Tony Jones » emergent church

What Does Phyllis Tickle Think about Emergence Now?

Tony Jones — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:23:53 +0000

The Faith & Leadership project of Duke Divinity School has posted a video and transcript of an interview with Phyllis in which she talks about her latest thinking on Emergence and the role of denominations in the future.

Q: What will mainline denominations need to do to survive and thrive?

PT: If one were going to put one adjective to the Great Emergence, and thereby one adjective to emergence Christianity, one would say “deinstitutionalized.”I’m Episcopalian, and I hear with the same sorrow as my fellow Anglicans that we’re shutting parishes every month now in the United States in the Episcopal Church. That’s alarming.It’s not just that Christianity is changing. It’s the whole culture. Have you looked lately at the number of Rotary Clubs that aren’t anymore or the number of Kiwanis Clubs that aren’t anymore? American Legion? VFWs?Institutionalization is being leveled. One of the characteristics of emergence thinking is there’s a flattening out.

via Phyllis Tickle: Like an anthill | Faith & Leadership.

Jana Riess Asks, “Can a Mormon Be an Emergent Christian?”

Tony Jones — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:46:52 +0000

Jana Riess

I’ll admit, I don’t know many Mormons. In fact, Jana is one of the few that I know. I like her and consider her a good friend.

One of the things that I like most about her is that she always keeps her good-natured smile when answering one of my questions about Mormonism, questions that are usually laced with incredulity. For all of my (supposed) openness, I don’t tend to be that open or understanding of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. To me, it seems secretive and odd, and its founder, Joseph Smith, Jr., smacks to me of a half-crazed charlatan.

Jana, however, is neither half-crazed nor a charlatan. She’s thoughtful and literate, and she’s an adult convert to LDS, so she went in with her eyes open.

Thus, when she talks about Mormonism, I listen.

For years, people have asked me the hypothetical question, “If emergent is so open, would you allow Mormons in?” And I have answered, “That’s a silly question because I cannot imagine that Mormons would have any interest in emergent.”

Well, Jana has declared herself the first (and only?) eMORgent, a hyphenated Mormon-emergent, and she explains why in the post linked below:

What does Emergent offer to me as a committed Latter-day Saint?

At its best, the Emergent ideal can enliven burned-out people and put some new wine in tired wineskins. Emergent does this by balancing focus on Christ–Christ as savior, Christ as Lord–with a focus on Jesus.

(via “Emorgent”: Can a Mormon Be an Emergent Christian? – Flunking Sainthood)

Jana goes on to note at least one fork in the road for Mormons. She writes about attending a talk during which Rob Bell emphatically stated that Jesus did not come to found a church (or, I think, we could substitute, a religion). Jana says that Mormons believe that, to the contrary, Jesus did come to found a church, and that is the Church of LDS.

I would also ask more pointed theological questions of Jana and any other eMORgents out there:

What do you do with the emergent focus on the relational/social doctrine of the Trinity?
What of the obvious challenges of jibing the emergent community’s consensus of the normativity of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures with the Book of Mormon?
And what about possibly the most significant trait of emergent, and that is egalitarian leadership and non-hierarchical structures?

I’m not saying that any of these questions cannot possibly be answered, just that they loom large in a potential dialogue between Mormon and emergents.

In any case, I am enormously grateful to Jana for opening this can of worms, and I’ll be very interested to follow the comments on her blog and mine on this issue.

Are You a “Hipster Christian”?

Tony Jones — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:51:00 +0000

Well, supposedly I am, being that Brett McCracken devotes chapter seven, in the heart of his book, Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide to the emerging church movement. “The emerging church,” we are told by McCracken, “undergirds much of what hipster Christianity is all about these days.” And, cribbing a quote from my chapter in An Emergent Manifesto of Hope about the ECM being “pluriform and multivocal,” McCracken responds with this devastating critique: “I mean, how hip is that?”

I’m not the first to think that McCracken’s analysis is suspect and grasp of history is delinquent. John Wilson of Books & Culture wrote a brief but withering essay criticizing McCracken’s thesis. In response to a Wall Street Journal op-ed penned by McCracken, in which the author hamfistedly uses books by Lauren Winner and Rob Bell to point up evangelicals’ obsession with sex, Wilson writes,

Wait, wait. We’re talking about books … that prove what? Every workday, new books written by evangelicals (or writers with a strong affinity for evangelicals, whether or not they self-identify as such) appear on my desk. These books take up an enormous range of subjects. A few of them, yes, are about sex. And this is supposed to be evidence for some striking trend? (I wonder whatever happened to my copy of Total Woman.) By the way, why are these two books in particular said to be representative of the frantic, ill-conceived “plan” to keep young people in the fold? As I read them, Bell’s and Winner’s books are both deeply informed by Scripture and grounded in the life of the church.

