A Journey of UnEmergence pt. 1

So the next few posts are going to deal with what has come to be known as the "Emergent" church. Since not every one is familiar with the term or the players in the movement, this first post will serve to set the table for the rest.

The "Emergent" church movement has grown out of the two major movements in late twentieth century evangelicism. The emergent church is self-conscientiously critical of both fundamentalism and seeker-sensitivism. The movement has reacted to both the moral legalism of fundamentalism and the showy/falseness of the seeker-sensitive movement. At first glance these critiques are valid and attractive. We will explore these deeper in the following posts, but for now, it will suffice to say that the movement reacts strongly to the church of the twentieth century. The movement also has some relationship to postmodernism, sometimes billing itself as postmodern Christianity.

The movement began in the late 90's with the founding of a number of churches. Churches like Mars Hill (Michigan), Vintage Faith, Watermark, Solomon's Porch, Imagio Dei, and Mars Hill (Washington)began to pop-up in major cities. These churches were a haven for disenfranchised 20-somethings who were largely ignored by mainstream Christianity. The churches often had no denominational ties and no authority structure beyond the Pastor/founder/planter/leader/whatever.

The movement began to gain a great deal of popularity with the publication of A New Kind of Christian by Brian Mclaren. The book picked up steam as the new century began. The fictional account of a Pastor struggling with his faith resonated with a large section of the population. This book lead to the success of Blue like Jazz and Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller. After this the floodgates opened and everyone who was anyone in the budding movement was published.

As the movement grew, there was a natural fracturing and factioning of the congregations. There was a continuum of how much of the past we are to hold onto.

At the present time, the key players in the movement are Brian Mclaren a pastor turned lecturer and author. Rob Bell (pictured to the right), a pastor of a large church in west Michigan and the teacher in the Nooma films. Mark Driscoll, an interesting charcater since he is often lumped into the movement, but against his will.

The movement has birthed a magazine - Relevant, an imprint - Zondervan/Emergent YS, and a huge following among the internet generation.

About the Name of my Blog...

The title and web address of my blog are admittedly odd and probably deserve a bit of an explanation. The title is a nod to a song written by a band called "the Weakerthans". The song is called "Confessions of a Futon Revolutionist" and is all about the nature of lazy idealism. The song writer has brilliant ideas, but is too lazy to really do anything about them. Mostly he just sits around on his futon. I think that imagery is awesome.

So I find myself thinking thoughts, then flipping on VH1 to watch 5 straight hours of the best songs of the 90's. Lots of ideas, but not a lot of follow thru. So here you will find a running tally of those thoughts and my lack of action.

Open For Business

For all you rabid fans of the old "Musings from a Coffeeshop Wasteland" I am back in the Blogging business. This will be the new home for thoughts and ideas, so visit frequently as I plan to post frequently.