Zack Exley

“The Emergent Church” 19 July, 2008

Over the last week, I have been living the dream of every rank and file Emergent Christian.

First, I got to hang out with the guys from the Church Basement Road show: Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt and Mark Scandrette — and Emergent leader Tim Keel, who’s church, Jacob’s Well, was hosting the show. They were doing their performance/book tour at Jacob’s Well in Kansas City. Like a groupie, I finagled my way into their RV and wound up going on a pre-show walk with Tony Jones. He told me the insider’s history of the Emergent Church — and I felt so privileged. I didn’t realize at the time that it was the second chapter of his book! — but I still feel privileged.

After the show, Elizabeth and I bribed our way into their lawn chair hangout session outside their RV with two large Imo’s pizza. Again, what a privilege to talk to so many of the early leaders of the Emergent movement at length!

Often, people have commented on this blog, “You’re writing about the Emergent Church, why do you keep saying the movement doesn’t have a name?” But the Emergent movement is a sub-movement within a much larger phenomenon. These guys are the ones who were willing to be overt and explicit about the full implications of the wider movement. A consequence of that was accepting a name, and therefore becoming an easy target for fierce criticism from conservatives. It also means that pastors and leaders who’ve been ostracized, demoted or chronically ignored in the struggle to change their churches find their way to Emergent mailing lists and websites. These Emergent leaders carry weight on their shoulders: they see the consequences of working toward a new future for the church. From my perspective as newcomer and outsider, it all looks good. I can easily see the change the change that’s happening in the church, but it’s not easy for me to see the pain and turmoil that abundant just under the surface. These guys are seeing the friction and tension and hurt that are an inevitable by-product of any sea change in a tight-knit culture.

I have to admit, I still don’t really understand what Emergent is all about. I feel like I should understand it, because I’ve studied all the postmodern philosophers who these guys like. They seem to share many of my positions social issues. And their style of “doing church” appeals to me more than any other. So if there are any Christians I should understand, it’s these guys. But the more questions I asked them, the more of a mystery they became. So, I’m diving into some more of their books. Right now I’m reading Tony Jones’ The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier. It is an incredible overview of this chunk of the Revolution in Jesusland, covering all aspects of the Emergent church from its history to theology to church methods. And it’s a great read.

And then, to make Emergent visitors to this site even more jealous, I got to visit with Brian McLaren before the Matthew 25 Network event in DC the night before last. What a great guy! Since he stepped down from being a pastor in 2006, he’s been to some crazy number of countries learning about the global church (and a lot of other things). A lot of good is clearly coming from his travels.