The Ecclesiology of the Emerging Church

[Guest guest]

Ecclesiology of the Emerging Church

By Rebekah Zorgdrager on November 15, 2008

 

 

The emerging church. What is it? Who is it? And what exactly do they mean by

church? In other words, what is the ecclesiology [the science relating to the

church] of the emerging church? It seems like " the church " should be easy to

define. Yet throughout time and across various Christian movements people's

definitions of church - what it is, what it is for, who makes it up - have

varied widely. How does the emerging church fit into this varied tradition? Is

this a movement that defines church differently than it has ever been defined

before? Or is the emerging church something old packaged in something new?

 

I believe the emerging church movement is a shifting back to old ideas in a new

way. Most, if not all, of the ideas and values held by those who write about the

emerging church are not revolutionary or new, yet they combine to form an

ecclesiology different than any mainstream ecclesiology at least since the

reformation, if not before. That being true, however, it is very difficult to

define an emerging church ecclesiology because those writing about it are

generally preoccupied with other questions and concerns; ecclesiology is not in

the forefront of anyone's mind or conversations. (Several books have informed my

understanding of the emerging church as discussed in this article. They are

indicated in full detail at the end of the article. They will be referenced

throughout by author's last name and page number.)

 

There are many ways in which church is talked about - in terms of what it is,

what it is not, what it should be, etc. - that work together to form an

understanding of what church is in the emerging viewpoint. The emerging church

as a movement began, exists, and thrives as a response to postmodernism.

Postmodernism is a somewhat vague concept since it is defined as opposed to

modernism. For the purpose of this discussion postmodernism will be viewed as a

mindset which, " holds there is no single universal worldview. All truth is not

absolute, community is valued over individualism, and thinking, learning, and

beliefs can be determined nonlinearly " (Kimball, 49-50). Postmodernism is not

something the emerging church teaches, it is a cultural mindset that they are

responding to, seeking to reach those who buy into the postmodern worldview

(Kimball, 27, 36; McLaren, 8, 24). This is an important distinction to make and

understand, for the leaders of the emerging church movement are not seeking to

make people with a modern worldview switch over to a postmodern worldview, yet

they are challenging those with a modern mindset to realize that some of their

beliefs and assumptions are not hard and fast truths (Kimball, 49).

 

A strong emphasis in the emerging church conversation is that the current

popular model for churches, the seeker sensitive model, does not reach people

with a postmodern mindset; in fact such an approach is a turn off to people with

such a worldview. This helps explain the impetus behind much of the emerging

church movement. It is an effort to reach those with a postmodern mindset while

acknowledging that there are good and bad things about such a mindset. The

purpose is to reach out to such people where they are, as well as to learn what

ought to be challenged and what can be affirmed within this newer worldview

(Burke, 63; Kimball, 63).

 

Postmodernism, when talked about in the world of church, is often coupled with

post-seeker-sensitive or post-Christian. There are a couple implications that go

along with these shared labels. As stated above, people that view the world

through postmodern eyes will not be reached, may even be turned off by,

seeker-sensitive styles. In other words, these are people who were not brought

up to believe in the Bible or go to church - convincing them to come back to

church through a flashier style will not work because they were never part of

church in the first place. This group of people was not raised as Christian;

they do not automatically accept the Bible as an authority. There are people who

were brought up in churches that fall into this category as well since they have

bought into the cultural movement of postmodernism and do not credit the Bible

with any sort of authority. These distinctions are made because the

postmodernism that has swept much of America shows that America is no longer a

Christian nation, more and more people here were not raised as Christians, or do

not see the world through the lenses of Christianity or the Bible, and have

either never heard the gospel, or think they have heard it but do not believe in

it (Kimball, 68, 245).

 

In many ways the emerging church defines itself in the ways above as well as in

opposition to other models of church, such as church as it was defined in the

reformation and church as it is viewed within a modern worldview. Some offer the

critique that trying to boil down a definition of church can result in

oversimplifying things and distorting what the church truly is - something they

believe happened during the reformation when the " marks of the church " were

defined resulting now in many seeing church as an institution or something that

is done, as opposed to seeing church as the people of God (Kimball, 93; Pagitt,

30-31).

