Conversing With Emergents   A Review of Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications D. A. Carson (©2005, Zondervan, ISBN: 0-310-25947-9)

 

Individuals representing entrenched interests often view critique of their cause as condemnation. To bystanders, the contest between critics and counter-critics often throws up so much dust that both the contestants and issues are lost in the fray. The current rift between Evangelicals and the “Emerging Church” is the latest spat within English-speaking Christianity.

 

In a nutshell, Evangelicals are a kinder, gentler version of Fundamentalists. You might think of them as Fundamentalists who have been re-configured for the late-twentieth century. They comprise denominations with a pietistic heritage that preaches and practices a personal faith in Jesus Christ that secures their eternal destiny. This belief drives a passionate desire to evangelize and proselytize that has resulted in the fastest growing churches in the English-speaking world. Some evangelical churches are so consumed with a passion for lost souls that they have implemented “seeker sensitive” services geared specifically for reaching out to the unchurched. In their most highly developed form, these churches have grown so large that they are classified as “mega-churches” with rolls that can exceed 10,000 members.

 

In spite of such obvious success, a significant group of vocal critics of commercially successful Christianity has expressed dismay at what they have seen. These disgruntled, disaffected individuals find much of Evangelicalism shallow and consumer-driven. Rather than agitating within the fold for change, they have left their denominational folds and have started their own congregations to counter what they see as an unhealthy inward focus on catering to believers. This exodus from Evangelicalism was called “postmodern Christianity” in its early days but has recently reconfigured itself around the less polarizing term, the “Emerging Conversation” (they prefer not to be called a movement). They are also called the Emerging Church or Emergents for short. In a number of books and through a highly visible Internet presence made up of blogs, discussion groups and web sites, these Emerging Church leaders have spawned a cottage industry promoting a new kind of Christianity.

 

As one might guess, the Emergent Conversation is vocal and, at times, vituperative in its critique of the entrenched interests of Evangelicals. In response, Evangelicals have fired back with their own critiques of the newly entrenched interests that comprise the Emerging Church. Carson’s book, Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church, is one such critique. It has received returning salvos from the Emergents since its release early last year but few of them address the substance of Carson’s book, resorting more often to ad hominem attacks against Carson or faulting the book’s style.

 

Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church is an excellent introduction to the controversy for the majority of Evangelicals who are wondering what all the talk is about. For people who have read Brian McLaren, Leonard Sweet, Dan Kimball and many of the other voices in the Emergent Conversation, the book is less helpful. Carson has taken on the unenviable task of painting a multivariate, multifaceted movement with a broad brush, but has done it surprisingly well. For all their talk of nonconformity and individualism, there are a number of common themes among the Emergents and Carson does a yeoman’s job of pointing them out.

 

He begins with an acknowledgement that many of the critiques Emergents level against Evangelicals have a certain amount of credence, even if they are lacking in balance. Carson points out strengths and positive attributes of Emergents but then goes on to show how their analysis of the contemporary culture is often narrow, oversimplified and lacking in sufficient depth to be truly helpful. He describes the leaders of the Emerging Church as being so enamored with postmodernism that they don’t think through the implications of their arguments. Nor do they identify the multifaceted approach of Evangelicals in responding to the cultural shifts they find so infatuating.

 

Carson closes his book with a detailed analysis of Brian McLaren’s A Generous Orthodoxy and a less extensive critique of Steve Chalke’s The Lost Message of Jesus. He then follows this with a long list of biblical passages designed to show how Evangelicals aren’t in as tight a corner as McLaren and Chalke paint them. This, however, is the weakest part of Carson’s book and can be easily skimmed without losing the essential message. In short, Carson points out that the Emerging Church is shallow, biblically illiterate and lacks a rigorous attention to doctrine. What Carson has missed, is that American culture in general reflects the trends in the Emerging Church and that the Emergents represent the symptom, rather than the disease of a syncretizing worldview.

 

by Rick Presley