The Skinny on the Emerging Church in the USA

Intro: This is basically an email response to a reporter in Las Vegas on the emerging church. I will keep it afloat here at this address and will probably add more links and tighten up the information. If it is helpful to others, i might even update it with current information.

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Hi E___________. You asked about the Emerging Church in the USA for a publication you are writing for. As I said i would do, I have posted a more substantial answer with links that i think might be of some help to you in writing on this topic without embarrassing yourself or the publications that print your story.

You need the skinny. Gotcha. Heres the skinny on the emerging church movement in USA from my perspective. See my qualifications at the end to judge how accurate my perspective is. Obviously, I am biased towards the emerging church and excited about this movement although there are areas that worry me and cause me hesitation. For a more balanced perspective, you might want to talk to some critics (I have listed them below) and get their story.

Top presentations and articles on the emerging church:

Definitely mine [he he he] in 2005 when I gave my earth-shattering presentation called "The Emerging Church around the World" at the 2nd Annual Foundation Briefing on International Missions, held at the IMB HQ in Virginia. But that was all top secret . .  you know . .  need to know basis . .  and I would have to kill you . . you know the story . . Actually, it wasnt as good as I just said. These ones are better:

1. Scot McKnight (2007) at Westminster Theological Seminary, "What is the Emerging Church"? [PDF]
Later published on Christianity Today. and it was also reshaped as Emerging Movement: Future of Fad. It has stood the test of time and has been given the official thumbs up by emerging church practitioners. Despite being written by an observer from Willow Creek Church, it summed up the movement in USA extremely well. I wish I had written it.

2. David Dunbar (2008) Missional, Emerging, Emergent: A Travelers Guide [PDF] Dr Dunbar is President of Biblical Seminary and a great resource. He will guide you through the labyrinth of terms.

3. Alan Roxburgh (2005) Emergent Church: Filled with Creative Energetic Potential. Alan is also an authority for new monasticism, the missional church and the challenge of a suburban America, and emerging church training solutions for Seminaries.

My top five American books on the emerging church:

1. Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures, by Ryan Bolger and Eddie Gibbs. Top leaders interviewed, well informed conclusions, a few points of disagreement (doctrine REALLY IS important to us) but its by far the best book. See my review and some others

2. The New Conspirators, Creating the Future One Mustard Seed at a Time, by Tom Sine. Great book by a well known leader who probably has more perspective on this movement than anyone. Tom's book is crammed with examples and will widen and deepen your understanding of the EC.

3. The Emerging Church, by Dan Kimball. Widely received and appreciated. My comments here with links to Dan's history of the words "emergent" and "emerging"

By the way, dont get hung up on the difference between "emergent" and "emerging" since a lot of people use them interchangeably, despite the different slants of meaning. I have some thoughts  on emerging vs. emergent, as well as what i mean by emerging-missional church and the connection between "emergent theory" and "emergent church". And of course David Dunbar. But dont worry too much about getting the terms right.

4. The Church on the Other Side, by Brian McLaren, was for many of us, the first book that said what we wanted to say or at least what we were thinking. Brian can be a controversial figure in Church circles and I dont know anyone who would agree with everything he says but he has consistently verbalized emerging church issues for the last decade with astonishingly clarity. Brian also as a newer book called Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crisis, and a Revolution of Hope, which deals with social action and the thinking behind it. I had some concerns with it but Brian graciously responded and answered them.

Brian McLaren would be considered the most visible spokesperson for the movement in USA and yet he does not speak for everyone since the movement is broad and diverse.  While Larry King was misinformed when he called Brian "the leader of the emerging Christian movement" [read transcript and watch the video - Brian does great!] Brian is certainly an important leader in this movement, having been a part of the Young Leaders Network in the 90's with me and a dozen others, and has probably published more books than any of us. Although I havent published any so that doesnt say much . . . ummm . .

Runners-up for 5th:

The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier, by Tony Jones tracks the theological and philosophical discussions that have characterized the more intellectual side of this movement in USA and is worth reading. Remember that "emergent" is not equivalent to "Emergent Village" despite Tony's heavy branding of the word. My thoughts.

