Emerge or Submerge
For example, a few months ago, Bill had several church members who wanted Centrifuge to really get behind the massive, afternoon rally James Dobson was conducting at Safeco Field. Dobson was rallying people together against the ills of homosexual marriage. Instead Bill spent the entire afternoon hanging with some homosexual friends and called his congregation to do the same. Bill contends, “We’re going to have far more transformational impact upon the gay community by doing life with them than we are by rallying together to talk about their vices and our virtues” (B. Clem, personal communication, 05 May 2004). That’s relevance lived out in presence.
Grand Rapids is a radically different culture than Seattle; but Mars Hill Bible Church, where I attend, also oozes a commitment to being countercultural. Rob Bell, the founding pastor and lead teaching pastor of Mars Hill, is anything but the CEO of the church. Though the church is housed in an old shopping mall, there is not much of the shopping mall, consumerist, marketing feel that remains in the building. For that matter, you may have a hard time even finding the church because there’s no sign out front. Sunday services are intended to be gathering times for house churches meeting throughout the week rather than a show for consumers.
Mars Hill is a place where the demands of the cross are made clear, and the emphasis is upon commitment, self-denial, and laying down our lives for Christ. Rob says, “The higher we try and raise the bar, the more people join us. The greater the emphasis we place on the fact that Jesus calls us to lay down our lives, the bigger the numbers” (Webber 2002, p. 144). That is not a very “culturally-relevant” message; yet people who attend Mars describe their craving for honesty. Church members know their questions will be met with honest answers and a belief in the mysterious, untamed, living, and breathing nature of the text.
One more snapshot of a church in the emergent movement that appears to be positioning themselves against culture rather than trying to be desperately relevant to culture is Ecclesia in Waco, Texas. Ecclesia is lead by Chris Seay, who describes his growing distaste in his university years for the ways Christianity seemed more reflective of Western ideas than of Jesus.
On the other hand, Seay sees cultural genres as a great way to get a glimpse into the heart and soul of people. He says, “In music and movies, you see all of these deep spiritual questions. And the people that are supposed to engage those questions have removed themselves. We pull away from culture to the point where we can no longer affect it. Somewhere right in the middle is a really healthy place, but it’s a difficult one to find.” Seay is another proponent of living in the radical middle in relationship to culture (Staub 2002).
The landscape of churches and ministries aligned with the so-called emergent movement in the United States is diverse and complex. A more complete analysis needs to include thick, qualitative research examining some of these ministries up close. In addition, research should include churches in other parts of the Western world, such as in the U.K., where similar movements exist.
Calling the Emergent Movement to Transform Culture
The Church of Christ will be well served if the emergent movement grows and matures in grappling with what it looks like to be relevantly countercultural. We must relentlessly hold in tension the idea of relevantly countering culture so that Christ might transform culture. The answer isn’t through an Amish-like approach to the world that keeps us from having the incarnational presence we’ve been called to have in our communities. Nor is the answer the continuation of our bathos immersion in American culture that Wolf (2003) observed in his review of American evangelicalism. Robert Webber (2004) suggests that forming a kingdom culture through the emergent church is most likely to happen by living in the radical middle between protesting culture on the one hand, and embracing it on the other (Webber personal conversation, 22 January 2004). Consider the two different sides of the “culture coin.”
Protest
The emergent church movement can most effectively embody Christ’s presence by standing as an antithetical reality to many of the 21st Century cultural norms. Central to 21st Century thought is the idea that we each create our own story lines amidst our random lives. The thinking goes something like this: “Life is chaotic and culminates in a painful nihilism. As a result, we must construct our own understandings of life and reality. There is no metanarrative that ties it all together.” No way! We must vehemently protest this kind of misunderstanding with great resolve. Though our understanding is always limited, there is a grand metanarrative and it’s God’ Story. God’s Story is about God, by God, and for God. He has a mission and he makes no apologies for it. We live in his world, a world destined by the Story he is sovereignly leading.
As we protest the notion that there is no grand metanarrative by living and telling God’ Story, we offer the world perspective, meaning, and purpose for life and existence. While life is full of pain and chaos, there is compelling hope that’s offered with an assured destiny. That’s a revolt against a major tenet in postmodern thought.
For this very reason, we must reclaim the discipline and relevance of theology. Theology is not some boring, esoteric line of thinking. Theology is the study and pursuit of God; it must provide the shape and form of emergent ministries. Many disagree. Erwin McManus of Mosaic is speaking for many in the emergent movement when he says, “Theology just doesn’t matter to us. We just want to love people and show them Jesus” (McManus, 2004). Theology has to matter. Like Tony Jones (2003) says to youth workers, “It’s great that some of us are into sociology and psychology and anthropology—these will all help us better understand our students. But we need to also be thinking about and doing theology. Let’s look at the Bible, the state of the world, and the church, and students; and then let’s try to discern what God’s up to (p. 49).”
Category: Ministry, Winter 2007
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