For several years I have been reading about the "emerging church". Many religious leaders have been writing about it from across the entire christian spectrum and I have read many of their books and articles. It's a topic that I seldom see discussed on most religion-related websites however - including Catholic sites. It seems almost like a hidden movement. But it might be worthwhile for those in the "conventional" churches to read some of the ideas expressed by those leading the emerging church movement. Wholesale adoption of the ideas by the more conventional is unlikely, but it could open minds to new ways of seeing - of thinking.
There is much talk about evangelization in the christian church world these days - rising anxiety about the continued loss of members, especially the dramatic rise in young adult "nones" since 2000.. Many different programs are tried, but the losses continue to mount. I looked at the Alpha videos for young adults, Perhaps some millennials will be attracted to church by them, but not those I know personally and well - my youngest son and most of his friends. And if you look at the numbers in the Church of England, where Alpha has been offered for 30 years now, it seems that Alpha is not a magic wand either. I believe that the latest survey in England said that affiliation with the church by millennials has hit an all-time low - 2%.
As Katherine noted recently, one problem with all of these programs is that they tend to a one-size-fits-all format. But, obviously, everyone is different, and not everyone will be drawn in by any particular program. It seems too that Christianity is in the midst of a sea-change of some magnitude.
Those writing about the emerging church seem to grasp this better than those still thinking in terms of the conventional christian religious framework of the last few hundred years.
Richard Rohr occasionally focuses his daily emails on this subject.
Here are some of his thoughts on the emerging church.
http://firstchurchburlington.usmblogs.com/files/2018/01/NOOHRA.Meditations-on-the-Emerging-Church.pdf
Comments anyone?
The website to subscribe to Rohr's daily emails is:
https://cac.org/
When I first saw the title The Emerging Church, I pictured something like the Church in the Amazon, or Africa. Or in China where it is walking the razor thin line between being tolerated and being persecuted. Also synodality, and tensions such that between the Vatican and the German bishops.
ReplyDeleteIn the Richard Rohr article, he uses the image of a rummage sale. I thought that was an apt analogy, figuring out what was needed, and what we needed to let go of. We are already seeing some "Communities in the Catholic tradition", Catholic-ish, but independent. I think these groups are picking up some of the people that can't square the circle in the institutional church; the LGTB's, and the ones in relationships not blessed in the church. Honestly, I would rather see them find a community to worship with and be supported by, than to be marginalized.
I'm like Hermann Goering was with the word "culture." When I hear the word "emerging," I reach for my Luger. Donald J. Thorman had a religious best-seller with a book called "The Emerging Layman," which was about #58 on a list of possible titles.
ReplyDeleteBut that was in 1965. Thorman has gone to the Great Beyond, and we are still waiting for the laymen (and women, it must be added) to emerge. Rohr writes, "I believe that what some refer to as the 'emerging church' is a movement of the Holy Spirit." That's what a lot of us believed about what Thorman wrote. In 1965, as I say.
The Roman Catholic Church is always holding more baggage than Grand Central Station, and it has been worse than usual in the past 40 years or so. Pope St. John "opened the windows" to let the Spirit in, and Pope St. John Paul opened all the doors to lug back what the Spirit blew out. We can all agree on that. Picking and choosing what to keep and what to throw out is a simple formula for syncretism (I have always wanted to write that word), but if you try it on a massive scale you end up arguing about every little thing. The Holy Spirit will send real leaders to sort it out; she always has. And she has never relied on do-it-yourself coalitions of the willing. And excuse me if I ask if anything good can come out of Albuquerque, other than the immortal poem:
Everyone in Albuquerque
Really likes Thanksgiving turque.
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Delete"1. Jesus is a model for living more than an object of worship.
ReplyDelete2. Affirming people’s potential is more important than reminding them of their brokenness.
3. The work of reconciliation should be valued over making judgments.
4. Gracious behavior is more important than right belief.
5. Inviting questions is more valuable than supplying answers.
6. Encouraging the personal search is more important than group uniformity.
7. Meeting actual needs is more important than maintaining institutions.
8. Peacemaking is more important than power.
9. We should care more about love and less about sex.
10.Life in this world is more important than the afterlife (eternity is God’s work anyway)."
A few of these are wise, and a few of them, I have some issues with. On the whole, I'm not ready to consign traditional discipleship to the dustbin of history.
Jim, where did you find the ten points? I didn't see them in the Rohr piece. Yes, some of them I could be on board with, and some not so much.
DeleteHi Katherine, they were on p. 5 of the document, in the November 30, 2017 reflection
DeleteAnne, I'm grateful for this post. I've heard the term "emerging church" before, but didn't really know anything about it before.
Thanks Jim. I didn't see that it was more than one page. Should have read more carefully!
DeleteI'd go along with 4, 5, and 9. I have no opinion about 10, as I am dubious about an Afterlife. The rest I'd say requires a balance of both things mentioned, though I think those items do represent areas where the Church can be out of whack.
