Emerging into Emergent

Gary Gilley's posts on the Emergent church are all over the Internet, so of course that has sparked the next few posts from me here at Crossroads.


Let's take a time travel trip back to the 1960's...............the era of the Baby Boomers coming of age..........

Flower children. Joan Baez. PCP. Uppers, downers and all-arounders. P*E*A*C*E. Bob Dylan. Make LOVE not WAR. Janis Joplin. Liberal idealist socialism. McCarthy (Eugene, not Joseph). Marijuana. Chicago police. Black Panthers. The Beatles. Transcendental Meditation. "Don't trust anyone over 30." Hair. Volkswagon vans with flower power painted all over. Woodstock. The Who and Tommy. Love, Peace and Joy. Jesus Christ Superstar. Vietnam. The Mamas and the Papas.

Their Philosophies
*Truth is what we think and say it is.
*Helping people is more important than sitting around talking about and obeying rules and decorum.
*Lots of hypocrisy in the society.
*The environment is what we should be focusing on - in fact let's live in the woods.
*Perhaps the Eastern religions can teach us something we are missing here in Western society.

Somehow, with the exception of the Jesus People, the church missed out. In most cases this was very good because they retained their teaching and morality; but in another sense they never really did engage it.

And so as a result of that.....................


The Emergent church (children of the Boomers for the most part)......
Their Philosophies
*Biblical truth is what we think and say it is.
*Helping people is more important than doctrinal truth.
*Lots of hypocrisy in the church
*The environment is somehting we should be focusing much more on.
*Perhaps the Eastern religions can teach us something we are missing here in the Western church.


I would say the children of the Baby Boomers have learned their parents' teachings quite well.