Emergent church stirs up questions and commentaries
BY MELISSA LAUBER
When new winds blow, the church’s job is the raise the sails, the Rev. Brian McLaren told a gathering of the area’s faith community at the Ecumenical Institute of Theology in Baltimore March 15.
The Institute, which is being touted as a hub of theology in central Maryland, invited McLaren, a pioneer in the Emerging Church movement, to lecture on “The Gospel, the Postmodern Conversation and the Church that is Emerging.”
The Institute defines itself as a place where faith seeks understanding and understanding makes a difference. McLaren’s lecture, as well as a workshop he presented earlier in the day, was intended to create dialogue to inspire and challenge spiritual leaders. It succeeded.
“Living into the emerging movement of the church is an undertaking that’s both exciting and requires courage to enter the unknown,” said the Rev. Ann Laprade, pastor of Potomac UMC in Potomac. “Brian McLaren’s description of our job as these fresh winds emerge is encouraging. Our job is not to manufacture the wind, but to take note of where its effects are evident and raise our sails and catch that wind, being willing to sail wherever it may take us.”
The emergent church can be defined in a myriad of ways. It’s adherents stress we are living in a post-modern culture, where traditional, linear ways of doing and being church, which have been in vogue for the past 500 years, are not engaging the culture.
Emerging, McLaren said, “means what is changing is not fully formed yet.”
Several United Methodists, including the Rev. Karen Gould, who is retired, and the Rev. Arthur Thomas, said they appreciated the “convergence,” that the emergent church embraces – bringing together a desire to be missional, evangelical, mystical, poetic, charismatic and contemplative all at the same time.
Thomas, pastor of Messiah UMC in Taneytown and a professor of spirituality at the Ecumenical Institute, preached a sermon based on McLaren’s lecture.
“Church leaders came to the lecture eager for a model of leading the church that would produce renewal and vitality,” he said. “Brian McLaren held up a model of the local church based on a convergence of many different traditions from the long history of the church. It consisted of four elements – the liturgical, the evangelical, the charismatic and the social justice dimensions.
“I thought to myself McLaren’s model is just what I hope our United Methodist Church will look like,” Thomas said. “It is a church that values:
+ The liturgical life – church tradition, the sacraments, symbols, banners, ancient and modern prayers;
+ The social justice approach – an emphasis on social action, local and global mission, a welcoming church to all races and conditions of people, Volunteer-in-Mission projects;
+ The evangelical – the importance of Bible study in small groups, preaching the Bible and the message of salvation, the call for conversion through faith in Jesus Christ, the sharing of testimonies of what God has been doing in our lives; and
+ The charismatic – the experience of the filling of the Holy Spirit, the rediscovery of the spiritual gifts, ministries based on the spiritual gifts, joyful and spirit-led worship, guidance and direction by the Lord, and an openness to the spontaneous in worship.”
For the Rev. Rod Miller, the Baltimore-Washington Conference Council of Ministries director, the emergent church “opens opportunities for people to explore and express changes in their thinking and practice of faith. … It offers a bridge and an integration of interior and exterior faith and ministry movements and focuses on a Kingdom mission.”
For Miller, the emergent church and its mission-driven impulse connect us with our changing culture. “The mission has a church rather than the church has a mission,” he said.
The Rev. Ingrid Wang of Bethany UMC believes this “changing, shifting, converging movement may bring another revival within The United Methodist Church.”
In his lecture, Wang pointed out, “Brian said, ‘the question we should ask is not, “What will happen,”’ but “What will we do?’”
“I believe the emerging movement is another holiness movement raised by God,” Wang said. “It is the divine impulse that drives this movement. It is a response to the pervasive hunger for deep spirituality, a sense of belonging, and engaging in Christ’s mission in the world in this new era. In order to be faithful to our calling, to spread the Gospel throughout the ends of the earth, we need to be observant (see what God is doing around us), be prayerful (discern and trust the work of the Holy Spirit), and be bold (not to be afraid of change).”
The Rev. Rebecca Iannicelli, of Community-Trinity Cooperative Parish in Crofton, attended McLaren’s workshop during the day on liturgy as spiritual formation and liturgy as preparation for ministry.
She said she found herself intrigued by the ideas that public worship “can be a place to provide the framing narrative offering by Jesus and the kingdom of God over and against the prevailing story” and how “ecclesiology can be rooted in gathering around Christ and learning to live like him.”
Michael Gorman, dean of the Ecumenical Institute of Theology, also believes elements of the emerging movement can be formational for United Methodists.
“We need to be more attentive to the emphasis on being a missional church constituted by an alternative story, the Gospel. Too often the church just mimics the culture, even when it thinks it’s being missional,” he said.
“Everything we do concerning worship, from arrival to departure and everything in between, is formation, for good or for ill,” Gorman said. “The more intentional we are about every aspect, the more faithful to the Gospel our formation in worship will be. And that will make us truly missional.”
For Mike Cantley, a student at Wesley Theological Seminary, McLaren’s approach provided inspiring ideas to take home and share, However, he warned, quoting Vincent Miller, “Meanings inform practices only insofar as agents employ them in their actions.”
The Rev. Nancy Webb agreed and celebrates the many expressions of Christian faith inherent in the theology and worship of the emergent church. “We don’t know exactly what the future holds,” she said. “But we are called to be faithful in our own ways.”