I’m with Wilson. If McCracken wants to pick on evangelicals using sex to sell books and fill the pews, point to Ed Young, Jr. with a bed on the stage, preaching to his congregation the benefits of having sex every day for a month. Winner and Bell, in contrast, thoughtfully write about sex from a biblically literate and generally evangelical perspective.

What I’d like to ask McCracken is, what’s the better option? For Christian leaders not to write books about sex? For preachers not to preach about sex?

In fact, McCracken admitted yesterday on Doug Pagitt Radio (part one, part two (the audio is not working right — check back on Doug’s site for a fix) UPDATE: hear the interview HERE) that he wished he wouldn’t have used those two examples in the WSJ piece. But, even without the hamfisted use of Winner and Bell, the question remains, What cultural expression would McCracken have us use to communicate the gospel?

That’s what McCracken seemed unable to do yesterday on the radio, and that’s to propose an alternative. See, the deal is that everything is hermeneutics — that’s all there is. We communicate the gospel in our own cultural idioms. It’s the only way we can. McCracken says that the culture of urban hispters is not appropriate for the gospel, for it smacks too much of desperate marketing tactics. Instead, McCracken says that our communication of the gospel should be “real” and “authentic.” (That’s funny, I remember a book from a decade ago that argued that youth ministry should shift “from relevant to real” for the sake of the gospel.)

But what, I ask, is “real” and “authentic”? To what cultural expressions should the gospel be linked? Is English good enough for the gospel, or should we revert to Greek and Hebrew? (I wonder, does Brett know Greek and Hebrew?)

Well, alas, the Grand Rapids-Carol Stream cabal ensures that McCracken will get his 15 minutes. He was, as I said, featured in the Wall Street Journal, an op-ed that has been “liked” on Facebook over 22,000 times (I mean, how hip is that?) And he wrote the cover article for next month’s Christianity Today. His book will sell more than any of mine, so maybe this is all sour grapes.

And this coming from me, a single dad who lives in the suburbs, drives a car with 85,000 miles on it, struggles to pay the rent, and occasionally puts on a tan shirt covered with patches to lead 10-year-old boys in the Pledge of Allegiance at Cub Scout den meetings.

I mean, how hip is that?

An Authoritative Bibliography on Emergent Christiantity by Phyllis Tickle

Tony Jones — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:03:44 +0000

Phyllis Tickle

At ExploreFaith, Phyllis has put together a thorough list of the most interesting and helpful books for understanding the current emergence of Protestantism in the West. (I’m happy to report that two of my books made the cut.)

See it HERE.

Pastorboy Embarrasses Minnesota (Again)

Tony Jones — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:55:53 +0000

photo by David Joles, Star Tribune

My long-time nemesis, John “Pastorboy” Chisham, made the news here in the north land for out-assholing free-Bible-guy Brian Johnson at Twin Cities Pride last weekend.

Chisham and I used to be able to chat personably and agree-to-disagree, as you can see in the video below. He had garnered a reputation as a tough-but-fair member of the “online discernmentalist mafia.” He is also a clergyperson in good standing in the Christian and Missionary Alliance, a denomination that I think would be embarrassed by his antics.

But as time has elapsed, Chisham has spun out of control. He’s written things online that are patently untrue and he’s crossed the line from civil public disagreement to offensive personal attacks. His weekend stunt at Pride was only his most recent attempt to garner attention. Last fall, he put out an online call for like-minded preachers to join him outside of the JoPa event, Christianity21 — at which 21 women preachers were highlighted — to proclaim 21 alternative sermons. Not one person joined him. Instead, he stood behind a shrub and recited Bible verses, and, as far as I could tell, not one participant at Christianity21 even knew he was there.

I realize that bringing attention to him here is a double-edged sword. Like kicking an hornets’ nest, I imagine that he will temporarily increase his attacks on me now. So be it.

