Looking Back...and Ahead

by Tony Jones

On the eve of the third Emergent Convention, I thought we could take a little walk back through time.  Some of you will read this with winsome memories, and for others it will fill in gaps and hopefully help you understand how willy-nilly this whole Emergent thing is.

In 1997, Doug Pagitt left the employ of Wooddale Church in Minnesota and went to work for Leadership Network, a Texas-based foundation that brings together church leaders who mainly talk about building bigger churches (yes, that's a charicature).  Doug's job was to build networks of youth pastors and young adult pastors, but being the radical subversive that he is, Doug quickly attracted some revolutionaries who thought that the whole way church is done in the U.S. needed to be overthrown.

The "Young Leaders' Network" was born.  A national conference was held in Glorieta, NM (earlier incarnations, called "GenX 1.0" and GenX 2.0" came before what is now simply referred to in Emergent lore as "Glorieta").  The national gathering was followed by several regional conferences, and the word was spreading -- by this time, many of the individuals who are currently on the "Coordinating Group" were involved, as well as several others who have since chosen to distance themselves from Emergent.

Big changes were taking place at Leadership Network as Doug and Shelley left to plant Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis.  Regardless of the work of new personnel and those of us who were volunteering, what had then become known as "Terra Nova" was doomed.  Ultimately, we wanted to talk about changes in theology, and Leadership Network avoided theological conversations in an attempt to maintain a "big tent."

After a bit of treading water, including a significant meeting in Chigago to try and salvage the Leadership Network realtionship, we had a conference call and formally decided to go it on our own, under the name "Emergent."

It was only a week after and with no knowledge of that call that Mark Oestreicher of Youth Specialties flew to Minneapolis and met with Doug Pagitt, Brian McLaren, Dan Kimball, and me to talk about books and conventions.  What Marko offered was basically a platform, the very thing that had been lost when the relationship with Leadership Network dried up.  Marko came as a friend of the nascent Emergent -- that is, he has theological and cultural symathies with what we're up to -- and also as a businessman.  Marrying those two aspects of himself, he said this would give Emergent a chance to get the message out through books and conferences, and we said yes.

(As with any history, this is incomplete, ignoring several important aspects, including 1) the people at Jossey-Bass taking a risk and publishing Brian's A New Kind of Christian after several others passed, 2) the relationships formed with other emergers around the globe, 3) the advent of blogging, etc.)

Now at least the conference aspect of that partnership with YS is ending.  But in so many ways, Emergent is no longer in need of a platform.  Brian is now among the "25 most influential Evangelical leaders in the U.S." and is selling truckloads of books. Others are getting lots of requests for book deals and conference speaking, and lots of organizations are waiting in the queue to help Emergent with events and publishing.

But we hope you've noticed something in the past week, since YS announced that it was bowing out of the convention after this year: that is our deliberate push for "contributers" and "affiliates."  Emergent has always been a friendship, and that's not just a platitude.  We want as many people and organizations involved in this thing as possible.  The "Coordinating Group" is just that, a small and rotating group of individuals who are attempting to coordinate the contributions of dozens of individuals and organizations.  (Regardless of what you read on blogs, the Coordinating Group is not an elite group of emergers, but simply a collection of volunteers who are attempting to keep this thing rolling down the tracks.)

So, the big question for you is, How are you and/or your organization going to be involved?

Comments

[Tim Bednar]

First, I appreciate what Emergent has done and what it will do. I've been following the convention story with interest--I was first introduced to the "emerging church" through The Ooze, Next-Wave, Alt Worship (Steve Collins) and Jordon Cooper. So I came to Emergent late--I always wanted to attend the conferences but as of yet have not.

Anyways, Tony's last question just struck me as possibly being upside down, "How are you and/or your organization going to be involved?"

[J.R.]

Tony,

If I may, I want to share that I have been involved in ongoing dialogue with many others who are tapped into the Emergent conversation. These emerging leaders and ministers (me included) feel we want to contribute, but have no clue what that means or how that might take shape. Or, at least, they/we feel inferior in believing that even though they/we have been blogging, emailing, attending the emergent conventions, read the eYS books, they/we are not schooled enough, articulate enough, networked enough, cool enough, etc. to be more involved to conversate at the table of dialogue.