Revolution, by George Barna, Best informed overview of emerging church with a nod to the burgeoning house church movement and online faith communities which often get left out of these books because the more traditional folk in EC are the ones most likely to publish books for the Christian market, thus the lopsidedness towards the traditional. Barna breaks this and he is a well respected researcher and writer to boot. Barna's count of emerging churches is much higher in this book and some dispute it but he draws the line more widely than others. I agree with him and checked out his numbers with house church experts in USA and they also concur. Check out Barna on house church.

The Irresistible Revolution, by Shane Claibourne. Expresses the heart of incarnational ministry among the poor and marginalized which is where many emerging missional ministries have their origin.

The Great Emergence, by Phyllis Tickle: Best historical setting for emerging church but not yet released. Fantastic book.

The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community: Best description of a missional, nu-monastic, organic emerging church.

Also: Rising From the Ashes: Rethinking Church,  by Becky Garrison. A collection of thoughts [and possible quotes, hint hint] from leading practitioners in the mainline world. Becky is a hoot if you want a lively interview.

Worth a mention: It might be almost 40 years old but "The Emerging Church" by Bruce Larson and Ralph Osborne (1970) is remarkably predictive and prophetic of this movement which really is older than everyone says, esp. those who say they started it [yeah right!]. Unfortunately, its expiry date disqualifies it from being an authoritative source on this current movement.

The One Hundred Books on My Emerging Church Bookshelf is a good guide to the best literature on the movement. I will put a link to this when i write them all out. In the meantime, check out the 50 books on my Emerging Church Bookshelf. Previous posts of mine include best books on emerging church from a global perspective, the best book, and 5 books you should buy. Excuse some repetition.

The book used most in American Seminaries to train students in emerging church ministry, what from I have seen, is actually from a Australian/South African now living in USA named  Alan Hirsch. His book "The Shaping of Things to Come", co-written with Mike Frost, is one of the worlds best books on the subject and Alan is one of the most strategic thinkers in the emerging-missional church movement.

Blogs and Websites:

Plenty of websites but TheOoze.com, Next-Wave and EmergentVillage.com are three of the most popular and lasting. Emergingchurch.info is the highest ranking site, and is a great resource, but keep in mind it is British.

Leading Blog on the emerging church? Its too hard to measure so don't even try. In many respects, TallSkinnyKiwi, has been called the leading emerging church blog since .  . well since i started it in 2001. It has only been beaten on Technorati's list (which measures permanent inbound links by previous 6 months) by Jesus Creed by Scot McKnight. Scots blog discusses theology rather than tracking the emerging church movement [which is my reasoning for dismissing his untimely challenge to my number one spot) and is an excellent resource (he says politely, as if no one notices the partronizing).

I would say Jordon Cooper is generally the most reputable blogger on the North American emerging church movement with over a decade of meticulous and relentless blogging.
Jesus Creed, by Scot McKnight, deals more with theology than the emerging church movement [there he goes again] but its a good gauge on what people are thinking and Scot is an excellent authority on this movement .
Mike Morrell has also followed the movement from a historical point of view for a decade and has created the world's largest list of links and resources on his site called Zoecarnate. He is also a writer and is a superb resource for researchers and reporters like yourself.
Bob Hyatt also offers objective perspective and critique of the movement as an insider.
Stephen Shields has been an astute commentator on the movement for a decade and also happens to be National Circulation Manager for USA Today.

Criticism

The leading blog that is critical of the Emerging Church is Pyromaniacs, a well run blog with great images [dang it!]. The authors, in particular Philip Johnson, created a series of posters criticizing the emerging church. These guys are are connected to Grace to You Ministries, led by John MacAuthur, who authored a book against the emerging church entitled "The Truth War: Fighting For Certainty in an Age of Deception" which is popular on the anti-EC blogs.

