About Lesslie Newbigin

Lesslie Newbigin's writing plays a large role in helping me to understand the missional role of the church and about the emerging church movement.

The Missionary Who Wouldn't Retire Lesslie Newbigin, born 100 years ago today, launched a new career at age 66 by calling Western churches to act like they were in the mission field. By Krish Kandiah

When I speak with students around the world, I find them confident in their ability to present the gospel. They tell me that God loves me, that I have sinned, that Christ died for me, and that I need to believe in Jesus to get to heaven. Their confidence is reassuring, but their content is worrying. Doctoral students and seminarians often seem to have no deeper grasp of the gospel than do Sunday school children. The gospel they present has been reduced to a personalized product that offers the ultimate bargain—exchanging spiritual poverty for eternal riches. The problem with much of our evangelism is not what we include but what we omit: the Holy Spirit, the church, persecution, obedience, mission, reconciliation, resurrection, and new creation.

The gospel according to Newbigin challenges this thinking in two distinct ways. First, he calls us back to a gospel that brings personal reconciliation with God, but also a gospel that connects us with God's reconciling purposes in conscience, culture, church, creation, and cosmos. Second, he calls us back to a gospel that is more than a series of bullet points, a story that centers on the flesh-and-blood character of the divine Christ.

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My Top 5 Books on the Emerging Movement

Christianity Today, October, 2009

My Top 5 Books on the Emerging Movement

Scot McKnight, Professor of Religious Studies, North Park University | posted 10/06/2009 10:11AM

The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier By Tony Jones This intelligent and informative book is the only insider story from one of the leading lights of the more progressive wing of the emerging movement, the former national coordinator of Emergent Village.

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The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations By Dan Kimball Kimball, who gets credit for first using emerging in a book title to describe the movement, articulates the nitty-gritty of what goes on among these Christians, and does so from an evangelical basis.

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Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures By Eddie Gibbs and Ryan K. Bolger A richly documented survey of what emergent churches believe and practice, this book sketches emerging congregations around the globe.

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Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications By D. A. Carson Carson offers the first thorough critique of the movement; he demonstrates where some have wandered from biblical revelation and focuses on the postmodern threat to the biblical concept of truth.

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Why We're Not Emergent: (By Two Guys Who Should Be) By Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck This hard-hitting analysis of the liberal tendencies of some in the emerging movement is theologically informed, biblically alert, and pastorally concerned

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Rediscovering Christian Faith

Author and Pastor Brian McLaren discusses what he considers to be the most imperative global crises, how Christians are equipped to grapple with them, and how Christians can join with people of other backgrounds as advocates for change. Series: Walter H. Capps Center Series [7/2009] [Humanities]



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The Emerging Church Panel in Dallas

We hear much about the emerging church, but pinning down its beliefs and goals can be challenging. What is the movement emerging from and where is it headed? How influential is the emerging church? Participants, observers, and critics examine this movement from all angles — biblical, theological, pastoral, and missional. Christianity Today’s Mark Galli moderated this panel on March 21, 2009 for the Christian Book Expo in Dallas.

Panelists:
•Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet (Zondervan)
•Tony Jones, The New Christians (Jossey-Bass)
•Kevin DeYoung, Why We Are Not Emergent (Moody)
•Alex and Brett Harris, Do Hard Things (WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group)

Conversations on Emergent, Missional and Monastics

Len Hjalmarson wrote a informative article on Missional, Monastic, Emerging: A Traveler's Guide in the August 2008 issue of Next-Wave Ezine.

It’s helpful to characterize the four conversations as Sine did, with four streams denoted by emerging, missional, monastic and mosaic (Find Andrew Perrimann’s summary HERE). It’s even more interesting to observe the convergence of these energies, all birthed by the Holy Spirit. Each brings their own renewal dynamic to the broader church, and I’m convinced that the convergence zone is where some of the most creative experiments will occur. Convergence is evident in places like Life on the Vine, where monastic is meeting missional and emergent, or in kingdom initiatives like ALLELON, where a similar dynamic is at work...

