I am very grateful for what many of my “emerging”
friends have helped me to see about the particular cultural trappings of my own
Christianity. They’ve helped me to recognize how I have included many
preferences, traditions, even my American identity in my explanations of the
Gospel. I am grateful because anyone who can help me see my own
blindspots is doing me a huge favor.
However, I can’t help but notice that it seems like many of these “emergents”
are just as culturally trapped as the people they are criticizing. They lampoon the
robe-wearing choirs and suit-sporting, big voice preachers of the past. But
when I walk into their churches, I see 4 guys on stage ALL sporting punk hair and
black monogrammed t-shirts, whose faces look like they fell face-first into a tackle
box (shout out to Ed Stetzer), and talking in a whiney, metrosexual voice. Each one is “different” like all the other ones. Seems like a new uniform.
Most concerning is that this “new, cutting edge, diverse”
crowd criticizes the traditional
church for being stuck in one culture, but when you look at them, what you see is usually a collage of young, angry, middle-class white people. Seems they are also from the same clas…
It’s
kind of like something I noticed in Boston a
couple of weeks ago… I was there on the day the new I-phone was being
released. People were lined up literally around the block, some having
camped out for a few days, to be the first to get the sexy new I-phone.
Many in the line were trying to sell their “old Iphone,” released
less than 2 years ago. Some of these same people self-righteously
refuse to
drive SUVs and only buy fair trade products. They seem blind to the
fact
that they are every bit the consumer as their SUV driving parents.
I’m not trying to be too harsh my younger generation (of
whom I am still one!!!!!), but just to say that realizing our own shortcomings ought
to make us more gracious with others. Sometimes I feel like my generation is the
most self-righteous generation in recent history.
Anyway, that is a rambling, lengthy introduction to this
quote in David Wells’ Courage to Be Protestant. I’d love to know
your thoughts:
It is true that many in
today’s world are comfortable with impersonal structures. They do
not mind being anonymous, an unknown in a large crowd. And they take in
stride the slogans and little inspirational thoughts that fill the air all the
time. After all, that is life in our big, modernized cities.
However, these large structures only deepen the sense of not belonging we carry
with us much of the time. Why, then, would we want to experience this in
church, too? And why would we content ourselves with having yet one more
product plugged to us in church when we are bombarded by products and
telemarketers all week? This is a point of acute vulnerability for the
marketing churches.
That is what the emergents have
sensed. Rather than large, empty church structures filled with the
rhythms of the marketing world, emergents have gone to small, connected groups,
to networking, to being deinstitutionalized if that is what it takes, to
relationships. This, as I have suggested, resonates with a loss that is
very deep and painful in the (post) modern psyche. People want to connect
and to be connected.
However, while the emergents are
intent on making connections, they do not want to make those connections across
generations. They are niche-driven. The niche is Gen X.
Emergent churches are typically made up from the same social slice. They
are as look-alike as the marketing churches are for those of another
generation.
“face-first into a tackle box”
…that’s funny.
JD, Great stuff. I really enjoy reading your blog, even though I do not attend Summit.
Francis Schaeffer said something similar about blue jean wearing college students who came to see him in the 60′s. They made fun of others who were of the “establishment” and yet they all looked alike and were not the individualist they thought themselves to be. They simiply were creating the next “establishment” of clones. We all have our unifroms we wear that identify with whom we alighn ourselves. I guess we are not as individualistic as we like to think we are.
JD – loved your lengthy introduction. One thing I have always appreciated about the Summit is the “older generation” that is there. They are some of my wiset friends – you can probably think of a couple of them.
But that is one thing I miss in most emergent churches – cross generational ministry. It is almost impossible to do Titus 2 in a 20-30 age church. All churches need the wisdom that comes from following Christ for many many years.
Thanks for posting on this!
Wells’ observation of niche driven church goers is accurate, but it did not start with Gen X. Unfortunately the past 3 generations of the church in protestant America have largely sought to isolate themselves by age bracket. This may be the main barrier to fostering healthy church life today. Here at the Summit we are beginning to break-down those barriers with the launching of multi-generational small groups, but it is just the beginning. The New Testament likens the church to a family. Families have moms, dads, teenagers, brothers, babies, grandparents, and crazy uncles. So should our church family look (crazy uncle optional but usually present)!
JD,
Thanks for your work, I like the blog. I agree with you. It seems like if you do not fit into the emergent culture than something is wrong with you in their eyes.
Also the battle seems to waging over preferences and models and not the gospel. Often to much enegry is fought over the styles and not the content. Are we gettign the gospel right? Are we preaching the gospel? Are people becoming complete in Christ?
Mark 1:17 Jesus says, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” and so should we.
Keep up the good work.
http://www.leepeoples.wordpress.com
I think that last quote is WAY off base. I’m not sure exactly what that gentleman is defining as “emergents”. Many of the emergent leaders are older than Gen X!
But you definitely hit the nail on the head at the start. People who try to be different are usually just as ridiculous (and ultimately JUST LIKE) the people they are trying so hard to be different from.
I see pros and cons on both sides (I’m a former debater, what can I say). . .
