I did see that blog post, and the MP3 is a message by Dick Kaufmann, not Tim Keller. :) (Kaufmann did work closely with Keller years ago, so he probably shares similarities in philosophy of ministry)
Bumble
· 2 years ago
DJ, sorry about my last lead. It wasn't Keller at all :( He was just using Keller's stuff. The Keller CDs "Preaching to the Heart" from Gordon-Conwell is most comprehensive on the subject...
Andrew
· 2 years ago
One of the most enjoyable courses (for me) was Steve Taylor's Emergent Church course (@ Bible College of New Zealand, Christchurch campus - you can see Steve's blog at http://www.emergentkiwi.org.nz/.
From doing this course what was apparent to me was that it was simply looking to apply the lessons learnt in overseas mission to the local context. That is we are comfortable with going to the mission field and putting in huge amounts of time and energy to learn the culture, the language, the world-view etc to be able to engage with people in a way they can understand - YET - when it comes to the local mission field we are unwilling to do the same. There seems to be here a dualism - overseas what is different is called culture / local context it is often seen as some form of evil / compromise / syncretism.
I came out of the course with four questions (borrowed from the missional thought in an overseas context) that I wanted to raise within my own context:
1) How can we 'incarnate' in this culture and what do we need to do to ensure this is an indigenous community? 2) What are the barriers to entry for outsiders - how can we eliminate these? 3) How can we make radical disciples and ensure that this is participatory? 4) Is our concept able to be self-sustaining within this cultural setting or easy to reduplicate?
Whilst I don't agree with everything I hear in Emergent Church thought the intensely missiological questions that it raises - and confronts the 'less Emergent' Church with - are worth listening to.
Ed
· 1 year ago
dj~
Thank you for this article. I think this is the most concise definition I have seen about "What is emergent". I think with so many different views and thoughts on emerging/emergent it is hard to really grasp what is really going on.
djchuang
· 1 year ago
Ed, thanks for the kind words. The thing is, there isn't only one definition or one kind of emerging church, there are at least 3 different kinds, even more depending on who is defining the terms. There are many kinds, as I've recently found a handful of articles -- listed at http://www.djchuang.com/2008/many-kinds-of-emer...
All Comments
From doing this course what was apparent to me was that it was simply looking to apply the lessons learnt in overseas mission to the local context. That is we are comfortable with going to the mission field and putting in huge amounts of time and energy to learn the culture, the language, the world-view etc to be able to engage with people in a way they can understand - YET - when it comes to the local mission field we are unwilling to do the same. There seems to be here a dualism - overseas what is different is called culture / local context it is often seen as some form of evil / compromise / syncretism.
I came out of the course with four questions (borrowed from the missional thought in an overseas context) that I wanted to raise within my own context:
1) How can we 'incarnate' in this culture and what do we need to do to ensure this is an indigenous community?
2) What are the barriers to entry for outsiders - how can we eliminate these?
3) How can we make radical disciples and ensure that this is participatory?
4) Is our concept able to be self-sustaining within this cultural setting or easy to reduplicate?
Whilst I don't agree with everything I hear in Emergent Church thought the intensely missiological questions that it raises - and confronts the 'less Emergent' Church with - are worth listening to.
Thank you for this article. I think this is the most concise definition I have seen about "What is emergent". I think with so many different views and thoughts on emerging/emergent it is hard to really grasp what is really going on.