DeleteAlso: When did become judgments become some type of problem, per #3? Maybe we're confusing with self-righteousness?
Jim: A few of these are wise, and a few of them, I have some issues with
DeleteCould you be more specific?
Anne - 3, 7, 8 and 9, I think are fine. A couple of them (1, 4, 5) seem to set up false dichotomies. I flat-out don't accept 10. 2 sounds like it's from the Church Of I'm Ok You're Ok.
DeleteI haven't commented about #6, which states, "Encouraging the personal search is more important than group uniformity." I'm not entirely sure what to make of that one. I respect those who are searching, but I don't think I accept that the journey itself is ultimately more important than the life of discipleship once one reaches the destination - which means, here on earth, at least to my mind, discipleship in the midst of a faith community. I am sympathetic to those who haven't yet found such a home. And I reject what may be implied, that being a member of a faith community entails uniformity. I may be Exhibit A that belonging to a faith community doesn't make one uniform with everyone else.
DeleteI agree with Jim about 1, 4, and 5 setting up false dichotomies. We don't have to be either/or. And 10 would be very problematic for me. At my age I am very conscious of the sand running through the hour glass. It is borne in upon me how very short this life is, even if you attain the biblical three score and ten, or more. I didn't used to think about death every single day. I find that what happens afterwards matters a great deal. The New Testament is full of the promise of eternal life, and that is very comforting.
ReplyDeleteJim: I flat-out don't accept 10. 2 sounds like it's from the Church Of I'm Ok You're Ok."
ReplyDeleteI'm like Jesn - not so sure about life after death and eternity. And I'm even older than you are, Katherine! Yes - it's a comforting thought, but some, like me, can't accept an idea simply because it's comforting. Unfortunately.
I never read the book called "I'm OK, You're OK" so I decided to google it and see what it was about. What I found was not clear to me. I had not realized it was a psychology book (for the non-academic market) about Transactional Analysis. The summary and reviews didn't enlighten me much either as I have little familiarity with psychology in general and TA in particular.
However, I did find something that helped me understand the meaning of the phrase - and after reading it, I'm not really sure why a church of "I'm OK, you're OK" would not be a good thing.
“I'm OK, you're OK‘ is implicitly fundamental in the theory, practice, and teaching of Transactional Analysis, yet the meaning of the phrase has not been specified in the literature. The author suggests that the phrase is more significant than being simply one of four possible combinations of the concepts “I,” “you,” “OK,” and “not-OK,” and commends the possibility of an experiential, rather than conceptual, base of the unqualified connectedness and preciousness of all life. As a philosophical statement, the author suggests that “I'm OK, you're OK” be understood to mean “Every human being, without exception, is valuable, important, and to be taken fully into account.”
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/036215378101100203
It does help me that the one who said the comforting words about the hereafter was Jesus.
DeleteBut I confess that I've also had qualms similar to the ones John Donne expressed:
"I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun
My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;
But swear by thyself, that at my death thy Son
Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore..."
Anne, that's pretty interesting about I'm Ok, You're Ok. I admit that I didn't even know it is a book. (In 1967, I am not sure I had even graduated to The Hardy Boys.)
DeleteThe Wikipedia article says this: "The name of the book has since become used commonly, often as a dismissive categorization of all popular psychology philosophies as being overly accepting. "
That was roughly what I had in my mind in my comment, which admittedly was not very charitable.
Tom: Donald J. Thorman had a religious best-seller with a book called "The Emerging Layman," ..But that was in 1965. ..and we are still waiting for the laymen (and women, it must be added) to emerge. Rohr writes, "I believe that what some refer to as the 'emerging church' is a movement of the Holy Spirit." That's what a lot of us believed about what Thorman wrote.
ReplyDeleteTom, I fear you are right about this. I don’t know when I first became aware of the emerging church movement, but it was around 15 years ago. Since then I have read at least some of the books all of the authors cited by Rohr in his meditations except for the Quaker author whose points he summarized in his own words.
The emerging church writers have been a lifeline for me as far as Christianity goes. When I finally faced up to my lifelong doubts about Catholicism, and my persistent dissent from so many RC teachings, I had to leave the RCC. But to go…. where? I went with my husband to the EC, which is at least far more open to dissent and questions than is the RCC.
But, while the EC parish might be a religious home, it’s not really a spiritual home for me. And that is what I miss – I’m still searching for a spiritual home. I had found one in the Centering Prayer group I belonged to for years. But it broke up for a range of reasons (people moving, etc), and I have not found another community yet to take its place. The closest I’ve come to finding a new spiritual community has been between the pages of the books of the authors cited by Rohr. I stumbled across them, one at a time, over a period of years.
I fear that the emerging church movement will end up where Thorman’s emerging laymen (and women) ended up – a small group only, an almost underground movement, not a broad reform. Although if Phyllis Tickle is right, we are just at the beginning stage of the great Christian shake-up of the modern era.