I like being surrounded by people my age (I’m 23 so I think I fall into the category you are discussing) and with my cultural viewpoints. You like to surround yourself with people that agree with what you do and live the same life you do. Yet, when I was away at college the thing I wanted most was my family so I searched for a church with all kinds of generations. I love hearing older people talk about their lives, especially since some things are replaying it seems- things like war, depression, etc.
I also see the side where you need generations- you learn so much from them and need to view Christianity at the next level to prepare yourself for your future. I have many Christian mentors that are older than me, married and with kids because they can tell me all about the stuff I haven’t experienced yet. But on the other hand they don’t know what dating today is like, which is why I need people my age!
It seems like you just need a good balance- hopefully wherever I move to I will find that or I will return to SUMMIT!
JD,
Wouldn’t many in the movement take Wells to task when he talks in terms of Gen X or Y? I think they’d say it has more to do with a shift in worldview which is not necessarily tied to one’s age.
Kyle
JD: as always, I enjoy reading your thoughts. I did find this last post surprising though. One of the criticisms I’ve heard about the Summit is that it is mostly ‘white’ young people. I was at an ‘emergent’ event last evening and was struck by the fact of the great diversity in age, race and gender. As someone else pointed out, most of the leaders of the ‘emergent’ movement are aging boomers trying to incarnate missionally into the younger generation who have in many ways abandoned the church as a useless relic of the past. It is one of many ways God is reaching our world today – along with the Summit. Jesus, by the way, probably looked more like a Galilean than a deity (or a regular at the Summit). The best witness for Christ is a loving and lovable Christian – of which I believe you are a wonderful and inspiring example. We need many more gospel inhabited Christians -regardless of their externals.
Yeah. I remember walking into church with a pony tail and feeling the stares. We were so very hip. After all, we had done LSD and read “Doors of Perception” and listened to Hendrix and we talked about Jesus with our friends WHILE THEY SMOKED MARIJUANA. (oh, the horror!)
I walked into seminary class with a Pink Floyd Animals tour tee shirt on and heard all the remarks about satanic music.
I understand the frustration with people in stodgy cultural boxes assuming that Fanny Crosby set to organ music is “true worship.”
However, I agree with you JD in that the key is NOT to simply try to ape the culture. The pierced and tattooed kids are just going to think you are stupid if you try to imitate them. If the first pastor I ever had (God bless him!) had suddenly adopted hip language and been intent on adopting THE cultural symbol of rebellion (male long hair……, seems silly now, doesn’t it?), I would have actually been EMBARRASSED to bring my doper buddies in. As it was, he simply accepted me, loved me, and focused on loving me and my friends. Kinda like Jesus would have done.
I was privileged to study at L’Abri for a bit in Huemoz, Switzerland. Probably THE prophet for the counterculture of that time was Francis Schaeffer. He never tried to be one of us, and we would have snickered behind his back if he had.
Instead, he ignored the symbols and trappings and focused on our hearts. He heartily agreed with our anger at the fundamentalist church and its silly insistence on cultural pecadilloes — I still remember being SHOCKED at reading the line that the church was totally “bourgesoise”…., that was a word I had only hear Karl Marx use! He kept redirecting us back to Jesus, though.
Trying to be terminally hip shows both pretentiousness and an obsession with YOURSELF. Give it up. Christians are called to be uncool anyway. Loving people without respect to their (sometimes offensive) ways is the model of Jesus and transcends any and all cultural barriers.
Bill,
thanks for the comment. i agree, i do not think that you can paint the entire emerging movement with one broad brush–you can’t do that with any movement, really. on the whole, however, sociologists (at least the ones i’ve read) are in relative agreement that the emerging church is not a racially diverse phenomenon.
i also was not trying to say our church is a model of diversity. Sadly it is not… yet. I would like to think that we have the right values, and know that we are doing everything we know to do to encourage both racial and age diversity. if you have other ideas I am more than open to them.
if racial diversity is something you could do by waving a wand it would have been done long ago. the idea that it would be is itself, imo, a subtle form of white arrogance (i.e, “once we let the other ethnicities know they are welcome in our churches they’ll all come flooding back in… hey, it didn’t happen… what’s wrong?”) Evidently other ethnicities weren’t as excited about being in our presence as we thought they’d be
Nice JD as always. I used to comment about teenagers who were so individualistic they ripped the knees out of their jeans like everyone else. The extremes, the pendulum swings, are what bothers me. I am more comfortable not wearing a tie. But that does not mean I want to dress like a freshman fratboy in its place when I preach
. Sometimes we are so focused on reacting we forget what we are reacting to, rather than focusing on a clear biblical center.
I am fortunately too old to spend much time trying to be cool at this point. But I can still work on being real, as in a real, authentic follower of Christ. That seems a little better of a focus then clothing style or (for those who have hair) hairstyle!
This is a bit off topic… but more in response to the race debate addressed in some of the comments. Here is a recent talk given at the General Assembly of the PCUSA. Thought it might be something you’d be interested in reading.
http://www.cando.org/resources/sermon.asp?contentid=370