 

The emerging church is defined in large part as something different, a move away

from, the modern view of church. While some acknowledge that the modern church

effectively reaches out to those with a modern mindset there is still quite a

bit of antagonism towards the modern church and the inherent values it

has/teaches. One of the major critiques of the modern church that the emerging

church is seeking to distance itself from is seeing the church as a vendor of

religious good and services. This is the market mentality where research is

done, people are targeted, and the church makes its decisions based on those to

whom it is marketing. Within this view, the church is simply there to offer

people the kinds of religious services they need (or think they need) and

initiatives are considered successful by the number of people reached, the size

of a budget, etc. In other words the modern church has been run in ways very

similar to a secular mindset of marketing and offering what people want in order

to get them to partake in the services an organization has to offer. This model

is not driven by any overarching value; it is driven by consumers and what

consumers want (Burke, 39; Kimball, 105, 112, 115, 201, 215; McLaren, 189, 197;

Pagitt, 40, 42). These things have nothing to do with what the Bible teaches or

the kingdom of God, but much to do with our modern world and the way in which

secular companies get people to purchase their products or become involved in

the causes they support. The critique of the emerging church movement is that

these are modern values that have no inherent place in the church and may

actually work against what the church is supposed to be.

 

The emerging church does not simply define itself as opposed to modernity. There

is also much discussion about what church is about - the elements that ought to

be there in a healthy church. One element is church as a place where the body of

Christ is healthy and in proportion. This means that in any given church there

are not simply one or two people who wield all the power, but a group of people

are being the church together, all seeking to use their gifts in service to God.

Church then becomes a place that is not highly controlled but allows room for

the Holy Spirit to lead people into significant encounters with God (Burke,

64-65, 93).

 

Language such as " going to church " is shied away from because it puts the focus

on a physical place of gathering rather than on the people who together make up

the church. The people of God who come together to worship God and serve him in

mission, they are the church, not any particular building or place (Kimball, 91,

94-95). There is an eagerness to acknowledge that church will look different in

different places; the emphasis is that all churches are those groups of people

joining the Holy Spirit in the work of God's kingdom. As one person put it

churches ought to be concerned with, " More Christians, Better Christians,

Authentic missional community, For the good of the world " (McLaren, 28). The

emerging church has a focus on mission, community, worship, and mystery (Pagitt,

17). These, in some ways, are the new marks of the church.

 

Mission

 

The church is missional. The emerging church movement began as an effort to

reach people who were not currently being reached by the efforts of the average,

or modern, church. This movement began not as an effort to get people already at

church more involved or more committed, but to reach out to people who

previously had nothing to do with church and no desire to change that. There is

a strong emphasis that church is meant to produce disciples, people who live out

the mission of living into God's kingdom on earth (Burke, 119; Kimball, 15, 17).

The church is not just missional; however, it is a missional community - that

is, people who come together to live out the mission to which God has called

them on earth. People not only engage in this mission individually, but as a

community called by God to serve God together as well (McLaren, 36, 197; Pagitt,

17, 146). In some ways, people are living into their missional call most fully

when they are living into it as part of a community of other believers.

 

Community

 

This leads to another mark of the emerging church, the church as a community.

The community and missional impulses of the emerging church cannot be completely

separated from one another, although they are two different ideas. The church is

a community of faith; people living out the things Jesus taught in such a way

that non-believers will naturally be drawn in. There is a focus on being

together, on genuine fellowship, on conversation and being together as what the

church is supposed to be (Kimball, 204-205). The church is supposed to be a

place where people actually live their lives according to the teaching of the

gospel; a place where those who are not valued by society - the poor and

undesirable - are welcomed, supported, and affirmed in their love and worth in

God. The community of the church is called to be a place that lives not by the

world's values but by the values of God's kingdom (McLaren, 183-184).

 

Worship

 

Worship is another clear value of the emerging church. It may be more accurate

to say that re-defining worship is a value of the emerging church. What is

highly valued is being willing to view worship in new ways that lie outside of

singing along with a band that plays up in front of people (Burke, 61).

Oftentimes in the modern church people use the word worship to refer simply to

gathering together to sing songs and maybe pray a little. There is a church

service during which people worship (sing songs) and then listen to a sermon.

However, the emerging church movement seeks to redefine worship in a more

biblical sense, talking about worship as giving honor to God, humbling ourselves

before the Lord, glorifying Jesus. In this sense worship is not something that

is done at a certain point in time, it is a focus of life together, it is

present throughout any particular gathering, it is a way of life that brings

honor and glory to God (Kimball, 114-115; Pagitt, 17, 50). In terms of a church

service, this means that the entire service is viewed as worship, instead of

just one portion of the meeting.

