Are “emergent” and “missional” connected? Both of these are words that are being used to describe movements in the church, especially (though by no means exclusively) in the West. But what, if anything, do they have to do with each other. I have run across books and websites that indicate that they are very closely tied and others that make them seem almost completely separate.
Before I give my thoughts on this I thought I’d see if anyone else has a perspective on this question. I think it is an important one because these two terms are being lumped together by some and it is important to know if this is a plausible thing to do.
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I think that many of the leading thinkers in the emerging and missional churches come from the same place, namely, recognizing that perhaps the church that currently dominates american/british culture is entirely irrelevant to younger generations due to its current slavery to modernity. However, the way each of these movements takes shape seems to be pretty different. It kind of seems like the emergent church embraces postmodernity (whatever that means) as its method of procedure while the missional church embraces relationality as its method of procedure. I say all this having read ZERO words on or by people from either movement (unless you include Rob Bell or Pathways as emergent, but I don't think you should...at all).
the taxonomy is really fluid at the present. i would describe them more like concentric circles, which overlap (not synonymous terms).
thus, you'll find many emerging churches that are missional, but not all. inversely, you'll find many missional churches that are emerging, but not all.
the question remains: will the overlap increase or decrease? only time will tell...
Ryan--Good point. I agree that many of the people embracing one or both of these are coming from the same place.
I would say that the embracing of postmodernism by emergent thinkers is on, and with the missional church I think it is mission that is central (which plays out in relationships).
Drew--What would you say makes a church emerging? That's the one I'm having a tough time getting a handle on.
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