When new winds blow, the church’s job is the raise the sails, the Rev. Brian McLaren told a gathering of the area’s faith community at the Ecumenical Institute of Theology in Baltimore March 15.
The Institute, which is being touted as a hub of theology in central Maryland, invited McLaren, a pioneer in the Emerging Church movement, to lecture on “The Gospel, the Postmodern Conversation and the Church that is Emerging.”The Institute defines itself as a place where faith seeks understanding and understanding makes a difference. McLaren’s lecture, as well as a workshop he presented earlier in the day, was intended to create dialogue to inspire and challenge spiritual leaders. It succeeded.
“Living into the emerging movement of the church is an undertaking that’s both exciting and requires courage to enter the unknown,” said the Rev. Ann Laprade, pastor of Potomac UMC in Potomac. “Brian McLaren’s description of our job as these fresh winds emerge is encouraging. Our job is not to manufacture the wind, but to take note of where its effects are evident and raise our sails and catch that wind, being willing to sail wherever it may take us.”
The emergent church can be defined in a myriad of ways. It’s adherents stress we are living in a post-modern culture, where traditional, linear ways of doing and being church, which have been in vogue for the past 500 years, are not engaging the culture.
Emerging, McLaren said, “means what is changing is not fully formed yet.”
Several United Methodists, including the Rev. Karen Gould, who is retired, and the Rev. Arthur Thomas, said they appreciated the “convergence,” that the emergent church embraces – bringing together a desire to be missional, evangelical, mystical, poetic, charismatic and contemplative all at the same time.Thomas, pastor of Messiah UMC in Taneytown and a professor of spirituality at the Ecumenical Institute, preached a sermon based on McLaren’s lecture.
“Church leaders came to the lecture eager for a model of leading the church that would produce renewal and vitality,” he said. “Brian McLaren held up a model of the local church based on a convergence of many different traditions from the long history of the church. It consisted of four elements – the liturgical, the evangelical, the charismatic and the social justice dimensions.
“I thought to myself McLaren’s model is just what I hope our United Methodist Church will look like,” Thomas said. “It is a church that values:
+ The liturgical life – church tradition, the sacraments, symbols, banners, ancient and modern prayers;
+ The social justice approach – an emphasis on social action, local and global mission, a welcoming church to all races and conditions of people, Volunteer-in-Mission projects;
+ The evangelical – the importance of Bible study in small groups, preaching the Bible and the message of salvation, the call for conversion through faith in Jesus Christ, the sharing of testimonies of what God has been doing in our lives; and
+ The charismatic – the experience of the filling of the Holy Spirit, the rediscovery of the spiritual gifts, ministries based on the spiritual gifts, joyful and spirit-led worship, guidance and direction by the Lord, and an openness to the spontaneous in worship.”
For the Rev. Rod Miller, the Baltimore-Washington Conference Council of Ministries director, the emergent church “opens opportunities for people to explore and express changes in their thinking and practice of faith. … It offers a bridge and an integration of interior and exterior faith and ministry movements and focuses on a Kingdom mission.”
For Miller, the emergent church and its mission-driven impulse connect us with our changing culture. “The mission has a church rather than the church has a mission,” he said.The Rev. Ingrid Wang of Bethany UMC believes this “changing, shifting, converging movement may bring another revival within The United Methodist Church.”
In his lecture, Wang pointed out, “Brian said, ‘the question we should ask is not, “What will happen,”’ but “What will we do?’”
“I believe the emerging movement is another holiness movement raised by God,” Wang said. “It is the divine impulse that drives this movement. It is a response to the pervasive hunger for deep spirituality, a sense of belonging, and engaging in Christ’s mission in the world in this new era. In order to be faithful to our calling, to spread the Gospel throughout the ends of the earth, we need to be observant (see what God is doing around us), be prayerful (discern and trust the work of the Holy Spirit), and be bold (not to be afraid of change).”
The Rev. Rebecca Iannicelli, of Community-Trinity Cooperative Parish in Crofton, attended McLaren’s workshop during the day on liturgy as spiritual formation and liturgy as preparation for ministry.
She said she found herself intrigued by the ideas that public worship “can be a place to provide the framing narrative offering by Jesus and the kingdom of God over and against the prevailing story” and how “ecclesiology can be rooted in gathering around Christ and learning to live like him.”
Michael Gorman, dean of the Ecumenical Institute of Theology, also believes elements of the emerging movement can be formational for United Methodists.
“We need to be more attentive to the emphasis on being a missional church constituted by an alternative story, the Gospel. Too often the church just mimics the culture, even when it thinks it’s being missional,” he said.
“Everything we do concerning worship, from arrival to departure and everything in between, is formation, for good or for ill,” Gorman said. “The more intentional we are about every aspect, the more faithful to the Gospel our formation in worship will be. And that will make us truly missional.”
For Mike Cantley, a student at Wesley Theological Seminary, McLaren’s approach provided inspiring ideas to take home and share, However, he warned, quoting Vincent Miller, “Meanings inform practices only insofar as agents employ them in their actions.”
The Rev. Nancy Webb agreed and celebrates the many expressions of Christian faith inherent in the theology and worship of the emergent church. “We don’t know exactly what the future holds,” she said. “But we are called to be faithful in our own ways.”
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