After these observations I was left running a structural taxonomy in my head, so I created it in PaintShop. What this requires is some kind of consensus on essential characteristics of each stream...

Worthwhile to read the whole article.

New Wave: Ten Years of the Emerging Churches

As Next-Wave turns ten years old with its January 2009 issue, it provides a good opportunity to look back over the short history of the emerging church in North America. Next-Wave, after all, is the publication most closely associated with the emerging church conversation and many of the movement’s most prominent leaders have contributed articles to the online journal over the years.

Ten Years Out: A Retrospective on the Emerging Church in North America
By Stephen Shields










Brian McLaren – Named by Time Magazine as one of The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America and often considered the father of the emerging church, Brian’s books A New Kind of Christian and Generous Orthodoxy are considered by many to be two of the most important books published within the conversation.

Jordon Cooper – Canada’s Jordon Cooper is an influential emerging church blogger. Jordoncooper.com, which Jordon began in 2001, was an important early clearinghouse of emerging church information.


Tony Jones – Tony, the author of The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier, until very recently was National Coordinator of Emergent Village and has been engaged in emerging church conversation since the famous Dallas Pappasito’s Cantina meeting in August of 1998.

Scot McKnight – Scot, an author who serves as the Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University in Chicago, is a prolific blogger who has been participating in the emerging church conversation for many years. Scot also serves on the Creative Team of The Origins Project.

Andrew Jones – Andrew is a New Zealander pastor and missionary who currently lives in the United Kingdom and serves as Director of the Boaz Project. An A-list ec blogger, Andrew was an early leader in Emergent Village and spent several years ministering in the United States.

Dan Kimball – Dan, who serves Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, California as their Pastor of Mission and Teaching, wrote The Emerging Church. Dan’s also one of the founders of The Origins Project.

A Retrospective on the Emerging Church in North America Pt. 1
By Interviews by Stephen Shields

A Retrospective on the Emerging Church in North America Pt. 2
By Interviews by Stephen Shields

The Origins Project

There is so much we have yet to determine*, but this will be a community of:

	- Friends, pioneers, innovators and catalysts who want to dream and work for the Gospel together rather than alone.
	- Leaders, entrepreneurs, pastors, misfits, and artists who share a high view of Scripture and a radical commitment to evangelism while being faithfully committed to what is expressed in the Lausanne Covenant.
	- Missionally-minded people from different backgrounds who use different methods in different cultural contexts but share the same experimental passion and risk-taking heart for serving, loving, and helping people connect to God through Jesus.

If you are interested in joining this new community and getting updates as it develops, sign up here.

On the mission of Jesus together:

Dan Kimball and Josh Fox - Vintage Faith Church, Santa Cruz, CA Dave Gibbons and John Park – Newsong Church, Irvine, CA Erwin McManus and Eric Bryant – Mosaic, Los Angeles, CA

Creative Team:

Mark Batterson, National Community Church, Washington, D.C. Margaret Feinberg, Author and Speaker, Denver, CO Naeem Fazal, Mosaic Church, Charlotte, NC Rick McKinley - Imago Dei, Portland, OR Scot McKnight, North Park University, Chicago, IL Skye Jethani - Christianity Today International

Alan Hirsch on Defining Missional

Evangelism

Defining Missional
The word is everywhere, but where did it come from and what does it really mean?
Alan Hirsch posted 12/12/2008


It has become increasingly difficult to open a ministry book or attend a church conference and not be accosted by the word missional. A quick search on Google uncovers the presence of "missional communities," "missional leaders," "missional worship," even "missional seating," and "missional coffee." Today, everyone wants to be missional. Can you think of a single pastor who is proudly anti-missional?

But as church leaders continue to pile onto the missional bandwagon, the true meaning of the word may be getting buried under a pile of assumptions. Is it simply updated nomenclature for being purpose-driven or seeker-sensitive? Is missional a new, more mature strain of the emerging church movement?

