[From the Archives – This series of posts was first published in 2009 and my study was going to form part of my Masters thesis]
Finding a Voice
Much criticism has been levelled at the emerging church over the years (some of it warranted). Some describe it as a protest; the natural result of post modernism, others however, such as Ray Anderson, have sought to respond to the challenges presented by the existence of the EC by offering serious theological reflection on the nature of experience and ecclesiology (2006).
It is true that many attempts made by the church to become relevant to the culture in which they exist. According to Anderson the churches attempt to become culturally relevant to post World War Two generations such as Baby Boomers and Gen Xers have been both fickle and futile with most returning to where they began (2006:3). However, after some initial scepticism Anderson admits to having his theological appetite whetted when he began to read the writings of emerging church leaders such as Brian McLaren and Dan Kimball. Their books have ignited in Anderson a desire to interact theologically with the emerging church conversation.
It would be very easy for Anderson to write a book about the emerging church movement. However, Anderson’s premise is what he “perceives to be a need for a creative and constructive theological paradigm for the emerging church movement” (2006:7). I think in part the book is written as a rebuff to Carson’s own book debunking the EC movment. Carson has difficulties with the nature and form of the movement and claims the boundaries of the emerging church are ill-defined and a protest against conservative evangelical tradition (2005). In focusing on an emergent theology Anderson resists the temptation to outline the contours of this new movement but instead he, “tease[s] out an emergent theology that is…discovered along the journey (revelational), contextual only because it is currently being lived out (incarnational), and contemporary only because it visibly takes us into the future (eschatological)” (2006:7). In approaching the topic from this premise Anderson does not commentate on the emerging church or provide another book of methods and programmes. Rather he provides a theological and ecclesiological foundation for the emerging church.
The purpose of this series is to evaluate and critique emerging church ecclesiology and theology, and discuss whether the emerging church is simply a pragmatic method for reaching the lost or a valid expression of the church in contemporary culture. In the next post we will try to define what the EC actually is!
