The Theology of the Emerging Church - Research Paper Example

? THE THEOLOGY OF THE EMERGING CHURCHES Introduction The phenomenon that is the emerging church is not a movement but a conversation. This is what its leaders and members want to call it. Its definition can be explained by the experiences of the individuals and communities formed, but there are patterns that members practice with respect to their theological implications and of what they perceive a church should be. I Many of emerging church leaders have come from different Christian religions, ranging from conservative, traditional, or evangelical churches, but the movement encourages what these leaders live and complain in their own religion. D. A. Carson identifies some of these leaders as Mike Yaconelli, Spencer Burke, Brian McLaren and Chuck Smith Jr., who have interesting and exciting stories to tell about their experiences in the movement (or conversation), stories that may be characterised as traditional and evangelical.1 Beginning at the advent of the twenty-first century, Emerging Church became a global phenomenon. Its members do not adhere to the traditional modernist dualisms of spirit and matter, mind and body, sacred or secular, but they want to go a different part in the midst of postmodernism.2 Thesis Statement: This paper aims to study the place of Christology in the theology of the Emerging Church. The need for the study The primary aim and mission of Emerging Church is to bring Christians from different denominations by making significant changes on how the church should be run and organized. This study will have ecumenical importance because it has implications on bringing the different churches together. The church is still diverse and fragmented movement; leaders just want to call it a conversation. They want to be heard and many of the different churches have been spreading their thoughts and beliefs through the different media including the Internet. Main Body The Emerging Church has been understood as a conversation on how to interpret the gospel in the midst of postmodern culture, and a call to action in this setting. It has been regarded by proponents that the Emerging Church has made important contributions to the church’s ecclesiology.3 The church has undergone a paradigm shift due to culture change. Discussions on postmodernity and postmodern have been taking place in various denominations. The terms postmodernity, postmodernism, and postmodern cultures have been freely interchanged but are not, in reality, synonymous. Nathan C. P. Frambach prefers to use the term “post-whateverism”, whose language refers to a ‘concept of flux’4. The world passes through various phenomena and transitions, for instance, the industrial age which refers to the past, the information age which is the present, and the biotechnology age which is the future. There are three core characteristics that identify the Emerging Church, and these are: ‘identifying with the life of Jesus, transforming secular space, and commitment to community as a way of life’.5 These practices lead to the other six practices which are: ‘welcoming the stranger, serving with generosity, participating as producers, creating as created beings, leading as a body, and taking part in spiritual activities’.6 The Nine Patterns Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger discussed the nine patterns in imitating the ways of Jesus, leading to a new conversation and a new life with the Lord, apart from the practices of the traditional church. Identifying with the life of Jesus The example of Jesus, when he lived with his disciples on earth, is characteristic of the emerging churches. But they also hold Christ as unique. Jesus’ teaching is linked to the gospel he proclaimed. He asked his disciples to repent and be baptised because “The kingdom of God is at hand.” This is the kingdom promised by the Hebrew prophets and to be established with the coming of Jesus. D. A. Carson says that emergents are following the uniqueness of Christ and that this uniqueness allows them to have a new thinking and a new way of questioning their religion. They are not questioning their faith but are questioning whether there is truth to what the traditional church says. Some members form a new thinking but do not abandon the truth over which the Bible advocates about Jesus Christ of Nazareth.7 The Emerging Church seeks to realize the promise of the kingdom by establishing their communities, by becoming servants of the people and the communities as they await God’s kingdom, but which is already here present. The theological implication of the emerging church phenomenon is that they regard Jesus as the one who started the work of the kingdom in Israel and they want to be a part of the communal practices of that kingdom in the midst of postmodern culture today.8 The church missed the kingdom emphasis as written in the Gospels. Jesus’ gospel was not only a personal salvation or the atonement of sins in order for one to go to heaven. Rather, Jesus’ gospel is also for the kingdom. George Eldon Ladd examined and wrote about the nature of the gospel of the kingdom. The emerging churches stressed the kingdom of God in their teaching and practices.9 Transforming secular space In discussing of the emerging church, Gibbs and Bolger said that we are talking of different ecclesiology. Being in the church is being in the ekklesia, not a place to meet during Sundays. Church as a noun must be replaced with church as a verb. Church should remain a common affair or activity where members commit and live their new identity as children of God. Christians should have a new identity and new community under God. Each member should be known, loved and supported by other members, and invited ‘to actively and creatively participate with their gifts and talents in life-transforming activities and the redemption of God’s word.’ Sacralization, or the way in which life is made sacred, is the mingling of kingdom and culture. The modern period has become popularized with the idea of space without God. Before it, the spiritual concepts dominated our mind and world. Emerging churches want to erase the secular mind-set that the traditional church has been practicing, i.e. ‘secular spaces, times, or activities’, but all life should be sacred.10 Communities, practicing Jesus’ example and teaching, are interacting with modern and postmodern cultures. Robert Webber11 explains that what is happening now is that the Christian church is responding to cultural changes. The church goes with culture and has to respond with changes in culture. The relationship of Christianity and culture could be seen in the following stages: The church was a missionary movement in Jerusalem; it went on to Rome and transformed into an institution; from Rome it went to Europe to become an institution, but then it crossed the Atlantic to spread wide in America to become a big business. What is always significant is that the church always encounters and mingles with the local culture. This has been the story of the church for two thousand years. For every society the Christian gospel penetrates, it always mix and is contextualised with the local culture. The Christian faith has a framework of creation, sin, incarnation, crucifixion and death, and then resurrection, church, heaven and earth – which are all woven into the very fabric of the local culture. Now the church has to adapt to the ‘postmodern, post-Christian, neo-pagan world’. 12 Webber further explains that the reason why evangelicals are diverse is because of the church’s bumping up against culture. Evangelicals always respond to cultural change in new and different ways. In America and other parts of the world, there is cultural change and the emerging church is responding to this change. The emerging church, according to Webber, reflects what is happening among churches – that there has to be a bridge of the gap between theory and practice. The gap separates the traditionalists, who are merely concerned about doctrine, from the evangelical pragmatists who are concerned of the needs of the members. There is a journey in the emerging church bringing to that point where theological reflection and Christian practice has to be moulded together once again.13 Churches are becoming commercialized and Emergent Churches want to divert back to the teachings and example of Christ, i.e. practice Christianity within postmodern cultures. Research has shown that there has been a decline of the major traditional denominations both in the U.K. and the U.S., which started around the mid-1960s up to the present time. The decline in weekly church attendance is predominant in the Anglican and Catholic religions, including the so-called free churches. New and old churches are trying to re-establish connections with former generations or members. In the U.S., church members are reaching out to people who seem to have not heard sermons on the Word of God.14 Commitment to community as a way of life If the church is the body of Christ, what kind of community must it be so that the members may practice Jesus’ teachings and example? The church is composed of people, not just a place; it is a movement and not a mere institution. It is also a 24-7 service – in action, meaning the church doesn’t close during night time.15 The Emerging Church views the gospel as being about community and creating community, as cited in Eph. 2:14-19 and Rev. 21:1-5. It questions the established tradition and dogmas, call for ecumenism and hold Christians to be intellectually accountable of their actions and beliefs. Welcoming the stranger Emerging Church welcomes all members coming from various denominations. Church is not a place but a way of life, a rhythm or a community, and emerging churches disregard ideas that interfere with the work of God’s kingdom. Serving with generosity The Emerging Church fosters charity and philanthropic work since hospitality is characteristic of God’s kingdom. Sharing and giving are Christ-like which should be performed in all aspects of society. They also create a wholesome relationship with other denominations, not treating them as outsiders or objects but sharing with them the good news about God.16 Emergents practice what real Christianity should be, i.e. Christology, a branch of theology which reflects the person and deeds of Jesus Christ when he came to live with us more than two thousand years ago. Christology investigates Jesus’ person and being, his humanity and divinity, including his works. This seems a difficult task because this is taking jesus as a human being and as a God simultaneously. His redeeming work had an impact not only all men and women of all times but on the entire universe.17 Jesus’ life and works make emergents filled with hope, allowing them to look at life with a great amount of optimism, which is against the pessimistic characteristic of a large number of Christians who are not contented with the present state of affairs and are awaiting for Jesus’ second coming that will be accompanied with wars, famine and natural calamities. Participating as producers The gospel allows us to become active participants in God’s redemption of the world. All our support must be for God and to God, including all that we have, our talents and wealth should be offered to God. This means worship is not kneeling down and cleansing our mind and conscience of what we