Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures [Paperback]

Eddie Gibbs (Author), Ryan K. Bolger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2005

The "emerging church" movement is perhaps the most significant church trend of our day. The emerging church offers and encourages a new way of doing and being the church. While it largely resonates with an eighteen-to-thirty-four-year-old audience--the first fully postmodern generation--it is also gaining popularity with older Christians and encompasses a broad array of traditional and contemporary churches. Emerging Churches explores this movement and provides insight into its success.

Filled with the latest research and interesting, anecdotal testimonies from those on the cutting edge of ministry, this book provides pastors, church leaders, and interested readers with an insightful glimpse into the thriving churches of today--and tomorrow.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Mention "emerging churches" around a random selection of today's church leaders and half will have no idea what you are talking about while the other half are busy trying to plant one. This book informs the uninitiated while also helping overeager planters understand that these unique communities, as their name implies, emerge gradually, many times without the help of the institutional church. Fuller Seminary researchers Gibbs and Bolger spent five years collecting data in both the U.S. and U.K. and interviewing 50 leaders—most under the age of 40—to uncover important patterns among emerging churches. They emphasize the life of faith as Jesus demonstrated, employ a "going out" attitude toward the world rather than expecting people to "come to" their communities and consider all of life sacred. Also, these communities prefer relationships to meetings, so there may be no set worship gathering time or, indeed, no fixed place to meet. The authors paint emerging churches as attractive, hopeful and ever-evolving, populated by some of the most vibrant, open-minded and service-oriented young Christians. Readers who are attached to "church business as usual" will be shaken up by this book, while those ready for a change will find it energizing. (Dec.)
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About the Author

Eddie Gibbs (B.D., London University; D.Min., Fuller Theological Seminary) is the Donald A. McGavran Professor of Church Growth at Fuller Theological Seminary. He is the author of several books, including the critically acclaimed ChurchNext, winner of a Christianity Today book award.

Ryan K. Bolger (Ph.D., Fuller Theological Seminary) is assistant professor of church in contemporary culture at the School of Intercultural Studies and academic director of the master of arts program in global leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Baker Academic (November 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801027152
• ISBN-13: 978-0801027154
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #79,917 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #83 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Ministry & Church Leadership > Church Institutions & Organizations

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 56 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars I THOUGHT BRIAN MCLAREN *WAS* EMERGENT. YOU MEANS THERE'S MORE?? March 21, 2006

By John Frye

Format:Paperback

Eddie Gibbs and Ryan K. Bolger's *Emerging Churches: Creating Community in Postmodern Cultures* (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005) is a much-needed book.

For all the antagonism and/or paranoia about the Emergent Movement or Conversation or Churches, Gibbs and Bolger give a 5 year researched-based presentation.

Guess what? Their book gives scant attention to Brian McLaren or any of his books. Shock of all shocks! What? I thought Brian McLaren WAS Emergent?? You mean there's more people involved than just Brian?? Over 50 leaders are interviewed and quoted and it's hard to find Brian McLaren among them. Shock of all shocks.

The nine (9) core practices of emerging churches are well-defined and illustrated with comments from those who are "practitioners" of contextualizing the gospel of the kingdom of God in the postmodern world.

The nine (9) core practices are:

1. Identifying with Jesus (and his way of life)

2. Transforming secular space (overcoming the secular/sacred split)

3. Living as community (not strangers in proximity at a church service)

4. Welcoming the stranger (radical and gentle hospitality that is inclusive)

5. Serving with generosity (not serving the institution called "church," but people)

6. Participating as producers (not widgets in the church program)

7. Creating as created beings (this is a great chapter!)

8. Leading as a body (beyond control and the CEO model of leadership)

9. Merging ancient and contemporary spiritualities.

"Emerging churches destroy the Christendom idea that church is a place, a meeting or a time. Church is a way of life, a rhythm, a community, a movement" (236)....

For those who might be fearful of "the emerging church" and who want to learn about what the Spirit is up to in this global movement, then Emerging Churches is the book to read. If read with an open mind and a teachable heart, readers may just find themselves persuaded to "get in on" an epoch of change that gives Jesus Christ, community, the Bible, creation and other people back to them in fresh and exciting ways.

