Are you Emergented?

The so-called Emerging Church hasn't really hit Australian shores but in the US it's a pretty big deal. The Wall Street Journal (pay to read) did an article on it recently. It's something between a postmodern remodelling of the way we do church and a pomo-chic skin for the traditional church, depending on how cynical you are.

One disillusioned pastor explained in an aside in a novel that pastors simply had to remove their tie and sit on a stool when they preach and they'd joined the emerging church. Later one of his characters rejects an invitation to an Emergent Church conference, called 'Emergent:See' writing "I'm afraid I can no longer emerge". As you might guess language games are a feature of the movement and a source of some criticism and much humour.

For my part, I don't think the emergent church will live up to the hype it has generated but I do see it as a facet of a wider trend I think will be rocking the West for a long while yet, see if you can spot it in this quote from the Wall Street Journal:

Christianity has an enduring message, but can you dance to it -- and should you? Apostles of the "emerging church" movement -- which includes churches where services are conducted in hip-hop -- insist that you can and should, which is not always music to traditionalist ears...

Martin Luther may be spinning in his celestial cell, yet some suggest that these developments are a continuation of his work. "Every 500 years the church has a giant rummage sale," says author Phyllis Tickle, who has been tracking the emerging church for well more than a decade. According to Mrs. Tickle, Christianity is in the midst of a new Reformation that will radically remake the faith.

..."Modernity insisted there is strict separation between sacred and secular space," says Mrs. Tickle, who lives in western Tennessee. "Church was the place where you went to engage God." No longer. "The emerging church is dedicated to getting rid of that notion. All space is sacred," including bars, coffee houses and parks where the new faithful gather.

As the Church moves away from the sacred-secular divide enforced by Modernism it will by necessity have to redevelop political and social awareness. Its theology will have to go deeper again. Sure, there is a danger that some Christians will attempt to join Church and State but there's also the chance many will rediscover the need for their faith to engage the world around them. This is the difference between the need to separate two institutions, Church and State, and the need for individuals to live fully engaged with the world and their faith, politics and religion.

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