Customer Reviews

Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures

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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

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.

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.

I'm on a quest to understand the shape of the emerging church, & this book booted me forward a few spaces. Here's how:

The authors spent some serious effort researching emerging churches in the UK & the US, and I trust their observations. So when they say, "these 3 things characterize virtually all emerging faith communities", I believe them. (They also note 6 other common characteristics / values / involvements of EC's.)

The 1st person bios of several dozen emerging church leaders - comprising the 2nd part of the book - were pure gold. These stories did more to give me a sense of the ethos of emerging churches than anything I've read (or observed) so far.

The authors had to, of course, narrow down their definition of an "emerging church" in order to do their research. But in my view, this skewed the characterization of the typical EC community toward the urban, artsy, techy scene.

So much of what emerging churches are trying to do resonates with what I've been thinking, & feeling - even as a 40 something - for years. But I must also note that reading the bios (actually, the text too) helped me get a handle on my concerns as well - the main one being the way culture is honored over most everything else; sometimes, it seems that being true to one's subculture, being "real", is considered more noble & worthwhile (certainly more groovy) than forsaking all to follow Jesus.

I'm grateful to the authors, & reccommend this book highly.

Finding a good book to recommend on the emerging church can be more than a little challenging. Those written from inside the movement can be shockingly self congratulatory ("Generous Orthodoxy" anyone?) and external works can be shockingly overstated and curmudgeonly (yes, I'm afraid this not only applies to Carson, but he is the prototype). This text is a refreshing truce. Gibbs and Bolger (Fuller profs) have set out on a fruitful quest to systematize (or at least describe) the un-systematic...the distinctives of the movement that calls itself emerging (or something else but for which the label still fits).

They interviewed a few dozen of the leading emerging pastors or leaders and made a legitimate effort to distill the speech into 9 centrally held values in the words of the movement's innovators. While never ignoring the diversity of the voices they somehow manage to get to believable core values and communicate them in a way that would make sense to those outside the movement. The authors are, without a doubt, sympathetic to most things emerging, but are not shrill apologists. Their cautious, steady and informed analysis gives this text a gravity that most others lack. I very much recommend it.

As someone who has tried to keep up with the happenings of the Emerging Church and its growing library over the last several years, I found Gibbs and Bolger's book to be a needed addition to the burgeoning bibliography of Emergent reading.

The strength in the book lies when Gibbs and Bolger attempt to show what the Emergent Church does as opposed to what its doctrines are. There are plenty of books each trying to claim a doctrinal place for Emergent, but few that show us what an Emergent church actually looks like. Gibbs and Bolger do this very well.

Some reviews below this one give good overviews of the book. There are only two flaws which kept the book from five stars in my book. First, I feel that Gibbs and Bolger are a little too quick to wrap the Emergent church into the evangelical wings of Christianity. This may be the church's eventual place, but for now, I feel it is a little too early for any group to lay claim to what Emergent is doing. Secondly, and this is really a critique of ALL Emergent church books, everybody in the book is just too white and male. While they do a great job of balancing views from Europe and America, there is still a lack of voices from women or from those who aren't out of the Caucasian evangelical communities of the past fifty years.

However, on the whole, this book does a great job of what not many other Emergent church books are doing...finding a framework for definitions of what Emergent is instead of what people want it to be.

This book is the result of a five year research project by the two authors whereby they attempt to describe/define emerging churches. The authors identify nine characteristics, or core practices as (1) identifying with Jesus (2) transforming secular space (3) living as community (4) welcoming the stranger (5) serving with generosity (6) participating as producers (7) creating as created beings (8) leading as a body and (9) merging ancient and contemporary spiritualities.

List strengths of book.
The authors illustrate the nine core practices by allowing practitioners, those that are doing the work, to give examples of how the practices are being lived out. Another strength is the book shows that the emerging movement is very diverse and is not centered on one person or organization. Lastly, the book concludes with over 100 pages of personal stories and examples of emerging leaders and the work they are doing.

List weaknesses of book.
First, the book may come off to some as being overly sympathetic to the emerging movement. Second, the research is limited to churches in the UK and the United States, while the emerging movement is a phenomenon that is much more far reaching.

This book takes the life of faith in Jesus Christ seriously. And, thus, it takes the Emerging conversation seriously. So it listens to those who call themselves "emerging", and it respects what they they have to say.

You may or may not buy into the "emerging conversation"; this book allows you the grace of choosing either path. But it presents serious, thoughtful, theological arguments which demand a response.

I found it to be one of the best books I've read on a difficult and challenging topic.

Because this text is the result of interviews and not personal practice, it gives a large reaching picture of emergent ministry and what it values. The first four chapters are worth the price of the book.

However, the writers could have been more scholarly, and perhaps presented more of a case study. As it is, you get the impression that Gibbs and Bolger are completely sold out to the Emergent conversation and anything and everything it produces.

It would have been helpful for the authors to have asked: "Where are the problems in this or that approach?" "How have you overcome these problems?"

I would easily place the work in the top three pieces of literature produced on the subject, but more critical analysis needs to be done, and the authors would have done us all a favor if they had put forth some sort of filter for what is and is not working. That may have been more helpful for those of us on the front lines. As it is, the book is an all you can eat buffett. Pick and choose what you like, cause you won't be able to eat it (do it) all.

Emerging Churches was called by Andrew Jones "the best book on the emerging church." So you know going into it, it is going to be good. I always find it interesting who puts their name on the back cover and on the inside to endorse it. This book has possibly everyone who is anyone in the emergent conversation.

One of the things that struck me as I was reading. I agree with the values that they prescribe to emerging churches, but after reading it, I don't play those values out in my life or in my church in those ways. I that is one of the beauties of the emerging church movement. When you look at most "seeker-sensitive" churches, they look pretty close to each other. But within the emerging church movement, they hold dear to many of the same values, but they look so different. As they walk through many of the communities around the world, I was struck by how different they are.

At the end of the book, they allow 50 emerging leaders to share their stories. This part is worth the price of the book and might possibly be the most encouraging thing I have read all year. As I was reading through the stories, there is a lot of heartbreak and pain, but there is joy as leaders have found their place in the story. As someone who is in the midst of a painful situation, it was encouraging to hear that God has reasons, but joy does come in the morning (Psalm 65:8).

Read more @ emergingthoughtstoday.blogspot.com