I don’t think the emerging church is a trend. I think it stems from a genuine hunger for acceptance and a generous application of God’s grace. Now of course, some will want to capitalize upon that hunger and will want to commercialize it, but I don’t think that means we need to pile on the movement as a whole. Without such movements, the church would become a stagnant pond. It’s refresshing that some want to rid the church of pretenses and get back to what is authentic. Is it a perfect movement? Of course not, but I think if we are going to be afraid of something, it’s more realistic to fear growing stagnant, ambiguity intolerant, legalistic and addicted to structure.

Some people do not quite understand the emergent movement because a lot has been said of it that does not understand it. You can go into a non-emergent church and hear things about it that are not quite true.

Still, I don’t think emergent is anything. It can be anything, though perhaps not so, though maybe. Emergent doesn’t know what it is, even if it knows what it wants to be. There are too many voices to pin it down. I’d be hesitant to say anything about emergent in a concrete way.

Firstly, you are apparently confusing emergent and with the wider emerging church and are obviously not clear where Jerrod and TallSkinnyKiwi fit into the picture. As someone closer to the action I can tell you that most of the concerns raised by evangelicals like Don Carson have to do with Emergent Village, which is indeed quite liberal, and not the wider emerging church conversation, which can be quite evangelical in some quarters. In fact, some who have been associated with the conversation, like Mark Driscoll, are very much in the Reformed tradition. Given the confusion people like yourselves often have over the similar labels, TallSkinnyKiwi recently dropped using “emerging church” language all together, just to avoid being confused with other groups which are not representative of where he is at. Many others are in the same boat.

Secondly, before casting the first stone I suggest you actually talk to people. You’ll find there are plenty committed to Jesus as the way, the truth and the life. Beware of bearing false witness.

Thirdly, while I know plent of folk in the conversation who are anabaptist influenced, few claim to be Anabaptist in a Capital A sense. They tend to draw influence from various quarters and that’s just one of them. You need to listen deeper to find out what its about.

I was raised in the (then) Old Conference Mennonite church, (now the MCEC) then shifted to the Mennonite Brethren in the seventies and after a time in the AGC returned to the MB Church

Through the swings in how we “do church” the Mennonites, even when sometimes weighted heavily towards the “social gospel”, and with the “Missional” emphasis, have not totally lost sight of that basic foundation - Christ First, Foremost, and ONLY.
The Emergent movement as a whole has not yet discovered that truth.

It is perhaps good to accept some of the chastisement they heap on the established church, but be VERY carefull about accepting their solutions. A little bit of truth can be extremely dangerous when it hides falsehood behind it’s veneer.

Ha… awesome word.

I am Anabaptistic.

And thanks for the link.