went, which is all the way, in terms of incarnating and fleshing out kingdom realities in the culture God has planted us. It will take courage, risk and sacrifice. There will be a change of vocabulary to reflect a new mind set. Military language will receive a discharge. There will be mess. There will be more unbelievers joining our communities earlier in their journey than they did previously and with more honesty. They will request more honesty from us. More vulnerability. There will be more casualties, more misunderstandings. And the greatest persecution may come from the existing church.
Who’s who?
Builder generation (those born before 1946)
Boomer generation (those born between 1946 and 1964)
Emerging generation / Busters / Generation X (those born between 1964 and 1984)
Gen M – Millennium generation / Millennials (those born after 1984)
Steve Adams is part of Tearfund’s Editorial Team. He has been involved in running an emerging church plant and is author of Music to Move the Soul.
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