It's time to pause and consider the origin and meaning of the word that is reframing our understanding of ministry and the church. This tree diagrams the roots of the word missional and how its reach has expanded into different areas of ministry. Alan Hirsch, a self-described "missional activist," also provides a concise definition of the ubiquitous term.

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Missional Misgivings

from Christianity Today

Missional Misgivings
Small, indigenous churches are getting lots of attention, but where's the fruit?
Dan Kimball posted 11/26/2008 11:51AM

I hope I am wrong. For the past few years, I have been observing, listening, and asking questions about the missional movement. I have a suspicion that the missional model has not yet proven itself beyond the level of theory. Again, I hope I am wrong.

We all agree with the theory of being a community of God that defines and organizes itself around the purpose of being an agent of God's mission in the world. But the missional conversation often goes a step further by dismissing the "attractional" model of church as ineffective. Some say that creating better programs, preaching, and worship services so people "come to us" isn't going to cut it anymore. But here's my dilemma—I see no evidence to verify this claim.

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Dan Kimball raised some hard questions about the missional churches
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Scot McKnight-Missional Communities

The Emergence of Emergent

The Emergent movement has stirred passions as a new way of doing church or yet another attempt to wipe the slate clean and start new. But the movement isn't really a movement, not yet, say its supporters. It's still a conversation, one that's taking place in books, articles, and weblogs. Christianity Today and its sister publications participated in the conversation with book reviews and articles. Whether you're a newcomer to the discussion or looking to dive deep, there's plenty of conversation fodder here.

Everything Hasn't Changed

An apocalyptic Brian McLaren strives to reframe Jesus and discipleship.Review by John Wilson, editor of Books & Culture January 16, 2008

Rethinking Church in an Emergent Salon

Rising from the Ashes asks emergent leaders about the impact of alternative worship on the mainline church.Review by Howard A. Snyder January 9, 2008

Technology and the Gospel

Phyllis Tickle, Brian McLaren, and others weigh in on worship and evangelism in a plugged-in age.by Becky Garrison, excerpted from Rising from the Ashes: Rethinking Church January 9, 2008

Five Streams of the Emerging Church

Key elements of the most controversial and misunderstood movement in the church today.By Scot McKnight January 19, 2007

Emerging Confusion

Jesus is the truth whether we experience him or not.By Charles Colson with Anne Morse June 1, 2006

Emergent Evangelism

The place of absolute truths in a postmodern world—two views.By Brian McLaren and Duane Litfin November 1, 2004

The Emergent Mystique

The 'emerging church' movement has generated a lot of excitement but only a handful of congregations. Is it the wave of the future or a passing fancy?By Andy Crouch November 1, 2004

Theologian Stan Grenz Dies

Leading advocate of emergent movement mourned.By Ken Walker May 1, 2005

Christianity Today Reviews A New Kind of Christian and the Sequel

The Virtue of Unoriginality

The old kind of Christian is the best hope for church renewal.By Mark Galli posted 04/04/2002

The Postmodern Moment

Are Christians prepared for ministry after modernism's failure?By Glenn T. Stanton posted 06/18/2002

A Story Darwin Might Love

Brian McLaren's evolutionary interpretation of the faith promises more than it delivers, but what it delivers is good enough.By Mark Galli posted 04/14/2003

A Newer Kind of Christian

Brian McLaren's sequel to A New Kind of Christian touches other tenets of faith.Reviewed by Cindy Crosby posted 03/26/2003

Books & Culture and the Book that Started It All

Faithfully Dangerous

Christians in postmodern times .By Brian D. McLaren May/June 2002

Post-Evangelicalism

Last in a series of responses to Brian McLaren's book, A New Kind of Christian.Tony Jones May/June 2002

Reformed or Deformed?

