Saturday, January 28, 2006

emerging churches

Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger in their book Emerging Churches, define the term this way:
Emerging churches are communities that practice the way of Jesus in postmodern cultures.
They go on to identify 9 practices of emerging churches:
1) They identify with the life of Jesus.
2) They transform the secular realm.
3) They live highly communal lives.
And because of these they:
4) Welcome the stranger.
5) Serve with generosity.
6) Participate as producers.
7) Create as created beings.
8) Lead as a body.
9) Take part in spiritual activities.
What really gets me is why the emerging church thing is such an issue. What Gibbs and Bolger describe here is christianity 100. This is so basic. This is A-B-C type stuff. If this is controversial in some people's eyes - then God's church is in big BIG trouble.
this is

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

God's church has always been in trouble - Thank God it is His to lead...we make a mess of it when we think we can lead it!