The emerging church movement questions traditional Protestant beliefs and seeks relevance in today’s world. It attracts young adults but is controversial among evangelicals and mainstream Protestants who fear losing traditional Christianity. Emerging church members seek deeper meaning in scriptures and believe in contextualizing the Bible’s content. They prioritize a global perspective and informal communication style in their congregations.
The emerging church is a fairly new movement in the Protestant church that considers theological issues about the church and the Bible. Rather than accepting the church’s historic traditions as absolutes, emerging church members seek to experience their faith in today’s world and seek solutions to today’s problems. The church’s emerging philosophy of religious relevance has helped attract young adults back to church attendance, but it is controversial among both evangelical and mainstream Protestants.
Unlike those in the emerging church, evangelical Protestants feel that the Bible is absolute truth. They believe that faith in Jesus Christ is absolutely necessary for salvation and that a person must accept that salvation and be “born again.” The word “evangelical” comes from the Greek “evangelical” which means the Good News of Jesus; Evangelicals believe in spreading the Good News of Jesus.
Like those in the emerging church, mainstream Protestants do not feel that the Bible is absolute, but tend to contextualize the Bible’s content. They see that different interpretations of the biblical scriptures are possible. Traditional Protestants do not consider conversion as necessary for salvation as do Evangelicals.
However, many mainstream Protestants, such as Evangelical Protestants, also view the traditions of Christianity as important. Many mainstream Protestants fear that the Bible and traditional Protestant Christianity itself could be lost in the emerging church movement. Evangelical Protestants also protest that the gospel is truth and should not be challenged.
The emerging church, also called the emerging church, is considered post-Protestant, post-evangelical, and postmodern. While modernism is associated with an indisputable truth, postmodernism questions the foundations of power and the emotionally manifested ideas behind what is called truth. While modernism sees only one answer, postmodernism sees the possibility of several answers as well as the possibility that sometimes there may not be an immediate or simple answer.
Emerging church members, usually young and white, seek deeper meaning in scriptures and ask theological questions such as, “How do we know this is the truth?” and “How do we know this happened?” They believe that following Jesus’ teachings today means different things than it did hundreds of years ago. They seek relevance and feel that the Bible can be, and has been, interpreted in many different ways. The emerging church believes Christianity should be concerned with having a global perspective and not just thinking about the power of the white, middle-class status quo; emerging church members see the church as having traditionally done so.
Ministers of emerging churches often wear jeans and allow guitars and modern music during services. The emerging contemporary church culture is usually quite informal, and sofas often replace pews. A face-to-face communication style where each member is seen as having a voice to be heard is the goal of most emerging church congregations.
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