Because the moral of the story comes at the end of this paragraph in the StarTribune story:

Another protester at Saturday’s event, John Chisham of Marshall, Minn., attracted far more attention than the Johnsons as he stood on a box with a sign that read “You are an abomination to God, You justify the wicked,” preaching to a jeering crowd. Chisham attracted shouts of disapproval and arguments from passersby. Eventually, Pride attendees stood in front of him with signs that read, “Standing on the Side of Love.”

Yes, that seems like the best possible response.

God Is Not Emergent

Tony Jones — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:36:22 +0000

I had the unhappy experience of listening to yet another online conversation yesterday in which two erstwhile and, I would have assumed, friends of emergent went to great lengths to distance themselves from emergent, taking pains to say that they are not affiliated with “the capital ‘E’ emergent brand.” Meanwhile, on the Huffington Post, Phil Shepherd says,

In the years of unpacking my faith journey, I found that I was not alone in this conversation. In fact, that there were others all around the world who were going through the same type of deconstruction that I was! The emergent conversation (not labeled with this title until some years later) was a life raft for many of us.

Well, whatever emergent Christianity is — dead or alive, a marketing brand or a conversation — God is not it.

Emergent is, and has been, the banner under which some of us have gathered as we’ve searched for a new way to go about living faithfully. It’s a way that involves intellectual challenge, the pursuit of ancient spiritual disciplines, the formation of new faith communities, the revitalization of conventional churches, and, most significantly, friendships.

But each of these characteristics is obviously human. The emergent way of Christianity is just as humanly constructed, finite, and open to deconstruction as any other way of faith. And this is the very thing that God is not. God is not deconstructible. God shows no favoritism to emergents.

N.B., This post is part of a series exploring apophatic statements about God.

Dissertation Table of Contents

Tony Jones — Mon, 03 May 2010 21:15:53 +0000

Here it is so far. You can tell how far I’ve gotten when the chapter subheads start to drop off…

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

TABLES

ABBREVIATIONS

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

CHAPTER ONE: THE EMERGING CHURCH MOVEMENT AND THE PROJECT OF PRACTICAL THEOLOGY

Introduction

The “Emerging Church Movement” – A Working Definition

Literature Review

The Emerging Church Movement as a New Social Movement

An Osmerian Approach to Practical Theology

The Promise of Transversal Rationality for the ECM

CHAPTER TWO: AN INSIDE LOOK AT EIGHT EMERGING CHURCHES

The Changes in American Protestantism Leading to the ECM

Developments in the 1990s—Three Phases of the ECM

Empirical Research Method

Cedar Ridge Community Church, Spencerville, Maryland

Solomon’s Porch, Minneapolis, Minnesota

House of Mercy, St. Paul, Minnesota

Journey, Dallas, Texas

Pathways Church, Denver, Colorado

Church of the Apostles, Seattle, Washington

Jacob’s Well, Kansas City, Missouri

Vintage Faith Church, Santa Cruz, California

CHAPTER THREE: CORE PRACTICES OF THE EMERGING CHURCH MOVEMENT

Alasdair MacIntyre, Jeffrey Stout, Pierre Bourdieu, and the Concept of “Practice”

CHAPTER FOUR: THE RELATIONAL ECCLESIOLOGY OF JÜRGEN MOLTMANN IN CONVERSATION WITH THE EMERGING CHURCH MOVEMENT

CHAPTER FIVE: PRAGMATIC SUGGESTIONS FOR THE ECCLESIOLOGY OF THE EMERGING CHURCH MOVEMENT

APPENDIX A: FOCUS GROUP AND INTERVIEW LINES OF QUESTIONING

Focus Group Line of Questioning

Line of Questioning: Founding Pastor Interview

Line of Questioning: Layperson Interview

APPENDIX B: CHURCH CENSUS SURVEY

APPENDIX C: Empirical Data

APPENDIX D: An Excursus on Modes of Cross-Disciplinary Thinking in Practical Theology

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Emergent’s Charism

Tony Jones — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 13:51:52 +0000

Earlier this week I asked what you, dear reader, considered to be the charism of the emerging church movement. Only a couple of you took the time to respond, so maybe the bulk of you don’t think that the ECM really has offered anything. Regardless, I think that TransFORM: East, which launches today, is a great occasion to think a bit about what the ECM has offered, and has to offer.

First, the past.