Gibbs and Bolger show that "modernity" began with the creation of the idea of secular space, that is, space where God does not reign or is not welcomed. With that idea the church was marginalized to the private sector and perpetuated the myth of secular space. Rather than the world and all in it belonging to God as the Psalms declare, the modern church create "God's house." The modern church is God nicely packaged and parceled out as the church sees fit. "Come in here, to us to find God."

Postmodern Christianity exposes the lie of "secular space" and celebrates the reign and imminence of God everywhere and at all times.

Get Gibbs and Bolger's book. Read it. Reflect and have fun thinking about it Read more ›

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Distinctives of the Emerging Church February 6, 2006

By Ed Cyzewski

Format:Paperback

Gibbs and Bolger set out to present a series of qualities one may find in an emerging ministry. The reader looking for a critical evaluation of these qualities will be disappointed. While Gibbs and Bolger are clearly sympathetic to the emerging church and its task to embody the Gospel contextually, they are far more concerned with letting the 50 emerging leaders in their study speak for themselves.

The time will come when critique of the emerging church will be warranted and needed, but Gibbs and Bolger have provided the necessary first step in defining the emerging church and giving its proponents and critics some handles. Many critics of the emerging church would benefit by reading this book before leveling any charges at emerging groups. More than anything, the reader has a chance to encounter the leading thinkers behind the emerging church, the theology and philosophy behind their practice, and their ultimate goals in contextual ministry.

At the heart of the emerging church presented by Gibbs and Bolger is the missionary character that many such congregations embody. Instead of simply changing the format of meetings to include new trends and technology, the emerging church is deeply concerned with embodying the Gospel and taking the church to the streets. "Rather than extracting people from the world, the church should empower members to engage more effectively in the ministry and mission that God has already entrusted to them in the world. Members should serve the world through their vocations rather than through church-administered programs" (142).

Though funding limited the project to research in the UK and USA, one is struck by the diversity of the emerging ministries.... Some focus on club culture, others on urban monasticism, while others form loose networks in the suburbs. While identifying the major trends of the emerging church, Gibbs and Bolger are able to celebrate the diversity of this network.

The identifying characteristics of the emerging churches in this study are as follows (and can be found in the table of contents):

Identifying with Jesus

Transforming Secular Space

Living as Community

Welcoming the Stranger

Serving with Generosity

Participating as Producers

Creating as Created Beings

Leading as a Body

Merging Ancient and Contemporary Spiritualities

An additional 100 pages of the book is allocated to the personal stories of each emerging leader interviewed for the book, as well as an explanation on research methodology. If anyone desires to grasp the heart of the emerging church, the stories of these individuals will go far in creating a vivid picture of what God is doing throughout the UK and the USA. Emerging Churches is clearly the premier resource for understanding the emerging church and its diverse community of congregations. Read more ›

43 of 49 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Mixed Bag December 21, 2005

By Trevor Lee

Format:Paperback

After reading the chapter titles and the endorsements on the back of this book I was as excited to read it as a kid on Christmas morning (thought I'd go with the seasonally appropriate metaphor). So as soon as I bought it I dove in expecting to love it, and there is quite a bit worth reading in it. One of my favorite things is the way the authors highlight how emerging churches are focusing less on church as a primarily Sunday-focused, geographically-located activity that includes singing and a sermon. There is much thought given by emerging leaders to how our actions can communicate that the church is a body of people, not a building, rather than communicating that primarily through words. This is a foundational piece of changing how "church" is done thoughtfully and not just adding candles.

That said, I have two primary gripes with the book. First, and more importantly, it seems to be uncritically accepting of anything that flies under the flag of emergent. I know that I even have tendencies toward this, but there were a couple times when I was wondering whether the authors were more taken with the kingdom of God or with churches that do different things and call themselves emergent. The only reason I don't answer the latter with certainty is because I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt. The most blatant example of this is when they rationalize seductive bikini-clad dancers from an emerging church at a European festival because everyone else at the festival was doing it. They also insinuate that everyone at the festival was taking Ecstasy, so you wonder if they think this emerging church group should do that as well.... I hate when people say things like this because it validates one of the oft-recited criticisms of the emerging church, that culture rather than Jesus is king.

Quickly on to my second gripe. This book is based primarily on groups of less that 30 who are using club music in the UK. I'm not saying these groups should not be included, but are we to believe that this is the emerging church and others just need to catch up? They say they want to avoid universal church paradigms but then go on to create one. Read more ›