 

Mystery

 

This brings us to the last mark of the emerging church, valuing mystery. Within

the modern church/mindset everything is put into neat categories, the world is

black and white and everything can and should be systematically explained and

understood. A postmodern mindset, as well as the emerging church, reacts

strongly against such suppositions, seeing this modern point of view as an

unrealistic way of viewing the world, one that cannot sustain much scrutiny

without falling apart. This emphasis on mystery is not simply about allowing

there to be fewer answers, it is about experiencing rather than just knowing God

(Burke, 54). For the postmodern there is something freeing about allowing for

mystery; it feels more, not less, religious, which is a good thing (Kimball,

49). In the emergent church the focus is not on easy and simple answers to

questions about the meaning of life or things such as creation and the trinity.

The focus is on developing faith as the context in which such questions and

mysteries are to be explored (McLaren, 78-79, 89). This type of focus allows

people to have faith without thinking that they are then obligated to have all

of the answers as well.

 

Redefining church in a more biblical, less modern way

 

Those involved in writing about the movement emphasize that they are not arguing

for one particular model or way of doing church (Kimball, 14; McLaren, 28). What

they are looking at is redefining church in a more biblical, less modern way. I

imagine the lack of a direct discussion defining the ecclesiology of the

emerging church is because that would not be a very postmodern thing to do. In

defining what or who church is, concrete decisions are made; in a postmodern

worldview it is difficult to make such a definition without becoming suspect.

This is probably why the discussions surrounding church are very abstract and

open. Church is defined by what it is not. Church is also defined by the

elements it ought to include; yet this type of definition is far from concrete.

There may be some danger in the emerging church movement defining itself, at

least in part, by what it is not. In focusing so much on who you are not, it can

be difficult not to become those very things. Questions much be asked, such as,

Is the emerging church simply a vendor of religious goods and services marketed

towards the postmodern, and not a new movement at all? If the modern church

movement were to fade away would the emerging church movement have enough of an

identity to stand on its own?

 

Yet, despite the necessity and validity of such questions, I believe that those

involved in the emerging church appear to have an underlying ecclesiology of

their own. The ecclesiology is not a new one, yet it does not totally fit into

any past ecclesiology either. It argues for going back to the vision and values

of the early church. The early church was birthed into a non-Christian society,

when the values and goals of the church were not the norm or generally accepted

truth - those who are part of the emerging church movement argue that this is

the kind of society in which we are now living. The leaders of the emerging

church do not argue that no one is around anymore who has a modern mindset or

who assumes the truth of Christianity; but they do argue that fewer and fewer

people have such a worldview, and that increasingly children are being raised

into a postmodern, post-Christian worldview. These are the people the emerging

church is working to reach.

 

Essentially, the ecclesiology of the emerging church defines church as people

who gather in community to worship God and come together following the missional

impulse of joining the work of the Holy Spirit in the spread of God's kingdom on

earth.

 

The ecclesiology of the emerging church is old and new at the same time. Its

values and goals are not new to the Christian faith, yet the ways in which these

things are talked about have in mind where the church has been and where the

church is going. The ecclesiology is unique to our current situation, which

makes it distinct from what has gone before. Because of the mindset and values

of postmodernism, trying to define the ecclesiology of the emerging church in

one sentence is like trying to hike the entire 2160 miles of the Appalachian

trail in a single day. Maybe it's not quite that difficult, but the point is

made. However, I will try anyway. Essentially, the ecclesiology of the emerging

church defines church as people who gather in community to worship God and come

together following the missional impulse of joining the work of the Holy Spirit

in the spread of God's kingdom on earth.

 

NOTE. The following books have informed the understanding of emerging church

discussed in this article: Spencer Burke, with Colleen Pepper, Making Sense of

Church: Eavesdropping on Emerging Conversations about God, Community, and

Culture, Grand Rapids, MI: emergentYS-Zondervan, 2003; Dan Kimball, The Emerging

Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations, Grand Rapids, MI:

emergentYS-Zondervan, 2003; Brian D. McLaren, The Church on the Other Side:

Doing Ministry in the Postmodern Matrix, Grand Rapids, MI: emergentYS-Zondervan,

2000; and Doug Pagitt, Reimagining Spiritual Formation: A Week in the Life of an

Experimental Church, Grand Rapids, MI: emergentYS-Zondervan, 2003.

 

http://www.gocn.org/resources/articles/ecclesiology-emerging-church