I have been working on these for several days, and I will continue to work on them, well, forever. As a relative newbie to the emergent mindset/theology/lifestyle I have yet to formulate any real concrete opinions specific to the emergent church; this is my attempt to do that. I certainly haven’t created anything new here, though I have made a point of staying away from similar material until I made my own, so it’s new for me. I have alternated between the terms “American church” and “contemporary church” since I haven’t decided which I think is more accurate. This is somewhat antagonist/defensive, but that’s just because of the genre. Anyway, here it is:
1. The American church, as well as the church in other industrialized nations, that is, the contemporary church, has relegated “church” to a place, a building, a weekly event, something that one ‘goes to.’ The emerging church, that is, the church that is emerging post-Evangelicalism into a postmodern culture, is to be understood as a community of people, the called out ones, those who have chosen to live life in the way of Jesus, including repentance (the turning away of sin) and faith and lifestyle.
2. The American or contemporary church has formed into an exclusive club, having set up artificial and subjective guidelines as how one becomes a member, believing that one has “made it” once membership is achieved and no more growth is necessary. The emerging church must tear down all barriers that scripture itself does not set up, including “membership” of the church. People are participants in the community, to one degree or another.
3. The American church has failed to recognize the social injustices that concern Jesus. The church has concerned itself with not appearing “too liberal” and with propagating itself and neglected the weightier concerns of Christ, to the detriment of society and the image of the Body of Christ within society. As the largest volunteer organization in the world, with access to abundant resources, the church must show its faith through action, caring for widows and orphans, the oppressed, the poor and needy, and the persecuted (of all races and creeds and religions).
4. While much of the church, commonly the conservative, fundamentalist, or Evangelical church, has neglected caring for the society in which it finds itself, another segment of the church, commonly the mainline denominations, have neglected the proclamation of the whole gospel, focusing instead only on what is pleasant to hear and/or promotes their cause. The emerging church must cling to the truth of scripture, to the proclamation of the death, atonement, and resurrection of Jesus, and to salvation through the same.
5. The church has become irrelevant to the people, speaking of and proclaiming that which is of little or no significance to those seeking truth and edification. Further, the church has sinned in trying to gain more members by becoming less like itself and more like the world around it, or it has ignored the people and separated itself, and in so doing has failed to engage in the mission of Jesus. The emerging church must be organic, coming out of the culture rather than forcing itself into it, serving as a visible, valuable, and contributing part of the culture and society from which it stemmed, even while remaining distinct in its ultimate vision, goal, and motivation.
6. The leaders of the church have failed to teach the Body of Christ and as a result the people are largely ignorant of scripture, ignorant of theology, ignorant of the things of Christ, and ignorant of the character of God. The leaders of the church have relied not on God and the bible but on programs and gimmicks; they have focused on growth in numbers above growth on people. The emerging church must teach people where they are with the expectation and plan that they will not stay there. The emerging church must focus on the growth within the individual, not the growth of individual people in the pews.
7. The church has sinned in its elevation of individuals, organizations, and programs above Jesus and the gospel. Too often has a group of believers disintegrated when their leader left, because they were led by a man and not by God. Too often are gift ignored and left to rot because they don’t mesh with the leader. The emerging church must seek to empower all who are willing with the skills needed to lead; let no person hold to any teaching or community as if it was actually his, let the 80/20 rule be shattered as individuals become participants in their community.
8. The contemporary church, if not viewing the leader as a celebrity, views him or her as an employee, the one paid to do all the work of the church and to please and entertain the masses in the pews. The emerging church must take seriously the priesthood of all believers, knowing that some are set apart so that they may be freed up to do the work of the ministry full time but that none are exempt from doing ministry as far and as often as they are able.
9. The church has come to have a bad reputation amongst non-believers. It is seen as judgmental, oppressive, interfering, dangerous, and hypocritical; the term “evangelical” has come to take on more political than ecclesiastical connotations The emerging church, through its commitment to social justice, to the welfare of those in the community, to the welfare of those in the larger community, and through its welcome to all people, regardless of where they are in faith and life, must come to be known as scripture calls upon the people of God to be known, by their love.
10. The American church, in particular the more vocal and more “right wing” parts of the church, has neglected the proclamation of the gospel for the proclamation of political doctrines. While the emerging church recognizes that our convictions will inform our politics, and that life in the way of Jesus cannot exclude any element of life, including politics, it knows that the mission of the church is to reveal Christ, not create to legislation.
11. Worship is, in large part, service-service to God and service to others. But the term “service,” as related to the church, has come to be known as an event in which the masses come to be served and “fed.” Understanding the power of words to convey meaning, the emergent church adopts the term “gathering” to more rightly reflect what is taking place: the gathering of participants in the community of faith for worship, prayer, teaching, and fellowship.
