The Emerging Church Is Dead Because Church Is Dead.
Nick has kicked up a little ant bed which has been fun and reminded me what the bad boys of summer used to accomplish back in our glory days when we used to piss people off for fun.
So I thought I would enter into the fray for a few minutes and just say that I think the whole “emerging church” conversation is a moot one. The richest and most robust expressions of “church” never have to be blogged about or talked about. They just happen. Because they are less church and more kingdom. Less church and more “good of the world”. Less church and more seminal for all involved.
I had a hunch about this a few years ago. I’m just ashamed that it took me so long to shut my mouth about the whole damn thing and just practice “for the good of the world”. While I wouldn’t trade my glory years of blogging and podcasting for a million dollars (unlike other sell outs), I wish I would have spoken with softer tones and more tempered explorations a few years ago.
To this day The Tall Skinny Kiwi and his converted U-Haul, my friends the Hendersons and D10s and their house church, the Sharps and their traveling music, the Samsons and their projects, the Bronsinks and their intentional living . . . these are the models that have inspired me to become a better man, a better father, a better friend. These people are where the life is. Where the hope is. Where the inspiration is. Embedded deeply amongst friends who are family. Knee deep in it.a
If I was still a proponent of “church” and believed in it, it would only be because of these expressions of it.
The Emerging Church and to a lesser extent the receptical of the conversation, Emergent Village, are now neutered versions of what they could be. The protectors of the conversation have A) either sold out or B) still talking to hear themselves talk. And in it’s place is just another cliche marketing veneer straight out of Grand Rapids. The degree of difference between all of the hodge podged groups that fall under the emerging/missional/resurgence banner is the degree to how much of a UFC pride fighter Jesus really is. Other than that it’s the same colored conversation, just a different shade.
There is no more subversion. There is no more critique. There is no more prophetic voice. Emerging Church is big church now. And the big boys have pushed the little boys out of the sand box.
Being away from the “conversation” for over a year now and having the unique perspective of looking back in on it, I’m reminded of the little boy from The Matrix. While Neo talks about moving the spoon and bending the spoon, the little boy simply says, “There is no spoon.”
I’m telling you right now there is no spoon. The emerging church is dead because church is dead. The emerging church is irrelevant because church as we are still talking about it in the conversation is irrelevant.
And while I’m no Pete Rollins with his veiled parables, I’ll go one step further, the god of the emerging church is dead. In it’s place is neither agnosticism nor atheism nor theism. In it’s place is a space for a spoon that does not exist.
