The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations (Paperback)

by Dan Kimball (Author), Rick Warren (Foreword), Brian D. McLaren (Foreword), Howard Hendricks (Collaborator), Sally Morgenthaler (Collaborator), Chip Ingram (Collaborator), Mark Oestreicher (Collaborator) "Twenty-four-year-old Sky walked up on the stage during our Sunday night worship service and stood next to me..." (more)
Key Phrases: Santa Cruz, Holy Spirit, New Testament (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Churches are noticing less and less emerging generations in their midst. The Emerging Church, winner of the 2004 Christianity Today Book Award, explores the cultural changes impacting churches and offers practical advice of how they can creatively reach emerging generations. Some of the "spiritual" things that were removed from churches are the very things that post-Christian generations are connecting with and find attractive in a church.

From the Back Cover
Includes · Samples and photos of emerging church worship gatherings · Recommended resources for the emerging church

The seeker-sensitive movement revolutionized the way we did church and introduced countless baby boomers to Jesus. Yet trends show that today’s post-Christian generations are not responding like the generations before them. As we enter a new cultural era, what do worship services look like that are connecting with the hearts of emerging generations? How do preaching, leadership, evangelism, spiritual formation, and, most of all, how we even think of "church" need to change?

The Emerging Church goes beyond just theory and gets into very practical ways of assisting you in your local church circumstances. There is no one right way, no model for us all to emulate. But there is something better. Dan Kimball calls it "Vintage Christianity": a refreshing return to an unapologetically sacred, raw, historical, and Jesus-focused missional ministry. Vintage Christianity connects with emerging post-seeker generations who are very open spiritually but are not interested in church.

For pastors, leaders, and every concerned Christian, Kimball offers a riveting and easy-to-grasp exploration of today’s changing culture and gives insight into the new kind of churches that are emerging in its midst. Included is running commentary by Rick Warren, Brian McLaren, Howard Hendricks, and others.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan/Youth Specialties (March 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310245648
• ISBN-13: 978-0310245643
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #72,988 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting / Worth Reading, November 9, 2004

By	Joseph Valentine Dworak "JVD" (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I went back on forth about what to say after I read this book. I read it for a graduate school class in small groups & community and have some good thoughts after reading the book. The good things:

1) Dan is honest and not full of himself. He recounts what he has done in ministry and how it has morphed over the past few years.

2) He lets the reader know what is working where he is, without setting it up as a model for the rest of us in the world who might start up a ministry.

3) The emphasis on ancient / vintage worship and community is essential. As we invite people into a community and let them 'ask in' to a faith committment it is a powerful witness for the kingdom.

The 'interesting' things:

1) Why is Rick Warren featured so prominently in a book that is looking towards the future? Rick Warren's extended defense of the seeker sensitive movement seems like a monument to the past when Dan's book is squarely looking towards the future. This is not to disrespect Rick, but he was out of place in this book. It is almost like the publisher pushed Dan to have Rick in the book so he would have more 'credibility' with the modern audience - who knows, but Rick seemed really out of place.

2) I do agree with some of the other reviewers who note that while Dan is not wanting to give a model for everyone to use, the second half of his book surely could be interpreted just that way.

Overall - worth reading - Joseph Dworak

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Unchanging Gospel in a Changing Culture, May 25, 2005

By	Roger N. Overton (Orange, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

We live in an increasingly post-Christian culture. In times prior we could "preach the word" using words like sin and repentance and people would at least know what we're talking about. The times today are such that the language American Christianity has spoken is no longer the language of American culture. In this book, Dan Kimball offers a mindset for how Christians can adapt and reach the changing culture with an unchanging message.

Dan begins by setting the stage contrasting the "seeker-sensitive" model and the "post-seeker-sensitive" model (the emerging church mindset). Churches that are seeker-sensitive, for instance, are more focused on getting people in the church doors than meeting them where they are. People in the postmodern culture understand things differently, and the seeker sensitive mindset simply will not reach most of the postmodern/emerging generation.

After outlining the cultural shifts that have taken place and dealing with some of the theological issues that arise, Dan moves on to the larger part of the book, "Reconstructing Vintage Christianity in the Emerging Church." This second part deals with the more practical aspects of what it looks like for Christian churches to reach out to the current culture around them.

Dan Kimball is an excellent writer. He's clear, straightforward, and writes as though he's thought extensively about these issues ahead of time (that's becoming harder to find these days). There were many things I loved about this book. Dan repeatedly places the emphasis of church on Jesus. "Absolutely everything we do when we design worship gatherings for the emerging church should have Jesus at the center as we lift up His name." (121)

There were a few times when a concern about something would start to grow in the back of my mind and then almost immediately Dan would speak to that concern, as though he saw it coming. E.g.- After speaking about multisensory worship I became worried about how it was too focused on feelings and emotions. Then Dan said, "The danger, of course, is focusing so much on experience that we teach people to respond only by feelings and emotions... I believe the more the emerging church uses multisensory worship and teach, the stronger and deeper our use of Scripture needs to be." (131)

Of course, there were a handful of things I didn't care for. One is Dan's emphasis on lectio devina, silence, and listening prayer- all of which I believe to be dangerous practices not supported by Scripture. However, those issues aren't specific to emerging churches since many other people practice them as well. Another issue I had was the occasional false dichotomies between the "Modern Church" and the "Emerging Church." For instance, Kimball states that the modern church said, "evangelism uses reason and proofs for apologetics," while the emerging church says "evangelism uses the church being the church as the primary apologetic." (201) Francis Schaeffer said our "final apologetic" as Christians is love, and I think Schaeffer especially would fit both views of evangelism. Most apologists I know are more of the Schaeffer type than the "reason and proofs" only type, so I don't believe this dichotomy is accurate.

