What is the “emerging church?”

By Ken Gore, chairman of the Department of Christian Ministries,
Williams Baptist College

In their excellent book, Emerging Churches (Baker, 2005), Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger define emerging churches as those that identify with the life of Jesus, transform the secular realm and live highly communal lives. Through these three aspects, emerging churches share Jesus with postmodern culture.
Emerging churches identify with the life of Jesus by challenging their members to live their Christianity “24-7.” Members strive to be real with Jesus, each other and the world around them. These churches want Christians to live as if the Kingdom of God truly is at hand.
Emerging churches transform the secular realm by dismantling the boundaries between the sacred and the secular. Whereas most churches separate from modern culture, emerging churches seek to find the sacred within the secular. More than a modernization of worship styles or the addition of PowerPoint, these churches engage their culture in order to demonstrate the grace of Christ.
Emerging churches live highly communal lives, thus they avoid the compartmentalization of Christianity. For them, the church is not a building; it is a community of believers who strive to love and serve one another everyday. In so doing, it breaks the boundaries between the church and the world.
While some aspects of the emerging church movement prompt concern, most of it is challenging. The emerging church strives to be like the New Testament church in Acts: a wall-less entity that meets throughout the week for worship, service, fellowship and teaching.
The emerging church also emulates the Apostle Paul’s philosophy. Paul embraced his culture to engage in spiritual conversation. Paul not only debated the Jews in the synagogue, he also spoke with the Greeks about their “unknown god” at Athens. Quoting no Scripture, Paul used the Greeks’ own teachings to point them to Christ (Acts 17:16-34). Paul’s reason was clear: he wanted to be all things to all people so that by all possible means he could save some (1 Cor. 9:22).
Though its future is uncertain, the emerging church movement has taught conventional churches a valuable lesson: it must change. To reach the world for Christ, churches must learn the world’s language, and they must show that Christ’s Kingdom truly makes a difference.

In line with Dr. Gore's thoughts, one must also consider the Missional Church movement. The term “missional” has become a popular buzz word in Southern Baptist circles over the past couple of years, but missional is more than a buzz word. Also, because of its frequent use, some people have assumed that “missional” is a new word. However, the term was used by Dr. Francis DuBose, former professor at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, in his book “God Who Sends” published in 1983.

Despite the fact that missional terminology has been in use for at least a quarter of a century, it is being applied today in such a wide variety of ways that many times it results in confusion. While any word is defined at least in part by the intention of the person using it, I believe there are some essential distinctives that can be identified to bring clarity and explanation to the use of the word missional. I would argue for the inclusion of three key elements to best understand what it means for a church to be missional.

1. The Missional Church is about the missionary nature of God and His church.

The church is a vital part of the missional conversation. However, the church is seen not as “a place where” religious goods and services are provided, but instead it is understood as the gathered and sent people of God. The Missional Church understands the purpose of the church is derived from the very nature of God.

Scripture is replete with language that speaks to the missionary nature of a Triune God. God the Father sends the Son, and God the Father and the Son sends the Spirit, and God the Father and the Son and the Spirit sends the church. In the Gospel of John alone, Jesus describes Himself more than thirty times as “one sent.” In the final climatic sending passage in John’s Gospel Jesus sees himself not only as one sent but also as one who is sending: “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21).

Therefore missional churches are those communities of Christ-followers who see the church as a missionary people sent, individually and collectively on a mission. They understand that the church does not simply do mission, instead it is mission.

2. The Missional Church is about the church being incarnational rather than attractional.

Those with a missional perspective no longer see the church service as the primary connecting point for those outside the church. The missional church is more concerned about sending the people in the church out among the people of the world, rather than getting the people of the world in among the people of the church. Others have described this distinction as a challenge to “go and be” as opposed to “come and see.”

Missional churches see their primary function as one of actively moving into a community to embody and enflesh the word, deed and life of Jesus into every nook and cranny. I love Eugene Peterson’s “incarnational” rendering of John 1:14 in the Message paraphrase when it says, “The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.”

3. The Missional Church is about actively participating in the missio Dei, or mission of God.

Many times we wrongly assume that the primary activity of God is in the church, rather than recognizing that God’s primary activity is in the world, and the church is God’s instrument sent into the world to actively participate in His redemptive mission.

As the sent, missionary people of God, the missional church understands its fundamental purpose as being rooted in God’s mission to restore and heal creation and to call people into a reconciled relationship with Himself. It is God’s mission, or missio Dei, that calls the church into existence. Or in the words of South African missiologist David Bosch; “It is not the church which undertakes mission; it is the missio Dei which constitutes the church.”