Emerging Church is . . .

“. . . a bottom-up movement, driven by a desire among 20s and 30s to create spiritual homes appropriate to their culture.”

Steve Adams, from a pretty good article – Emerging Options, Christianity Magazine

Andrew

Andrew Jones launched his first internet space in 1997 and has been teaching on related issues for the past 20 years. He travels all the time but lives between Wellington, San Francisco and a hobbit home in Prague.

6 Comments

  • Matt Stone says:

    I have met many people in their 40s and above who are more post-modern than the average Christian in their 20s. To the extent that we identify Emerging Church exlusively with a 20-30 generational demographic we thereby exclude Churches seeking to identify with postmoderns outside this age demographic from the fold. More than a little limiting don’t you think? Should we need to come up with a new tag for missional churches operating amongst a broader postmodern spectrum?

  • andrew says:

    good call matt
    i am 42 and am insulted by churches that say they are “targeting” 20’s and 30’s – especially when their style is more suburban/pedestrian/boomer and i would often get more out of a sunday school class for children
    My experience tells me that Brits are guilty of this more than Americans.

  • Elizabeth Thames says:

    I would have to agree.
    The church which my parents (both in their 40s) started 10 years ago is considered to be an “Emerging Church,” yet it is composed of people ranging from infancy to late 60s. Without that diversity of age and background, our church would not be the rich community that it now is.

  • Greg says:

    I would consider the community of faith I live with to have an emerging character to it, but our oldest participants are two women in their 90’s – and there are individuals in every decade down.
    We are a church without members, that takes up no collection fo money, empahsizes the freedom for each one to roam about the Kingdom, and our Sunday gatherings reflect the diversity of our journeys – everything from very formal liturgies to very informal discussions of rock songs, movies, or whatever.

  • I have to agree as well.Steve Adams did a great article !

  • futuristguy says:

    dear steve. good thots, but hey, i’m 50 and i was in what would now be called an ’emerging’ (but not ’emergent’) church in 1978 as a mid-20-something. you’ll probably get sum flak from some of us old-emergesters, but don’t let us bug you too much. the principle’s the same; some of us were radical ‘back then’ as some are radical ‘back now.’ we want something that’s relevant AND righteous. hope others in every generation will desire that, too …

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