Emerging vs. Emergent vs. Biblical

The first thing I would like to say as you read this is: Element is not an Emergent Church. I feel pressed upon to get that out in open first and foremost. Our Deacons and Elders get asked a lot if we are Emergent (no) or Emerging (maybe, depending on your definition). I felt it pertinent to write a post that we could put up as a blog and post on our website that explains this as best as possible.

The Emergent church movement has latched itself so strongly onto the Emerging church movement that they have become almost indistinguishable from one another. At one time I would tell everyone that Element was an Emerging Church, but now I am starting to back off from that label as it is misunderstood (much in the same way that the term 'Christian' is misunderstood by those in Christianity, where the term becomes an adjective and not a noun). It is kind of like Near Beer trying to call itself a beer when it has nothing to do with the true thing. Today if I say we are an Emerging Church I have to go into a long explanation about what I mean. The following is that long discussion whittled down so you can have a better idea without reading an entire book (which may not be a bad idea).

From what I can tell, The Emergent movement started to come into its own in about 1997 out of the young leaders (or pastors) network. It was under the leadership of such people as Doug Paggit, Brian McLaren, Tony Jones (and others). It was a movement that once had very good discussions but transitioned into asking questions such as "Does God know the future?," "Does gender have distinctions?," "Is homosexuality a sin?," "Are we sinners by nature?," "Do we need to keep the doctrine of the Trinity?" - They started to ask these questions because all of these issues keep Christianity separate from other religions. (The answer to all those questions is yes by the way). This movement became something called TerraNova, then became The Emergent Village...and the issue of Christ in culture (which is a good one) and missiology became distorted because it left biblical roots and became very man centered.

In the book "Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches" Doug Paggit and Karen Ward say (my paraphrase) that, "they allow their community to set their theology." This is something that should never happen, as only the scriptures should set our theology.

What came out of that original movement are 3 teams (I am stealing from Ed Stetzer terminology here). 2 of these streams would be considered (at the original time) Emerging and only one as Emergent.

• The Relevants (Emerging) - This is the "cool crowd." They are basically evangelical and believe in the Trinity, sin, heaven/hell, salvation is in Jesus alone...they are not trying to re-write theology but are trying to innovate methods of ministry. Better known people in this area are Dan Kimball (who actually came up with the name 'the Emerging Church'), Donald Miller, John Burke, Erwin McManus. These men are clearly evangelical even if you don't agree with everything they have to say or teach... they still fit squarely in the realm of evangelicalism.
• The Revisionists (Emergent) - These people are those who make everything a dialog. A conversation about whether or not God MEANT what He said. This looks a lot like Genesis 3 and the serpent having a discussion with Eve before the fall. Emergent churches will say "yes God speaks and we are not denying that...we just want to question that." The leader, spearhead, of this movement is Brian McLaren. Brian McLaren loves Marcus Borg's writings (Marcus is an open theist who believes that God is in process and learning and growing).
• The Reformers (Mark Driscol calls this the Relevant Reformed)(Emerging) - This would be the Confessional, contextual, cool Calvinists. They are evangelical (in the vein of Billy Graham, J.I. Packer, Francis Schaffer)...People who would be part of this stream would be Matt Chandler, Joshua Harris, Mark Driscol. It includes Networks like Acts 29 and sovereign grace network. What pushes this stream is expositional bible teaching that is Jesus centered with repentance and grace at the forefront. This movement distinguishes itself from the older reformed church style in the fact that they are nice and want people to follow God and not just burn in hell (little humor there for you). They tend to look to men like John Piper, Wayne Grudem, C.J. Mahaney, D.A. Carson, Tim Keller. The first stream and third stream correspond much in how they do things - the third stream simply holds to a more reformed theology.*

At Element we would fall into the third stream. We strive to be biblically accurate while being culturally relevant. Relevant because the world has changed and we know that the old methods of ministry are changing. Church planting has become a renewed focus as we go into culture and plant churches that are biblically faithful while being relevant to the culture in which we live.

Leslie Newbigin has written extensively on this subject (you can see the books the Open Secret or The Gospel in a Pluralist Society). Leslie Newbigin shows that the unchanging truths of the gospel are paramount and DO NOT change, but that gospel fits in cultural containers (music style, dress style, type of humor, type of activities) and that the GospelCulture (BECOMES) The Church. The church must then align itself with the gospel (which again goes into)Culture (which redefines)The Church. This process goes over and over and over GospelCultureThe Church so the church has always been emerging and will always be emerging until Christ comes back.

In a sense, the church is ALWAYS emerging. It is never static, it has never arrived except in the sense that the gospel does not change. When I say we are "Emerging," that is what I mean. But that definition has been lost so now I typically tell people that we are a missional church. We are a church living on mission in the world in which we live. Every believer is a missionary in the culture in which they live. Missionaries are not simply those sent over "there" - we are all missionaries, WE ARE ALL SENT!!! The words "Emerging Church" have become the 'junk drawer' for everything that people who reside in the "mainstream church" do not understand. Everyone, evangelical or non-evangelical, sticks this label on anything they do not understand - including Missiology and cultural relevance - whether good or bad.

Christianity today said the two hottest theologies in America today are the Emergent and the New Reformed. Element is New Reformed. We believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, and we believe that when God speaks we are to obey. We believe the answer to the change that has taken place in the world is the person of Christ. Our goal is to hear Jesus say to us "well done good and faithful servant."

* I have been asked to briefly (and this is VERY brief) explain Reformed Theology.
Reformed Theology, depending on who you talk to, can have different opinions as to its definition. Some would point to the Westminster Catechism, finished in 1647, and say it is only when it agrees with every piece of the (Larger) Catechism - but most people today would not agree with that definition (as I do not).

Reformed Theology today would simply be called Calvinism (some call it The Sovereignty of God or the Doctrines of Grace).

Reformed Theology emphasizes the Sovereignty of God over all things. Though John Calvin is the main theologian behind 'Calvinism' its complete theological makeup was contributed to by others as well - Calvin's successor Theodore Beza, the Dutch theologian Franciscus Gomarus, John Knox, John Bunyan and Jonathan Edwards.

A distinctive issue in Calvinist theology is its soteriology (doctrine of salvation), which emphasizes that humans are incapable of adding anything to obtain salvation and that God alone is the one who saves apart from our effort (totally by grace) Eph 2:8-9. This doctrine was definitively formulated and codified during the Synod of Dort (1618-1619). Calvinism is sometimes identified with "Augustinianism" because the central issues of Calvinistic soteriology were articulated by St. Augustine in his dispute with the British monk Pelagius (who was condemned as a heretic). Calvinism places strong emphasis, not only on the abiding goodness of the original creation, but also on the total ruin of human accomplishments and the frustration of the whole creation caused by human sin. It therefore views salvation as a new work of creation by God rather than an achievement of those who are saved from sin and death. Essentially all glory for anything good that is accomplished goes to Jesus.