have done, or an escape from life, but a combination of the sacred and the secular. In other words, the kingdom must be our foremost and primary activity. Sinner or not, all shall sit at the Lord’s Table as we sit sharing the Banquet of the Lord.18 Creating as created beings The Emerging Church awaits the ‘eschatological hope,’ the way Jesus brought the gospel to the world in the small town of Nazareth more than two thousand years ago. Emergents want to partner with God in building God’s kingdom. This idea of partnering or cooperating with God in building His Kingdom is not acceptable to some denominations, like the Calvinists, who do not hold the belief that human beings can participate with God’s work.19 This is known as the redemptive activity where all of us should be involved. As we participate with in the redemptive activity with our Creator, we become creative. Creativity is part of the emerging church’s gospel messages which is where secular space ends. Members are active participants of God’s redemption of the world. We are not just spectators but actors in God’s play of redeeming the world. Creativity and beauty are part of God’s creation. This was what God declared when He created the universe – ‘and He saw that it was good’. We participate in this creation with Christ and restore the goodness and beauty of God’s creation. Leading as a body The tasks of the emerging church, as mentioned above, require full participation and creativity of the community. It is the responsibility of the emerging church to lead in fulfilling the tasks so that redemption will be attained. Emerging churches have experiences which tell that leaderless groups are effective; this means removing all types of control. But someone has to act as leader who provides a space for activities. Jesus becomes the head of any activity of the emerging church.20 Taking part in spiritual activities The Emerging Church disregards modern practices of Christianity but retains the faith, adding that Western Christianity is influenced by a modern but declining culture. They want to be given a chance to introduce their new-found ways of practicing spirituality which is the so-called ‘post-Christendom expression of faith.21 They attack the pragmatists who are starting to run the church like a business. They also complain of the church’s seeming entertainment atmosphere, the individualistic nature of many of its members and pastors, and the traditional church’s unconcern for social justice and narrow theology of salvation’.22 Emergents want more depth in worship and call on the traditional church and the evangelicals to go back to the roots of Christian theology, worship and practice and be informed of the postmodern world. Postmodernism delves on historical events as having influence on church transitions. James Smith23 argued that postmodernism was given impetus by French philosophical thoughts. Smith cites Francis Schaeffer who provided an analysis in his book The God Who is There that philosophy began after modernity and that cultural phenomena, like the advent of the Emerging Church, are philosophical movements.24 Schaeffer’s philosophical thoughts on postmodernism can also be regarded as existentialism, although this latter term is more used in France instead of the term postmodernism. Cultural phenomena come from philosophical movements, and postmodernism is a philosophical movement as distinguished from postmodernity which is a cultural phenomenon. Conclusion Everything on earth is evolving, including the church and the thousands of Christian denominations all throughout the United States and North America, and the United Kingdom. When we say evolving, there are changes involved and the changes are inevitable. The rise of the emerging church started a few decades ago, sometime in the 1990s, and it didn’t just spread like wildfire because it was evolving. The main reason for this is that Christians wanted change, but along with this want of Christians is the environment’s inevitable change, what is known as postmodernism, or from modernity to postmodernism. Christians wanted change because the traditional Christian denomination was going away from the very core of Christian teachings. Churches were not following the tenets of Christianity and the teachings of Christology. Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger’s nine patterns described how the emerging church should form a basis for contemporary religion to follow in order to be a part of God’s redemptive work. References Belcher, Jim. 2009. Deep church: A third way beyond emerging and traditional. Illinois: InterVarsity Press. Carson, D. A. 2009. Becoming conversant with the emerging church: Understanding a movement and its implications. Michigan: Zondervan Press. Frambach, Nathan C. P. 2007. Emerging ministry: Being church today. Minneapolis: Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S. A. Gibbs, Eddie and Ryan K. Bolger. 2005. Emerging churches: Creating Christian community in postmodern cultures. Michigan: Baker Publishing Group. Jones, Tony. 2008. The new Christians: Dispatches from the emergent frontier. California: Jossey-Bass. O’Collins, Gerald. 2009. Christology: A biblical, historical, and systematic study of Jesus. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Smith, James. 2006. Who’s afraid of postmodernism?: Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to church. Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing Group. Soong-Chan, Rah. 2009. The next Evangelicalism: Freeing the church from western cultural captivity. Michigan: Intervarsity Press. Webber, Robert. 2007. Listening to the beliefs of emerging churches: Five perspectives. Michigan: Zondervan. Read More