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The Emergent matrix: a new kind of church?
Christian Century, Nov 30, 2004 by Scott Bader-Saye
These affinities grew out of a common desire to get beyond "liberal" and "conservative" ways of thinking about scripture, mission and theology. "When you have a liberal way of being a Christian and a conservative way of being a Christian that are both modern, and modernity is over," McLaren reasons, "you've got to find another way of being a Christian."
Emergent evangelicals had bumped up against the limits of what George Lindbeck has called their "cognitive-propositional" approach to doctrine--faith as assent to propositional truths--but unlike earlier generations they no longer believed their only other option was to become traditionally "liberal." Postliberalism, with its emphasis on culture and language, narrative and community, character and virtue, opened possibilities for being theologically serious and doctrinally orthodox while avoiding the restrictive biblicism of the evangelical world.
The challenges faced by evangelicals and mainliners are in stone ways mirror images of each other. McLaren observes that "conservatives tend to be rigid theologically and promiscuous pragmatically and liberals tend to be rigid methodologically and a lot more free theologically." His proposal is simple: "Maybe we could trade."
The convention largely confirmed his observation. At its best it created space for such "trades" to happen. For example, at a breakfast conversation sponsored by the Emerging Women Leaders Initiative, women from main line churches shared powerful words of hope and encouragement with evangelical women who struggle to have a voice in their traditions. On the other side, the creative and lively worship at the convention struck a chord with many mainliners, whose worship has often lacked such energy and passion. The trading continued as evangelicals, many of whom dismissed the techno-savvy worship with a "been there, done that," plied the mainliners for ideas about renewing worship through liturgy. The cross-pollination was intense and enriching.
AS IMPORTANT as the mainline-evangelical conversation is, McLaren sees something else going on. "I think the real story is both evangelicals and the mainline learning from Catholics."
The emerging church is not shy about raiding the storehouses of the Roman Catholics, the Orthodox and the Anglicans for richer liturgies as well as prayer beads, icons, spiritual direction, lectio divina and a deeper sacramentality. The return to ancient faith and practice is increasingly seen as a way forward in churches polarized by worship wars and theological intransigence.
Thus, emerging churches often characterize themselves as "ancient-future," a phrase that comes from a series of books authored by Webber (Ancient-Future Faith, Ancient-Future Evangelism, Ancient-Future Time). This return to the past should not be confused with a nostalgia for 1950s Protestantism or with a circling of the wagons around a purer Reformation theology. The return is deeper, looking to the treasures of the medieval and patristic theologies and to practices that have long been ignored by evangelicals.
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