Surely, the ECM didn’t come out of nowhere. In some ways, we may have felt, and even communicated, that we were stumbling onto something that had never been experienced before in the history of the faith. But of course, that wasn’t true. I’ll use my recollections of the Emergent Convention in San Diego in 2003 by way of example — that was the first of three years that Emergent Village and Youth Specialties teamed up to convene a large event tangential to the National Pastors convention.

Jim Wallis addressed the 1,100 or so of us there about the biblical imperatives of fighting for social justice. Truth be told, I’d never heard of Jim, and neither had many in the room. But he’d been toiling away in justice ministry for three decades before he stood in front of us. But he found a receptive audience for his message.

Tony Campolo, speaking primarily down the hall at the NPC, did not fare so well, however. He was asked to come into the EC and give us a 5-minute challenge, and he did. But the challenge was primarily his usual message to complacent evangelical college students, and it really missed the mark. He didn’t know that we were already on his side — we had already been shaken out of our complacency.

In other words, we were among those who were bringing talk of social/biblical justice into the mainstream of the evangelical church. And we were bringing other things to the fore that now seem like second nature. Chris Seay was adamant that the church should once again patronize the arts, and he both spoke repeatedly about that and even turned his church in Houston into a living art space. Holly Rankin Zaher and I argued that youth ministry as a segregated, ghettoized niche in the church needed to be blown up and reconceived. Mark Scandrette stood on stage and made a holy fool of himself. And lots of other very cool stuff happened.

In other words, we were a part of something that was burgeoning. Long before Q and Catalyst, the ECM was pioneering new ways of gathering, of encouraging artists and songwriters to be creative and daring, and of rediscovering ancient spiritual disciplines. We weren’t the only ones doing this, but we were in that mix. And long before Jim Wallis published a bestseller, we were interested in being both faithfully and orthodoxly (?) Christian and fighting for justice in the world.

But that was then. What now?

Many of those aforementioned elements are now part and parcel of American Protestantism, both evangelical and mainline. It’s no longer much of a challenge to the church to argue for justice concerns or to welcome artists. But what is challenging, and what I do see as a hopeful next chapter for the ECM (or whatever the hell it’s called for the next decade) is what’s happening at TransFORM: East. The ECM has always primarily been about mission. Brian McLaren, for instance, is really an evangelist — that’s his charism. And all those early critiques of conventional church were really a challenge to a church that had lost its mission. Indeed, even my more recent prophecies regarding the downfall of denominationalism are rooted in my belief that denominations mitigate rather than cultivate the missionality of local congregations.

It’s why all of us were reading Newbigin and Bosch ten years ago (and, admittedly, we should reread today). It’s why we thought that we should get the theology right — the gospel right.

And now, at TranFORM, and elsewhere, there is a renewed and concerted effort to plant and cultivate churches — or, in the lingo of TransFORM, the “formation of missional communities.”

Personally, I’ll be thrilled if this is the next chapter of the movement. I send my best wished to everyone gathering at TransFORM: East. I’m with you in spirit, and I’ll be watching!

A Chat with Philip Clayton

Tony Jones — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:52:00 +0000

One of the great joys of the last year of my life has been forging a wonderful friendship with Philip Clayton. When we were at Columbia Seminary in January, we were invited by Jeff Straka to talk to the robust Atlanta Cohort of the emergence movement. Dan Ra video recorded it, and the Nick & Josh Podcast is releasing it bit-by-bit. Here’s part one:

Philip Clayton and Tony Jones, Atlanta 2010 (Part 1) from Nick Fiedler on Vimeo.

Dan Ra (nextgenerasianchurch.com) was at the Atlanta Cohort filming when Philip Clayton and Tony Jones came to host a conversation.

This is Part 1 of that discussion.

What Is Emergent’s Charism to the Church?

Tony Jones — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 11:54:20 +0000

Yesterday, I posted about the Lifecycle(s) of Emergence(s), on the same day that two important items were posted online:

The full roster of speakers at TransFORM East (which looks absolutely amazing and makes me wish I could attend), and
The announcement that Gareth Higgins has been appointed the director of the Wild Goose Festival, slated for June, 2011 (which I will be attending).

Let those serve as Exhibits T & U in the emergent-is-not-dead trial.

That being said, let’s start a meme in advance of these two events about what the emergent/-ing church has to offer the broader church. Specifically, I wonder what you think is emergent’s charism?

I’ll weigh in this week, but I wonder what I’m missing, so I’d like to hear from some of you first. If you’re so moved to write an entire post rather than just a comment, please leave a link in the comment section here.

And thanks!