Emerging Church

Was sitting in the pub with some friends at the youth work conference in Southport, and got talking to Mark, the Diocese Youth Worker for Chester. We were talking about emerging youth culture and the emerging church movement. If I remember correctly his argumnet was that nothing is really emerging anymore. Its all old, as old as youth work has been. When youth work first start way back in the 50's it was new for that time. Everything was funky and relevant. Youth work has evolved somewhat since then. He said that the emerging church has come out of emerging youth work. It was the youth workers of the 50's that were thinking outside the box, and making church relevant for young people at that era.

that's exactly what's happening today.

So many churches have, fresh expressions, and alternative services for young people, so much so that they are now old. There are only so many times you can use multi media in your youth work, that it eventually becomes the norm. Its no longer new. Its no longer emerging.

that I agree with to a degree.

Emerging church is only new if you have not experienced anything like it before. The church I work for are starting up 'Alternative Services' for our youth. This involves, big bands, and fancy multi media, big PA and guest speakers. For some, this is an average Sunday night youth service. For this church, its radical! My aim is not just to stick to the bigness and spectacularness (!) of the service, but to also re explore Liturgy. To have a very high mass service with bells and smells, or to do meditations, or to sit in silence in candle light, or to have a Monk lead prayers. All this alongside the big band senario.

The other thing is, and this is something I'm beginning to get my head round more, is emerging church is more than multi media, or meeting in a pub. Its about rediscovering Christ, its about becoming a christian again and again. If you hold a church service in a pub, your not necessarily an emerging church, your church, just one with a different venue!

so it got me thinking, have we emerged so far that we actually have regressed?

for example.... The classic song by the legend Graham Kendrick, Shine, Jesus Shine, has come back to be one of the best worship songs. 15 years ago it was done so much that it became cringey and I would frown and hide in embarrassment whenever it was sung. But as the years have passed, it is actually a really good song (dare I say...)

the things of old, are now the things of new.

I believe that there are Christians out there, (me being one of them) wanting to go back to the early days of Christ, when he was around and be like the early church. Follow in their exact footsteps. Taking example of the church in Acts and living and loving one another, like Christ asks.

Are we emerging?