Emerging Missional Church (EMC) is a title that gets banded about a lot at the moment but what does EMC actually mean?
1) Emerging just describes the current state of the movement in five years time it could be the emerged MC or perhaps the shrinking MC. So really the term emerging does not really tell us anything about how a EMC type Xn is different form any other Xn.
2) Church is just a collection of Xns and most and again does not really tell us anything about how a EMC type Xn is different form any other Xn.
3) Missional, now missional really depends on what a particular Xn believes is the mission of the church or of Xns.
Now that there is talk that the EMC is about to emerge I can see a bumpy ride ahead and we can learn a lot from the early church who many EMC type people take as the ultimate model for doing church. The EMC covers a huge range of different Christians doing very different things with very different beliefs. I have met hundreds of people that would either put themselves or be put by others into the EMC category, all of whom are very different and half of whom would meet together to do "church".
My guess is the thing that happens if and when the EMC emerges is that it will split.
1) Emerging just describes the current state of the movement in five years time it could be the emerged MC or perhaps the shrinking MC. So really the term emerging does not really tell us anything about how a EMC type Xn is different form any other Xn.
2) Church is just a collection of Xns and most and again does not really tell us anything about how a EMC type Xn is different form any other Xn.
3) Missional, now missional really depends on what a particular Xn believes is the mission of the church or of Xns.
Now that there is talk that the EMC is about to emerge I can see a bumpy ride ahead and we can learn a lot from the early church who many EMC type people take as the ultimate model for doing church. The EMC covers a huge range of different Christians doing very different things with very different beliefs. I have met hundreds of people that would either put themselves or be put by others into the EMC category, all of whom are very different and half of whom would meet together to do "church".
My guess is the thing that happens if and when the EMC emerges is that it will split.
2 comments:
hi, good question, and lots of answers, but here is my view
"emergent" is often a reference to emergent theory which is a radical way of understanding organizational development within a complex system - emergent behaviour is seen in ant colonies and Artificial intelligence and also in churches that are decentralised and emerge organically through constant communication, pattern recognition, simple structures, etc
"missional" is a radical shift in missiology from understanding mission originating from the church to seeing it originate from the heart of God and the church as on mission in partnership with God and as an expression of his missional heart. This understanding stems back to Leslie Newbigin and others and has influenced Gospel in Our Culture Network and many in the emerging culture who now use the term.
thanks for opening the discussion
more here
Thanks Andrew,
Firstly, I like not only like your definitions but would use them to describe myself. However, I'm not sure I know of many people (including EMC type people) who would think that when they think EMC. I often hear people talk about the emerging church finally emerging which to me sounds more like a description of it’s stage in life rather than it being like the ant colony. I wonder if what the ant colony is better described as a “Collective Consciousness”? Also, when you say "Missional is a radical shift in missiology” isn’t that a bit like saying “Theological refers to or means a radical shift in theology”? Again I agree with the sentiment of a partner ship with God. In fact this is the Analogy I often use to talk about how I see my relationship with God (see lastest
post) but again I'm not sure I know of many people (including EMC type people) who would think that when they think EMC.
Perhaps we could drop EMC and replace it with. “A Christian Collective Consciousness in Harmony with God.” Or does that scream New Age?
Aggghhh anyway, thanks for your reply, can you see why I’m still not happy with the term “Emerging Missional Church”?
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