I suspect that Christianity will continue its decline in the western nations. It’s almost disappeared in Europe, and even once-Catholic Ireland is following the same path. The US is behind Europe in losses, but is clearly headed in the same direction.
I don’t think there will be a big revival of Christianity in the western nations until something like the “emerging church” gains traction. Until then, it will remain as it is - something of an underground movement. After all, there is no denomination called “emerging church” – it is an ecumenical movement, and the big hope would be for it to restore Christianity to something closer to its roots in the earliest centuries – before it was institutionalized in the model of the Roman empire and became an organization primarily devoted to enforcing “must believes” .
So, for now, I find Barbara Brown Taylor’s thoughts, quoted in the PDF on p. 4, to be a good description of those of us who seek a spiritual community that is not easy to find
I have learned to prize holy ignorance more highly than religious certainty and to seek companions who have arrived at the same place. We are a motley crew, distinguished not only by our inability to explain ourselves to those who are more certain of their beliefs than we are but in many cases by our distance from the centers of our faith communities as well. Like campers who have bonded over cook fires far from home, we remain grateful for the provisions that we have brought with us from those cupboards, but we also find them more delicious when we share them with one another under the stars. —Barbara Brown Taylor [1
p.s. Rohr started his ministry by founding a charismatic community in Cincinnati. Does anything good come out of Cincinnati? Besides, oh, maybe, confetti?
Anything Barbara Brown Taylor says I agree with or probably will agree with eventually.
DeleteI have been driven slightly batti
By trying to drive thorugh Cincinnati
M'okay. I apparently still have a lot of Unitarian hard wiring, and don't think I can comment on any of the 10 points Jim dug out above in a way that would make sense here.
ReplyDeleteSo let me ask this: I find the term "emerging church" a little confusing (and possibly precious). I think of a chicken emerging from an egg. Is this the idea? Some kind of birth, change, renewal?
Doors the emerging happen by selling Rohr's 10 points? Or is he saying this is how spirituality is already being reflected by more people and that this is what will emerge in the future?
Re seekers: One of the Church ladies opined to Raber that I was a perpetual seeker and unable to "settle down," which could mean a lot of things that probably bear thinking about.
But I found her comment freeing in a way. Others apparently feel uncomfortable with me in the same way I feel uncomfortable around a lot of grumpy, aging Republicans. Time to face up to some hard truths.
Jean, we are who we are. I'm sure some people feel uncomfortable around me, too. Beyond basic kindness we aren't responsible for making people comfortable.
DeleteJean: I find the term "emerging church" a little confusing ...I think of a chicken emerging from an egg. Is this the idea? Some kind of birth, change, renewal?"
DeleteYes - on P 1 of the PDF, Rohr refers to work by Phyllis Tickle who wrote a book called The Great Emergence. Her thesis is that christianity undergoes upheaval at roughly 500 year intervals and that it is at such an inflection point now. I read her book several years ago - I found I agreed with some, but not all. However, she is far more knowledgeable about the history of christianity than am I and I learned a lot. I might need to re-read it now - the details have become a bit fuzzy.
Of course, most people tend to agree with some, but not all, of what they read.
Or is he saying this is how spirituality is already being reflected by more people and that this is what will emerge in the future?
Yes - to the first part of the sentence. I would qualify the second - it reflects a christian understanding that Rohr hopes will emerge more widely in the future - that more people will become aware of this vision and seek to adopt it in their own churches.
But I found her comment freeing in a way.
There are a lot of seekers these days who would like to spend some time around Barbara Brown Taylor's campfire- if only because there are few "Church ladies" there.
I have several of BBT's books - and am ordering her latest. I just received Rohr's latest - The Universal Christ.
Jim: Re #2 - Rohr differentiates between Jesus the human being and the Christ.
There is no single church denomination that is a home for the "emerging church". Rohr is a Catholic priest; Barbara Brown Taylor is an ordained Episcopal priest who left active ministry years ago (Her book - "Leaving Church" describes her journey to that decision); Phyllis Tickle also has an EC background, and worked in religious publishing for most of her career. Brian McLaren was a college English teacher and founded a non-denominational church. He is of the evangelical tradition. As far as I know, McLaren had no formal seminary training when he founded the church in 1982, which is fairly common in the evangelical world. He has since been awarded honorary degrees. There are many other names I could provide, from many different christian denominations. I have several of McLaren's books also.
I think the emerging church movement would not appeal to those who have a lot of "certitude".
We are a motley crew, distinguished not only by our inability to explain ourselves to those who are more certain of their beliefs than we are but in many cases by our distance from the centers of our faith communities as well
https://brianmclaren.net/about-brian/
The final link is related to McLaren and not to the quote from Barbara Brown Taylor! Sometimes I wish we could edit our comments.
ReplyDelete