I (like many others) certainly want to be involved more, but feel as though I am ignorant of how as well as feel a bit inferior to what I might offer. This thought process is rampant, I believe.

Maybe this would be a good thing to discuss this week in San Diego from the stage. I'll be there...maybe I'll find you and introduce myelf to you at a break.

[Marlon Millner]

Hey, I think I will try this again. I don't know if I am "connected" or not, but whatever. Since my first post a while back, I've been thinking about some good African American ya'll could be in conversation with. It's cool that you have Kenneth Ulmer and Kirbyjon Caldwell, etc., but I would not call either of them "emergent," unless there is something about their ministries I don't know about.

That said, there is this real cool cat in Washington, DC (McLaren should go check him out). Rev. Dr. Emil Thomas. This guy left a pretty reputable Baptist church in the city to launch Destiny! Church www.destinychurchdc.org. Please check out the "values" area. I think you'll find much in common and to like about Thomas (check out the "pastor" section too!).

I read someone's post about MLK, well Thomas has worked with folks who worked with MLK. Oh, BTW, I think your theology stuff could use a heavy dose of people of color. You know a lot of black folks have been postliberal, or emergent or whatever for a number of years, but we just don't call it that. Evangelical, fundamentalists, etc., we don't do the labels of American (white) Christian debates. I know I'm probably hashing over the same stuff. But you all may not realize that communities of color and international communities, it seems to me, spend less time theorizing and more time actualizing. Finally, if you wanna find something emergent ... check out "Into all the world: Black Pentecostalism and Global Contexts," March 18, 2005 at Harvard University. I helped birth this baby, and it's going to be interesting. www.hds.harvard.edu/news/pentecostal_conf/

Grace, peace and blessings...

[Andrew Jones]

well done, tony. Great little history and a look ahead.

[Geoff Holsclaw]

J. R.
I want to respond to your comment that "emerging leaders and ministers (me included) feel we want to contribute, but have no clue what that means or how that might take shape."

I would say that the best way to contibute to emergent is to think locally (b/c most of us aren't going to be national figures...which is OK). 3 years ago I started a network of pastors/student in Chicago to dialoue about the emerging church/culture. And that has been my contribution b/c my conviction has always been that only when local pastor comes face to face (off the internet and beyond 'national' conference) would this conversation have any lasting effect.

And right now Emergent is starting to put a great deal of energy into forming these local learning communities, or what we call 'cohort'.

Here is a preview of some content that will shortly appear on the emergentvillage site concerning cohorts:

"One of Emergent's dreams for the next several years is the development of local/regional learning communities in strategic locations around the country, which we call cohorts. We hope to do this because:
• We are eager to identify and assist a new generation of leaders.
• We desire to promote and enhance the local participation and the grassroots nature of the emerging church conversation.
• We hope to encourage and continue this kind of theological dialogue in many different strategic locations.
• We hope to utilize these cohorts through the hosting of local/regional mini-conferences."

So, in short, if you really want to contribute in a tangible way (without the requirement of being hip/cool/articulate/or a genius, form a cohort.

[Emergent Killer]

This is the BEST NEWS I've heard in 2005. It's about time people get with the program and DUMP these guys at Emergent. Emergent is a joke. They are all angry wanna-be's who talk about the next new thing but all live in suburban non-influential cities in the middle America. You guys would be more credible if you lived in like NY, San Fran or LA. Santa Cruz, isn't that where rich white people live???

A Voice from Los Angeles

[Sivin Kit]

Thanks for the brief history ... I got a condensed version of this last year from a common friend of ours :-)

I'm still working on how our cohort can work in Kuala LUmpur Malaysia. It's slow and steady. Sounds like I fit in the role of a "contributer" then?

[el mol]

what a heartwarming walk down memory lane

[el mol]

who is emergent killer?

[Sherman Fort]

Regarding Dr. Emil M. Thomas. Let me say that it is my pleasure to know this great man of GOD! He is without question one of the most gifted preachers in our country.
He has a style and charisma that is uniquely his own. He blessed our congregation earlier this year as our Evangelist for our Annual Church Revival.
GOD is using him in great ways.