Questions for postmodern ChristiansBy Mark Dever March/April 2002

Let's Get Personal

Yes, the church needs to get past modernity's impersonal techniques. But adding the prefix post doesn't solve anything. By Andy Crouch January/February 2002

Leadership's Emergent Wrestling

My Emergent Guilt

How did I get here, dancing off-beat, and out of touch?By Ron Benson

Has the Emergent Church Emerged?

When newspapers pick up on a religion story, there's a good chance it's old hat to insiders. So now that the Denver Post and the Press-Enterprise of inland Southern California have written stories on emergent churches, are they really still emerging?By Rob Moll

Nomo Pomo—a Postmodern Rant

Why we can and should talk about something else.By Kevin Miller

Pomo Ponderings

10 Questions about Postmodern Ministry. By Kevin Miller

Is Pomo Nomo?

A postmodern pastor reaches out to the Mod Squad.By Chris Seay

How to Evangelize Today

Reaching people who think negatively about Christianity.An interview with Brian McLaren.

Brian McLaren Says

Passionate, but Not for Mel's Movie

Why The Passion 'outreach' was all hype, and I didn't fall for it.By Brian McLaren

Bless This House?

Why efforts to renew the church are often misguided.By Brian McLaren

It's All About Who, Jesus?

If worship is for God, why are so many songs about us?By Brian McLaren

Emerging Values

The next generation is redefining spiritual formation, community, and mission.By Brian McLaren

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The Ironic Faith of Emergents

Christianity Today, September, 2008

The Ironic Faith of Emergents
McLaren shows us not only where 'post-evangelicals' are going, but also how they get there.
Scot McKnight posted 9/26/2008 11:11AM

The experience of "ironic faith" is pervasive—though rarely noticed—in the work of McLaren and other emergents. The irony is that they have deconstructed the very thing they were most committed to, and are left with what many call post-evangelicalism.

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Brian McLaren's Emergent Theology

Finally this article appear online. See my earlier post on this.


McLaren Emerging
In his last two books, Brian McLaren presents more clearly than ever his vision of the gospel.
Scot McKnight posted 9/26/2008 11:09AM

I maintain a crucial distinction between two related streams: emergent and the broader emerging movement. Emergent is crystallized in Emergent Village and its leaders Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, and Doug Pagitt. Emerging is a mix of orthodox, missional, evangelical, church-centered, and social justice leaders and lay folk. When I think of this broader emerging movement, I think of Dan Kimball at Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, Dave Dunbar at Biblical Seminary in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch and their book The Shaping of Things to Come, and Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz. Some of this was anticipated by Lesslie Newbigin's many writings and is now sketched in Tom Sine's The New Conspirators. Furthermore, I see emerging trends in megachurches like Willow Creek Community Church and Saddleback Church.

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The Dream of a Perfect Church-Emerging Church

The Emerging Church is Dead

According to this post from Out of Ur, R.I.P. Emerging Church, the emerging church is dead. The term 'emerging church' that is, not the actual movement which seems very much alive. Apparently Dan Kimball and Andrew Jones aka. Tall Skinny Kiwi has found the term 'emerging church' so 'polluted' that they have decided not to use the term anymore. Imagine that. Are we in the post emerging church era?

Meanwhile back in the United States, the emerging church movement can be broadly divided into two categories according to an article by Scot McKnight on Brian McLaren's Emerging Theology published in Christianity Today magazine, September 2008 p.58-66, which strangely did not appear on its online form. Sorry readers, you have to get a hardcopy of the magazine to read that.[update: article now availble here] Acccording to McKnight, one category is the Emergent Village (EV) of which Brian Mclaren is the leader with his distinctive brand of theology and the rest belongs to the other category.

Some leaders in the other category are planning to start an alliance that has a theology closer to the Lausanne Covenant. This promises to be fun. We shall be see more of Mclaren and McKnight (I wonder why both have a dropped 'a' in their surname) in the coming years.

In the meantime, listen to Doug Pagit explaining these terms 'emergent' and 'emerging' to you.