12. The contemporary church is fractured into denominations, often competing and bickering with one another, each one knowing little about the other and many claiming to be the only one that is right. The emerging church must seek to remove the barrier of denominations, choosing instead friendship, cooperation and dialog with brothers and sisters of all denominations, knowing that we can learn much from each other and together we can further the kingdom with greater speed, skill, and effectiveness than if we go it alone. We recognize that both as faith communities and as individuals we have the freedom in Christ to disagree and the obligation to remain connected.
13. While the American church has created the phenomenon of the mega-church, the emerging church sees this as essentially dehumanizing and a poor model for how to bring healing, equipping, and edification to believers. It is artificial in that they use the semantics of community but function as a corporation. They do not plant new churches but rather grow themselves and in so doing reveal a major failing in their missional mandate. We recognize that there are exceptions to the above statements, but that overall communities function best when they are small, when people have a chance to know one another’s stories, and when they feel close to their leader.
14. Mega-churches seek to grow themselves; emerging churches, recognizing that new churches are historically better at reaching people, seek to create new churches so that the kingdom of God my grow demographically, geographically, numerically, and spiritually. We do not wish to make carbon copies, but instead allow each new gathering of believers to take on an identity of its own.
15. The polity of the American church is one of top-down leadership, whether explicitly or functionally, by design or default. The masses come to watch and be led, the leaders come to work and grow their followers. The emerging church must seek out the leadership potential in each believer, discipling them to become biblically qualified leaders. Rather than searching from without the emerging church must build leaders from within.
16. The contemporary church assigns importance and influence based on non-biblical criteria, including one’s position in the secular world, pedigree, wealth, political agenda, and even intimidation. The emerging church must recognize those who live according to the biblilcal standards of an elder and do the work of an elder, recognizing them as elders.
17. While the contemporary church as access to an abundance of resources, the people remain stingy, placing the funding of themselves above the funding of the work of God and neglecting the tradition of the people of God in being generous. The emergent church must fund the work of the community generously, seeing that doing so is both God-serving and self-serving. Moreover the people must be generous with each other, clinging to nothing as their own exclusive possession.
18. The contemporary church has long focused on fact based, bullet point style teaching, expecting right knowledge to lead to right behavior but never getting the results they hoped for. The emergent church must recognize the value of narrative and experience, informing each other’s stories and telling the story of God and experiencing transforming relationship with God and his people.
19. Scripture and the Spirit have influenced and informed art from the beginning of time, yet the contemporary church has neglected the use of: design, painting, drama, dance, poetry, in worship. The emerging church must embrace and encourage the artistic gifts God gives to his people and utilize them for fuller, more complete worship.
20. Every church and denomination has traditions; the American church has either rejected tradition outright or clung to it irrationally. The emerging church must value the writings, prayers, and traditions of those who came before us, learning from them and applying them to daily life, submitting them to the authority of scripture, setting aside (though not rejecting) that which is no longer relevant, and maintaining a familial link to our predecessors.
21. The contemporary church has separated itself from culture, vilified that which does not come from them, and propagated a tired and useless “us verses them” mentality. The emerging church must recognize that it is not “us verses them,” but rather “us and them,” thus maintaining our distinction but remaining open to learning from one another and working toward a common good. We recognize it as sin to not cultivate real relationships outside of the church as well as inside.
22. Of the course of many, many years, the contemporary church has whittled away communion, that is, the gathering together at the Lord’s Supper. It has become only a bite of bread or cracker and a sip of wine or juice, often taken thoughtlessly if at all. While the emerging church must continue to recognize the value of these symbols and participate in the partaking, so too must it recognize that communion has always included fellowship and sharing in each other’s stories.
23. The American church has maintained artificial distinctions between the genders which are no longer relevant or useful in today’s society. While recognizing that there are certain distinctions, the emerging church must move toward an egalitarian position.
24. The American church has largely neglected the children and youth, viewing them as the “church of tomorrow” when they are in fact the church of today. They have substituted entertainment for teaching and games for ministry. The have failed to allow the young people to go through the necessary developmental stages and search out their own faith. The emerging church must recognize that children and youth are valuable, contributing members to the work of God, worthy of ministry and capable of the same.
25. The contemporary church is satisfied that the work of theology is done, that there is no thinking left to do. The emerging church must continue the work of the Reformation, fleshing out for today’s culture and society sola scriptura, sola fide, sola gratia, Solus Christus, and soli Deo Gloria. We must view these not as a history lesson but as a current plea.
Here I stand. God help me.
