the church and the emerging church (pete and repete jumped off a bridge)

at one of my favorite blogs, Carol Merrit at tribalchurch writes:

I love the ECM because it gives ex-fundies (like me) a refuge. There’s an entire generation of people who grew up in conservative evangelical churches who were told that they had to be Republicans to go to heaven. We were told that caring for the earth didn’t matter, because Jesus was coming back any time now. We were told that the rich were rich because God blessed them and the poor were poor because they deserved it. We were told that women were to always graciously submit to men. We were told that same-gender relationships were an abomination. And none of this made sense in the actual world that we lived in and loved. But the emerging church has become a place for these people.

She continues with some concerns, among others, that there are few women in leadership positions in the emerging church movement:

I don’t understand why more women aren’t in leadership positions. I’ve told it’s because it’s a meritocracy and as soon as women start producing, then they can be in leadership. But I see women producing all the time. Beautifully. Just not usually in emerging church leadership. And I’m not stepping into a feminist time warp to become a part of a movement.

This is a concern I share. Another concern I have is about the use of strategies that are currently considered "emergent" being coopted as tactics to "draw people in" to whatever church, project, etc. people are working on. Not that it is bad to draw people in, but that adopting a certain style often evolves into a routine and then eventually a ritual (which can still be enjoyable as a ritual, eg the doxology).

I have only been to two churches affiliated with the emerging church movement, and attending both of them were fairly depressing as spiritual experiences (but quite inspiring thinking about the potential for social change). I personally felt at both churches like I was at a conference for the Abercrombie and Fitch crowd-- at a church that existed for all the people that made fun of me in high school sort of thing. At both churches there was a late 30s early 40 something pastor that "wanted to be real" a band, coffee, a powerpoint presentation with the sermon. Maybe I am weird and these tactics do reach most people in my demographic. At one of the churches they resorted to U2 music (something i used to enjoy before it reminded me i was a demographic)

Carol pointed out how she cannot understand why the EC is so cynical about mainline pension plans etc. I think that's especially ironic as there are quite a few emergent folks out there who have made quite a name (and market) for themselves through the EC movement.

More on this later perhaps. You can read the rest of Carol's thoughts here.