EMERGING CHURCH: In Plain English!

Eric Zeller has a fine post on the "Emerging Church" over at the FoolishBlog; in my analysis of his post I've taken the liberty of highlighting the relevant, reconstruct the pertinent, and revise absolutely nothing ...

Ed Stetzer ... has written an article describing three broad categories within the movement known as "the emerging church" (EC). He writes:

I believe that some are taking the same Gospel in the historic form of church but seeking to make it understandable to emerging culture; some are taking the same Gospel but questioning and reconstructing much of the form of church; some are questioning and revising the Gospel and the church.

The article describes "Relevants," "Reconstructionists," and "Revisionists" within the emerging movement. The Relevants:

Really are just trying to make their worship, music and outreach more contextual to emerging culture. Ironically, while some may consider them liberal, they are often deeply committed to biblical preaching, male pastoral leadership and other values common in conservative evangelical churches.

They are simply trying to explain the message of Christ in a way their generation can understand. [...]

Revisionists, on the opposite extreme:

Are not [... .]

The Reconstructionists would fall somewhere between the two extremes. Stetzer writes seeking to help conservative Christians understand EC, and we would do well to read what he has to say. [... .]

The CRIB deliberately deleted essential elements of Eric's post because his work in bringing this article to our attention deserves a visit to FoolishBlog to read the rest of the story.

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HT: Best of the GodBlogs

TAGS: Christianity, Church growth, Ecclesiology,
Emergent church, Religion, Revisionists, Theology