I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Ryan Bolger today. Dr. Bolger is the co-author of .
Bolger, who blogs at TheBolgBlog, is a colleague of my father's at Fuller. He also happens to live 5 minutes from my parents' home, and was kind enough to drop by for a visit today (I am in California visiting my folks).
Of As many of you know, the emerging church (EC) movement has been an area of interest for me since first hearing about it at Centurions. The apologists I tend to read and follow, like Moreland and Koukl, have been tenative and lukewarm about the EC group ... mainly over concerns of epistemological relativism.
I began reading Bolger and Gibbs to learn more about the core values and DNA of this movement. These guys have been studying leaders and participants in this movement for more than six years. They have done dozens and dozens of interviews, identified patterns, and presented their findings in this book. It is quite thorough.
I quickly plowed through the first three chapters on the flight to California. I have to admit, I like what I read. The missional focus and the gospel of the kingdom themes of the EC resonate with me. Who is not sick of churchianity in this culture? Who is not put off by a pint sized gospel of personal pietism and a focus on the gospel as just Jesus and me? Who does not long for community? Who does not long for authenticity in life and in worship? Who is not tired of church programs and capital campaigns?
I will take some liberty and call Dr. Bolger ... Ryan. He and I are roughly the same age ;-)
I asked Ryan many questions. He graciously answered them all. I came away impressed. My initial concerns about the EC being synonomous with Brian McLaren were misfounded. McLaren is part of the conversation, obviously, but it is much broader than him. In fact, most of the EC movement is taking place in the UK ... and is now spreading to the U.S. I thought it was the other way around.
I had the wrong impression of this movement. I thought it was about epistemology. It is actually about missions.
The thing to keep in mind about this movement, is that it is a missional approach to postmodern culture. In other words, those who are in this movement are approaching our postmodern culture as a true mission field. They view themselves as missionaries. They are communicating the gospel by embodying the gospel. They are not doing church -- they are being the church. And, they are doing it using radical hospitality to build community. That excites me.
Things fell into place for me once I viewed the movement as a missions movement, and the members of the EC as missionaries to a culture that is tired of words and looking for authenticity, a spiritual connection with God, and community in the body of Christ.
My talk with Ryan was very, very encouraging. God is taking me through some deep processing at the moment, especially in the areas of worship and how I view church. I cannot help but feel that today's meeting was an important part of that journey.
The breadth of this "movement" is what makes it so hard to look into. On one hand you've got guys like McLaren who make your brain bleed if you listen to them for too long. But then you also have people like Dan Kimball and Mark Driscoll who seem to be able to look forward while keeping a foot planted in solid theology.
Good luck with your research on the EC. It's a large task.
Posted by: brian | March 14, 2006 at 10:12
Cool! Now you have to meet with Nancy Murphy for the epistemology part! I gotta say, I envy your access to the Fuller folks!
Posted by: dopderbeck | March 14, 2006 at 13:41
Actually, I am quite content to stay with the EC ecclesiology crowd for now. I asked Ryan about the epistemology stuff. He said it honestly does not come up much -- except when the EC is defending itself against the attacks of the modernist church.
Bolger and Gibbs do not list anti-foundationalism as a core value of the EC, interestingly enough. It does come up in their book, but it is a minor theme.
The major theme is missions. The EC is a missions movement.
Posted by: Mr. Dawntreader | March 17, 2006 at 09:01
P.S.
The missions movement that the EC is focused on is the postmodern community. The EC is huge in the culture club context of the UK -- it is not as big in the US, but it is growing. It is largely urban in focus. I probably won't find a lot of EC type churches in Roanoke. Roanoke is not known as a postmodern culture -- unless you are on one of the college campuses in this area (not many colleges in Roanoke).
Posted by: Mr. Dawntreader | March 17, 2006 at 09:04
Thanks for comments on Bolger and Gibbs book. I ordered it. I also ordered a book on the ECM -- or EM -- by D.A. Carson. I liked Bolger's blog (BolgBlog) on worship. His observation, "Who was invited and empowered to create and participate in worship?" is valid. I recalled how in the early 70s when we were "engaged" by the Holy Spirit in the charismatic movement watching as the hippies were brought to Christ and became the "Jesus People." They brought their acoustic guitars to our gatherings and we all participated in peoples' basements in worship and praise that often lasted for 2-3 hours. We would break bread and wine for our own form of the eucharist. We often would "recieve" new songs or someone would bring a new song, "God has given me for us."
As the charismatic movement morphed into independent congregations and the musicians became more professional the locus of worship shifted from the congregation to the platform. And this is not a comment opposing concerts by professional Christian musicians. I attend such concerts and I enjoy their CDs.
What the ECM is doing, has been done and I am glad it is coming back. I hope somehow we can learn to preserve this dimension of worship and praise that engages everyone.
Posted by: Journeyman | March 17, 2006 at 09:44
"What the ECM is doing, has been done and I am glad it is coming back. I hope somehow we can learn to preserve this dimension of worship and praise that engages everyone."
Amen. Thanks for the encouragement.
Posted by: Mr. Dawntreader | March 19, 2006 at 01:12