Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures

by Ryan K. Bolger and Eddie Gibbs

Book Overview

The "emerging church" movement is perhaps the most significant church trend of our day. The emerging church offers and encourages a new way of doing and being the church. While it largely resonates with an eighteen-to-thirty-four-year-old audience--the first fully postmodern generation--it is also gaining popularity with older Christians and encompasses a broad array of traditional and contemporary churches. Emerging Churches explores this movement...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801027152
• ISBN13: 9780801027154
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Length: 346 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Finally some thoughtful analysis

Finding a good book to recommend on the emerging church can be more than a little challenging. Those written from inside the movement can be shockingly self congratulatory ("Generous Orthodoxy" anyone?) and external works can be shockingly overstated and curmudgeonly (yes, I'm afraid this not only applies to Carson, but he is the prototype). This text is a refreshing truce. Gibbs and Bolger (Fuller profs) have set out on a fruitful quest to systematize (or at least describe) the un-systematic...the distinctives of the movement that calls itself emerging (or something else but for which the label still fits). They interviewed a few dozen of the leading emerging pastors or leaders and made a legitimate effort to distill the speech into 9 centrally held values in the words of the movement's innovators. While never ignoring the diversity of the voices they somehow manage to get to believable core values and communicate them in a way that would make sense to those outside the movement. The authors are, without a doubt, sympathetic to most things emerging, but are not shrill apologists. Their cautious, steady and informed analysis gives this text a gravity that most others lack. I very much recommend it.

so far, the best of a dozen

I'm on a quest to understand the shape of the emerging church, & this book booted me forward a few spaces. Here's how: The authors spent some serious effort researching emerging churches in the UK & the US, and I trust their observations. So when they say, "these 3 things characterize virtually all emerging faith communities", I believe them. (They also note 6 other common characteristics / values / involvements of EC's.) The 1st person bios of several dozen emerging church leaders - comprising the 2nd part of the book - were pure gold. These stories did more to give me a sense of the ethos of emerging churches than anything I've read (or observed) so far. The authors had to, of course, narrow down their definition of an "emerging church" in order to do their research. But in my view, this skewed the characterization of the typical EC community toward the urban, artsy, techy scene. So much of what emerging churches are trying to do resonates with what I've been thinking, & feeling - even as a 40 something - for years. But I must also note that reading the bios (actually, the text too) helped me get a handle on my concerns as well - the main one being the way culture is honored over most everything else; sometimes, it seems that being true to one's subculture, being "real", is considered more noble & worthwhile (certainly more groovy) than forsaking all to follow Jesus. I'm grateful to the authors, & reccommend this book highly.

Excellent intro to emerging church topic!!!

This book is the result of a five year research project by the two authors whereby they attempt to describe/define emerging churches. The authors identify nine characteristics, or core practices as (1) identifying with Jesus (2) transforming secular space (3) living as community (4) welcoming the stranger (5) serving with generosity (6) participating as producers (7) creating as created beings (8) leading as a body and (9) merging ancient and contemporary spiritualities. List strengths of book. The authors illustrate the nine core practices by allowing practitioners, those that are doing the work, to give examples of how the practices are being lived out. Another strength is the book shows that the emerging movement is very diverse and is not centered on one person or organization. Lastly, the book concludes with over 100 pages of personal stories and examples of emerging leaders and the work they are doing. List weaknesses of book. First, the book may come off to some as being overly sympathetic to the emerging movement. Second, the research is limited to churches in the UK and the United States, while the emerging movement is a phenomenon that is much more far reaching.

Very good, with good depth

This is an excellent book. It's good that they included in their scope no only American emerging churches and leaders but also some from the UK. Whenever quoting references, the authors base their research and ideas in sound bibliography. I like the seriousness of the book that resembles an academic work, but is in fact quite accessible.

Distinctives of the Emerging Church

Gibbs and Bolger set out to present a series of qualities one may find in an emerging ministry. The reader looking for a critical evaluation of these qualities will be disappointed. While Gibbs and Bolger are clearly sympathetic to the emerging church and its task to embody the Gospel contextually, they are far more concerned with letting the 50 emerging leaders in their study speak for themselves. The time will come when critique of the emerging church will be warranted and needed, but Gibbs and Bolger have provided the necessary first step in defining the emerging church and giving its proponents and critics some handles. Many critics of the emerging church would benefit by reading this book before leveling any charges at emerging groups. More than anything, the reader has a chance to encounter the leading thinkers behind the emerging church, the theology and philosophy behind their practice, and their ultimate goals in contextual ministry. At the heart of the emerging church presented by Gibbs and Bolger is the missionary character that many such congregations embody. Instead of simply changing the format of meetings to include new trends and technology, the emerging church is deeply concerned with embodying the Gospel and taking the church to the streets. "Rather than extracting people from the world, the church should empower members to engage more effectively in the ministry and mission that God has already entrusted to them in the world. Members should serve the world through their vocations rather than through church-administered programs" (142). Though funding limited the project to research in the UK and USA, one is struck by the diversity of the emerging ministries. Some focus on club culture, others on urban monasticism, while others form loose networks in the suburbs. While identifying the major trends of the emerging church, Gibbs and Bolger are able to celebrate the diversity of this network. The identifying characteristics of the emerging churches in this study are as follows (and can be found in the table of contents): Identifying with Jesus Transforming Secular Space Living as Community Welcoming the Stranger Serving with Generosity Participating as Producers Creating as Created Beings Leading as a Body Merging Ancient and Contemporary Spiritualities An additional 100 pages of the book is allocated to the personal stories of each emerging leader interviewed for the book, as well as an explanation on research methodology. If anyone desires to grasp the heart of the emerging church, the stories of these individuals will go far in creating a vivid picture of what God is doing throughout the UK and the USA. Emerging Churches is clearly the premier resource for understanding the emerging church and its diverse community of congregations.