Overall, this is a great book. With the exception of only a few points I would recommend it to just about anyone wanting to make a difference for Christ in the postmodern culture. Dan Kimball has some good ideas for how to do church differently and reach the culture without capitulating to it and becoming the culture.

110 of 151 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars You Can Have It Your Way: The Burger King Gospel, March 5, 2005

By	Hadley Robinson (El Paso, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Tackling ecclesiology head on, Dan Kimball exhorts the reader to practice some important paradigms of the quintessential church found throughout the ages. Among these are: Bringing the Bible back into the Church; cultivating a church culture that encourages dialogue; ensuring that the gospel is allowed to do its work instead of the charismatic eloquence of the preacher; and emphasizing that Jesus is the only way to God.

These are all stressed in the Holy Scriptures in one way or another. He also notes the exhortation of 1Corinthians 2:1-5 that the Cross of Jesus Christ - alone - should be preached instead of the world's wisdom.

Most of the book, however, is filled with desultory observations of our fickle culture and how Christians should respond to it. Reviewing Kimball and others of his bent in Christianity Today, Andy Crouch stated, "They have confused style and substance."

The Emerging Church is not about repentance, the Cross, and its offense (and hope) to a fallen, sinful world but about buzzwords such as "postmodern" "seeker" "emerging" "missional" "vintage" "deconstruction" etc. It's also about cheerleaders in the church growth movement who clutter nearly every page with vapid balloon remarks that do little to improve the book's quality. Rick Warren (the new Protestant pope) writes the forward. Sadly, I'm still trying to figure out what he is really saying after repeated re-readings. Warren is a master of word "switcheroo" - using words in the postmodern way. This is where words are chosen for how they sound rather than for what they may mean.

For example, he writes on page 7 that it's OK to do anything in church worship "...as long as the biblical message is unchanged." This sounds good until you try to pin down what Warren's "biblical message" really is. Like Warren, Kimball shops around for Bible paraphrases which suit his purposes. As a result, we are subjected to isogesis: Where interpretation is read into the Bible instead of out of it. Jesus said the way is narrow. For Warren et al., it is broad and getting broader, especially as his book sales continue to skyrocket. It's all a testimony to the sad state of the Church in our land that so many reject the simple teachings of the Bible for mere popular eloquence.

Kimball, in a switcheroo, exhorts us to carefully preach from the Bible (good) and then, elsewhere, he will prattle on and on about "seeker-sensitive" this or that (bad). For example, on page 25 he says "Being seeker-sensitive as a lifestyle means that we are sensitive to spiritual seekers in all that we do. ...it is a lifestyle approach to how we live as Christians in relation to being sensitive to seekers of faith." Instead of living to impress others, Scripture commands us to live a holy life, regardless of whether anyone wants to follow us or not.

It gets worse. On page 88, he writes, "We probably wouldn't be attracted to Christianity if we weren't Christians." Or, on page 210 he writes, "...the tide will turn and non-Christians will be drawn to us instead of being turned off by us." Contrary to the gospel-lite promoted by Kimball, Warren, and the other Pied Pipers of today, God's word tells us what turns off people from coming to Christ: No one seeks after God (Ro 3:10). It's just that simple. We do not need hundreds of pages telling us how awful/insensitive/backward we Christians are and how we must atone for our sin of being unpopular with the pagan and immoral culture. Yet Kimball does note some of the greater errors of church bureaucracies in the past that made the gospel look bad. He is to be commended for that.

What is surprising is that those in the church growth movement don't seem to pay any attention to the explosive growth of the gospel in places like Communist China: Where Christians meet, love one another, hear the Word, and pray - as they have for thousands of years - largely without the videos, books, conferences, and mass marketing techniques employed here.

Jesus said, repent and believe in Me. For that, they killed Him as it was not then - nor now - a popular message to sinful fallen mankind. Suffice it to say, no one comes to Christ for any reason other than the Father draws him (John 6:35ff.) Jesus was not "seeker-sensitive" contrary to Kimball's assertions but quite the opposite.

Why all these pages which promote a candy-coated gospel? Please see 2Ti 4:3. Kimball needs to look again at his Bible, especially the parable of the sower and what happens to the seed that falls on the rocky ground: Shallow roots - shallow faith - falling away. The feeding of the five thousand in John 6 would be another lesson for him to consider: The crowds wanted to fill their stomachs with food instead of with the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The sacred text offers here one of the greatest un-revivals in history: Five thousand came and all but a few handfuls left.

Practically speaking, Kimball wants to return us to the Dark Ages when superstition and hollow ritual dominated the Church. This is not progressive; it's regressive. Rather than leaning on just another splintered reed, Christians should build their lives on the pure milk of the Word.

Kimball has it backward. Meetings of the Church are not about art, music, incense, candles, mood and experience. They should be about love for one another, holiness, and pure doctrine undefiled by the wisdom of this world. "Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen ... for the customs of the people are vain." Jer 10:2,3