Traditional, Contemporary, Emerging

Blend1-1

Kyle Potter found this on a website from a church.

What i want to know is this:

– What is in that third cup under Emerging? I bet it is Chai. Fair-trade chai made from cruelty-free tea leaves and NOT purchased from Starbucks. Can I get a witness???

– How can they expect emerging people to get up so early on a Sunday morning?

– What happens when the emerging people want hymns around the organ?

– What happens when the traditional people want to take their shoes off, paint Bible verses on the wall and drink some chai?

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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.

26 Comments

  • Thomas Brown says:

    This one’s fun! But here’s a thought… Is Emergent just an option in worship styles, or is it something more along the lines of a shift in worldview? I’d say, more the latter than the former. If so, it’s not the beverage in your cup so much as the deep-level questions in your noggin that matter. (Still, yes, Chai…)

  • Kyle says:

    Sorry, mate, they’re not even as cool as all that – the new obscured logos depicted the church logo in the familiar Starbucks style…
    And I’ll agree with Mr. Brown: it had better be a shift in worldview, or at least ecclesiology, or it’s just another pomo option.
    And thanks for the hat tip.

  • joeturner says:

    Sorry guys, its a frappuccino (whatever one of those is – check out starbucks website..). Quite likely to be fairly traded, given that they sell it in starbucks.
    Maybe the emerging service starts at 11.30 pm. I’ve got a friend who wants to start a church which has services at 2am (ok, we’re heavily influenced by Tony Campolo and ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is a Party’). Seems reasonable to me.
    Dunno about the other stuff, but then maybe I’m not emerged (emerging..?).

  • robbymac says:

    (ahem…)
    I would humbly suggest that it’s most likely a grande mocha-chip no-whip frappacino blended coffee®.
    Then again, my latest tent-making venture is working at Starbucks.

  • Traditional, Contemporary, Emerging

    One of my favorite bloggers is Andrew Jones (a.k.a. tallskinnikiwi). I’ve been reading Andrew’s blog for a long time now and today he posted something that really struck a chord with me. (well, maybe not a chord – but at

  • Van S' Blog says:

    Towards a More Perfect Consumer Church 3

    Check out this funny post on TallSkinnyKiwi. It points out the consumerism of the church today. I got a very similar mailer from a local area church once (that likens their three different worship styles with different coffee drinks). Church

  • Van S says:

    Hmmm…I’m not sure how the coffee mug corresponds with traditional, the travel mug with contemporary, and the frap with emergent. I only drink from mugs (because I like to sit and relax at the cafe while I drink coffee). I defy their categories!
    By the way Andrew, I notice that you listen to Franz Ferdinand and Greenday…I saw Greenday in concert last week (I thought it kinda stunk) and Franz Ferdiand in concert last night (they utterly and truly blew me away). The cool thing is that both times I went for free (company tickets).

  • Van S' Blog says:

    Towards a More Perfect Consumer Church 3

    Check out this funny post on TallSkinnyKiwi. It points out the consumerism of the church today. I got a very similar mailer from a local area church once (that likens their three different worship styles with different coffee drinks). Church

  • Here’s another place you can ‘choose your blend’
    http://www.churchreviews.org/
    Where people add comments, reviews and provide a guide for others to find a church to call home.

  • D. Goodmanson says:

    Here, forgot to make it a link! This will save people from having to cut/paste. (If you’re lazy like me!)
    Church Reviews & Guide

  • I don’t like coffee. If I were there, I would have to break off and start a new congregation with Coke and Pepsi machines in the lobby.

  • Matt Glover says:

    I’m always a little perplexed about how emc types describe the traditional/established church one way but the emerging church another. For instance, the above lists for traditional and contmeporary as a list of things you’ll find at a gathering, while the emerging one describes less conrete things like feelings/emotions that you might experience. Both are limited to the gathered time only and seem to forget about the rest of the week.
    There’s no doubt that many people find the traditional as a place to connect. Others will find the emerging as shallow and exclusive.
    Regardless of how you see them though, they are all part of the body of Christ. The more we separate ourselves from each other the more we go agaist the prayer of jesus – “May they all be one”.
    Great blog by the way.

  • Kris says:

    Amen to Matt Glover. Let’s build unity rather than criticize another person’s choice of church style, type, etc.

  • fernando says:

    bog standard image-conscious starbacks frap. ok maybe a low-fat frap, but that is worse, isn’t it?
    i think it is a really good graphic for communicating a idea quickly and in broad brushstrokes. this sort of thing is never going to stand up to detailed examination though.

  • kristen says:

    It’s obviously an ICED chai…

  • Van S' Blog says:

    Towards a More Perfect Consumer Church 3

    Check out this funny post on TallSkinnyKiwi. It points out the consumerism of the church today. I got a very similar mailer from a local area church once (that likens their three different worship styles with different coffee drinks). Church

  • Rhett Smith says:

    awesome post Andrew…I always know that i can come to your site, and there is something new, and noteworthy up…thanks for the work.
    When does your tour come to LA?
    rhett

  • Shaping Church

    That complex old question of the shape of church has resurfaced, together with the size of church debate and Robbymac wants the church to look like Starbucks. Either hes just baiting me, or hes making an appeal to go back…

  • Graham Doel says:

    Spare a thought for those of us who come from inherited churches that have our focus around a midweek meeting. A shift in understanding about how and what church is is massive and difficult for the people who gather as our churches to grasp.
    The kind of thing that is illustrated by the graphic is obviously a church grappling with the change. It is not that these churches don’t believe that church is more than a meeting, it is that we are genuinely trying to help our people come to terms with the shift in culture and expectations. If we put a bomb under our churches and made a radical transition we would loose most. At least by doing it slowly we have the potential to carry some.
    There is a need to honour our mother and father so that we may live long in the land (as it were).

  • andrew says:

    well said
    old wineskins and new wineskins are both needed.
    rhett – around oct 13th in LA

  • john says:

    isn’t it all about products fit for the discerning consumer (supermarket religion)…arr dont be so negative, what ae ye doing about it…get behind me guilt…i’m so over infrastructure after mocambique mud floors and mala malas (hymnals)…yeah but i quite enjoy the splendid song lyrics with blazing imagery and colr\ourede letters and wee video clips too…we gather at 5pm Sunday and there’s no way i’m ever going back to 10am when i can be surfing or sleeping or gardning. check out the http://www.mtv.org.nz John

  • The Emerging Church

    What on earth is the Emerging Church? Maybe youve heard of it, maybe you havent.
    Brandon Barker says we are all nerds, just in different ways. Some people are music nerds. Some are baseball nerds. Some are skateboarding n…

  • Pat says:

    That third mug *must* be a Belgian Ale, made with love by Trappist monks.

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