Four helpful (and sound) categories for engaging the Emerging Church conversation

I found this input from Richard Rohr extremely helpful to put a finger on the emerging conversation in relation to the Church.

What do you think?

It comes from emergent village

On the verge of the first-ever Catholic-Emergent conference, being held this weekend at the Center for Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, New Mexico, here’s a video of Fr. Richard Rohr from January’s webcast. Here Rohr describes the four categories (or, rather, aspects or characteristics) of “emerging church” as he sees it:

Here are Rohr’s four categories/aspects/characteristics:

• "an honest, broad, ecumenical Jesus scholarship"
• "a contemplative mind"
• "a conclusion that many of the major concerns of Jesus are at major variance with what most of our churches have emphasized"
• "new structures … new community mechanisms that can make this [new reformation] possible, because we don’t want to form a new denomination"

Please discuss in the comments your thoughts/reactions to Rohr's four categories/characteristics of "emerging church."

Related: Catholics join Emerging Church conversation — great quotes from an original Brian McLaren interview, as well as more quotes from the Rohr webcast

Follow this weekend’s Emerging Church Conference on Twitter (#cac09):

I would love to hear other approaches, ideas and some feedback. This made a lot of sense to me as I think about my frustrations with the Church and my 'emerging' perspective on Church.

By the way my lecture at Hinde street propossed three similar theological categories. I hope to have the final version of the text completed early this week and uploaded to the Hinde Street site where you can download it.

Comments

[Thomas Scarborough]

Personally, I do not have experience of emergent Churches which have succeeded, and I do have experience of ones which haven't. Having studied emergent Church in the USA, under one or two of its leadings proponents, I considered it to have much in common with emergent evolution, a la de Chardin: perhaps hence the term "emergent". In philosophical terms, it would seem to have much in common with coherentism.

[Thomas Scarborough]

I should add that "emergent" and "emerging" are not entirely synonymous/coterminous. Expnanation forthcoming if anyone wants to know!

[Anonymous]

Hi Dion,

Greetings from Canada. I was looking for a contact email for you but didn't see one right off so am posting a few thoughts here.

I, along with a huge number, were delighted to go to the Emerging Christianity Conf. in Albuquerque. There are some good reports available which encapsulate the conf's teachings and the mutual positive spiritual dynamic experienced among those who attended.

I completed a Doctor of Ministry degree and have made my dissertation available at: www.ChurchExiters.com.

Bye for now,
Barb O.
You can email me at: info@churchexiters.com