Reflection on Emerging Churches by Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger

Ch 1

Western church must study culture because of the incarnation. A big cultural difference between the United Kingdom and the United States. The United Kingdom has a club culture and virtually no Christian subculture. The lack of Christian subculture creates a high social cost for those who become decide to follow Christ. Because of this the church in the U.K. has had to contextualize much earlier than the United States. The U.S. church should pay attention to church developments in the United Kingdom because of this difference in culture. It could be a major learning tool in the area of training Christians as missionaries

Ch 2

The emerging church can be defined first by what it is not. It is not a generational church. It is not a church within a church. The emerging church carries a certain ethos and engagement with postmodern culture. It can be recognized by three core practices: identifying with Jesus, transforming secular space, and living as community. The practices of welcoming the stranger, serving with generosity, participating as producers, creating as created beings, leading as a body and merging ancient and contemporary spiritualities flow out of the three core practices. The emerging church identifies with postmodernism’s deconstruction aspect but holds to the one meta-narrative of the gospel. One of the questions to be asked is Can older movements remain true to their tradition if they change to an emerging church model?

Ch 3

The first of the 3 core practices is identifying with Jesus. The emerging church emphasizes the gospel as more than just personal salvation as they seek to identify with Jesus and his kingdom agenda. In this way emerging churches take on the mission of Jesus. This emphasis is informed by the writings of N.T. Wright, John Howard Yoder, David Bosch, and Leslie Newbiggin. For emerging churches the mission of Jesus is more important than a church worship service and the kingdom of God is the highest priority. There is the need to recontextualize the kingdom of God concept with language for this generation.

Ch 4

Transforming secular space means that there is no divide between secular and sacred. This is a reaction against modern culture’s dualism. Because of this emerging churches engage with culture not to be trendy but in order to do worship and mission as a way of life. The emerging churches do not divide life into separate compartments. Instead life is to be viewed holistically. As a result there are no separate holy buildings or music or art. Emerging churches will gather in cafes or lounges or clubs. They worship using songs and art that permeates their everyday lives. The whole of life becomes a gift to God.




Ch 5

Living as community is built on the foundation that secular space no longer exists. Community is not defined as meeting in a church building but more as identification with Christ and his followers. Emerging churches view church as the people of God and as a rhythym and not a routine. Some emerging churches do not have a scheduled meeting. Some of the challenges then become staying focused on Jesus and his kingdom and not just friendship. In a way it is the same challenge of other forms of church. Another challenge is to wrestle with the practicalities of future growth. One way to meet these challenges is for smaller groups to come together as church in city or region and making space in the smaller groups for each individual to participate.

Ch 6

The practice of welcoming the stranger is to practice inclusion. Modernity created order by excluding those who were different. In order to counter this the emerging churches offer acceptance and forgiveness on site. Hospitality also becomes a central practice as emerging churches welcome the stranger. Emerging churches welcome those from other faiths while staying true to historic Christianity. Being concerned about faking friendship and having an agenda is a primary for those in the emerging church. They would rather be open to the agenda of the Holy Spirit and not subscribe to canned presentations of faith.

Ch 7

Serving with generosity counters and confronts the consumer culture of exchange. This consumer culture of exchange has created the consumer church of modernity. The emerging church seeks to turn the consumer church on its head by serving others with a spirit of generosity. It is not just human activism or the social gospel of the 1920's. It is kingdom activity that must never be divorced from its roots and nourishment in the gospel. There is also an avoidance of programs. Serving is a way of life and many serve through their vocations rather than church administered program.

Ch 8

To participate as producers in the emerging church means to follow what John Howard Yoder has called “the rule of Paul.” This means that everyone in the gathering participates. Emering churches view church as an egalitarian kingdom of priests. This is the way forward in not catering to consumeristic demands. The leaders are there to faciliate and the only way to receive from the gathering is through participation. In order for this practice to be realized meeting need to be small. Full participation for every person becomes a challenge when the group gets larger.

Ch 9

The emerging church holds strongly to the practice of creating as created beings. The worship gatherings include more than just an orator and a band playing a narrow genre of music. It incorporates Djing, dance, writing, poetry, videography and many other creative expressions in order to fulfill the mandate to create in imitation and honor of the Creator God. This is one way the emerging church fights against the Mcdonaldization of society. The art is not ego driven but arises out of personhood and community identity. At the same time creating as created beings is a way to communicate spirituality publicly and offers those who are visitors in the gathering space to experience God.

Ch 10

Leading as a body means that there is no one leader. Emerging churches eschew hierarchy for a leadership that is more fluid and flexible. The leadership of emerging churches do not use modernity’s primary leadership tool: control. Leadership tools are non-coercive and there is more emphasis on consensus building. Some emerging churches even desire to have a leaderless group. While others have experimented with this concept they have had to change and morph because being leaderless gives rise to unspoken leaders which can be toxic to the group. Most emerging churches do not have staff because of the pragmatic reason that there is not enough money to support staff salaries.

Ch 11

Merging ancient and contemporary spiritualities give the emerging churches a unique blend of old and new. Many of the older forms are reshaped or reinterpreted for this generation. Many pray the fixed hours of prayer and participate in liturgy. A lot of the spirituality of emerging churches is based on Celtic spirituality. Emerging church spirituality also has roots in the Third Wave Charismatic movement and the practice of John Wimber (founder of the Vineyard Association of Churches) who invited the presence of the Holy Spirit as opposed to commanding a particular manifestation. Emerging churches also engage the culture with spirituality and invite others into experiencing God through connecting with aspects of contemporary culture.

Ch 12

Bolger and Gibbs book was difficult to write because it was a snapshot of a rapidly changing scenario. Emerging churches are changing and morphing and some are dying. They do represent a new form of church expression that is impacting the Western world. This book is composed of the emerging church leaders in their own words and is a record of what is going on within this movement.