The most popular critical book is "Why We're Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be, by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck,  which I didn't take very seriously [confession: i have not read the whole book yet] but a lot of people seem to resonate with it. D.A. Carson's book "Becoming Conversant with the Emergent Church:Understanding a Movement and Its Implications" [see my thoughts] is probably the best selling EC-critical book ever, and Carson has some very good observations and recommendations. However the book is fraught with misinformation, highly contested by those it represents and therefore does not deliver what its title suggests. You can hear Carson on the emerging church online at these links and hear him interact with emerging church practitioners.
Probably the leading anti-emerging church book is Faith Undone by Roger Oakland. When people ask me why some people hate the emerging church, I recommend this one. It is pretty well researched [some disagree] but Roger deals with some important issues like emerging missiology and quotes quite widely from emerging church practitioners.. His conclusions are the opposite of what I believe but I do think the book is worth reading for understanding why some fundamentalists think the emerging church is the epitome of the end times deception and the Whore of Babylon. Roger's video series on the book has performed well on Google. Links can be found all over the anti-EC sites but Ken Silva has them all here. Roger is a part of Calvary Chapel, a denomination that has issues with emerging churches.

Leading Podcast is Nic and Josh's podcast but they don't like to be pigeon-holed as "emerging church". I enjoyed my time with them.

Who to talk to?
I recommend Dan Kimball as the person whose centrism and sensibility surpasses everyone. He speaks well on behalf of many organizations as well as many models of emerging church from the tiny house churches and cyberchurches to the larger denominational and mega churches. His book The Emerging Church has received commendation and is forwarded by both Brian McLaren and Rick Warren.

Also: Rudy Carrasco on emerging church/intentional urban community. Phyllis Tickle (Anglican) and Len Sweet are also highly respected authorities on this movement, especially in the mainstream world. Becky Garrison (Anglican) of The Door and Karen Ward (Lutheran/Anglican) also. Ed Stetzer has a good handle on Southern Baptist Churches as does strategist Linda Bergquist in San Francisco who has been starting them for over a decade. Chris Seay of Ecclesia is also a Southern Baptist, can speak for many organizations outside of SBC as an insider from way back.  Tony and Felicity Dale have been tracking the house church movement as long as anyone can remember and are well connected to other leaders and John White has the skinny on the research. Heidi Campbell on internet communities. Again, tell me your subject and area and city [sorry - Joe Boyd left Las Vegas but he was the man to talk to] and I might know someone to recommend.  Sorry - dont have time for links right now but probably in week or two they should be here.

The most visible emerging church organization in USA is Emergent Village with cohorts around the country, regular events and publications. Tony Jones is the National Director and represents this organization and its "conversations". Doug Pagitt, pastor of Solomon's Porch, is also a well spoken representative and is doing a road show with Tony and Mark Scandrette at the moment. However, there are other emerging church organizations and leaders that are critical of Emergent Village, [Mark Driscoll of Acts 29 being the most visible] and many denominations have their own emerging church divisions, budgets, and training programs.

For treatment by an American Seminary,  check out Fuller Seminary,  Dallas Theological Seminary, Westminster Theological Seminary. Not as good, but should be mentioned are Yale and Masters and Covenant.

Who Am I ?

I am Andrew Jones and I have been a full-time consultant for mission organizations and denominations on the emerging church for the past decade. My first emerging church experiments in the USA were in the late 80's with the Evangelical Free Church in Portland Oregon (coffee shop environment for church). During the mid nineties I was involved in emerging church enterprises in San Francisco with the Southern Baptists and under the employment of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, travelled the country with my family until 2000 when we moved our base from USA to Europe. Although I am involved on a more global scale with the emerging church (40+ countries) and am recently working with Church Mission Society (Church of England)  I am still involved in emerging church projects in the USA including regular networking and training events for emerging church leaders. I have been described by Scot McKnight as "probably the most centrist person in the emerging church" which I like to think is a reference not only to my geographical, historical and relational proximity to a huge chunk of the movement, but also to my conservative theological leanings and my consistent efforts to keep this movement connected with its roots to the contemporary and historic church.

Apart from some of the critics, I know all the people I have mentioned and have recommended. If you are conducting research or media interviews and need an email address, please contact me with the details of our publication or broadcast. I can probably forward your request to the person for their consideration.

Hope your work goes well and i hope this information will also serve others like you who wish to write about the emerging church movement in USA. Email me at tallskinnykiwi@gmail.com

If anyone wishes to comment on this page, i am blogging it in segments and will post the links below during the month of June and July 2008.  Feel free to join the conversation, disagree, agree, applaud, offer to buy me coffee, or add your own suggestions.