What is the Emerging Church?

The A La Carte Faith is, by some definition, a synonym for the emergent church. In other words, to pick and choose what looks best is left in the hands of the believer .

The Emergent church movement is basically described as a new method of protest led by those who have grown up and come from more traditional, conservative and evangelical churches. The leaders also typically have come from a somewhat fundamentalist mindset. The caption of the movement can be described as 'moving form absolute to authentic.'

Church attendees who have been surrounded by fundamentalist absolutes may have been left somewhat indoctrinated without a very real grasp of authentic faith.

Instead, they have learned absolute truths and desperately tried to apply these truths. The problem is that without a real relationship with Christ, church attendees are left chasing after an unattainable standard which they cannot meet, and subsequently, these church goers are left in a rather prudent and ineffective spiritual state.

A natural response to this type of upbringing and church background was a quest for more and a quest for change. Not only is the emerging church a protest of some of the more fundamentalist driven approaches, it is also a community driven approach which tolerates difference and holds people with opposing viewpoints to a high standard of dignity. This is said to be the essence of the emerging church movement.

It is also extremely important to many of the leaders of this movement that the movement itself is not anti-modern. While the movement recognizes the need for change, it is not about eliminating the previous existence of the church, nor is it about changing everything that the modern church consists of.

Brian McLaren, one of the main leaders and articulate speakers of the movement, has written several works and led several lectures in regards to the topic of the Emerging church.

McLaren emphasizes the fact that too much of the Western thought process has been reliant on certainties that may or may not be absolutes. McLaren recognizes that we must not eliminate all former ways of thinking, rather we must identify how our thinking has been controlled and influenced.

McLaren emphasizes the viewpoint that no single outlook can be the entire explanation of reality. For example, for a Christian to completely accept everything the Methodist Church accepts and reject everything a Presbyterian church accepts is a very narrow way of looking at things. This can also be defined as pluralism.

Also, McLaren draws attention to relativism. McLaren points out that morality and religion are relative to the people who embrace them. It is also necessary to point out that if relativism and pluralism are given free reign, the church is left with nothing to hang onto and a very low chance of remaining faithful to the Bible.
However, absolutism alone comes across as entirely too devastating. A cure for absolutism is a dose of relativism in order to prevent self-righteousness, pride and a lack of compassion and understanding. Relativism allows for a higher sense of dignity and respect for outside ideas.

Some of McLaren's main points include acceptance of people with different faiths gladly, that dialogue should be congruent with confidence in the gospel, that missional dialogue requires humility and vulnerability, and that the old, old story may not be the true, true story. McLaren also emphasizes that we know no way of salvation apart from Christ, but we do not prejudge what God may do with others.

The emergent church is somewhat comparable to the Reformation. It is a movement led by leaders who have departed from traditional ways of thinking. The change is not led by a protest of what was, but rather an attempt to become something better.

It is also said that at the heart of the movement is an attempt to adjust to a major change in the culture itself.

The movement is of course followed by critics' response in which many critics see the movement as yet another instance of the pendulum swinging. Critics warn that as the pendulum swings, it may do some unintended damage before it comes to rest.