The Corporate Church- An Emerging Church Update

July 6, 2005 Posted by Roger OvertoncloseAuthor: Roger Overton Name: Roger Overton
Email: rogeroverton@hotmail.com
Site: http://ateamblog.com
About: Roger Overton is currently pursuing a Masters degree at Talbot School of Theology. He has addressed various churches, schools and youth camps throughout the United States. Roger was co-editor of The New Media Frontier (Crossway, 2008) and God and Governing (Wipf & Stock, 2009). Roger can be emailed at rogeroverton@hotmail.com.See Authors Posts (569)

Some might expect (including myself) that such a title for a
post would be followed by a rant on how the church has been compromised by
modernism/capitalism. However, this is about Emergent- what’s typically dubbed
post-consumerist and post-modern.

A month ago Emergent issued an “Official Response to
Critics.” Aside from the fact that they really didn’t engage their critics, it
was especially interesting that they referred to it as an “official” response.
Most people I’ve talked to within emergent want to refer to it as a
conversation, not a movement. To label it “official” seems to fly in the face
of it merely being a conversation.

A few weeks ago Tony Jones was elected national director of
Emergent, however, that title was quickly changed for fear of coming off too
authoritative. Effective October 1, Tony Jones will be the first National
Coordinator of Emergent. They also expanded their Board of Directors and
expanded/reformed their Emergent Coordinating Group (ECG). Yet, they still want
to call it a conversation.

While browsing Baker Book’s website today I stumbled upon
their press release- “Baker Books and Emergent Sign a Multiyear Publishing
Agreement.” If you haven’t been paying attention, Emergent had a book deal with
Zondervan through their relationship with Youth Specialties. Now that Emergent
and YS have decided to divide a bit, Emergent has secured their own book deal.
Here are some interesting excerpts from the press release:

“The series will be targeted toward lay and vocational
church leaders and others who are interested in the “Emergent
conversation,” a movement of those seeking to explore the many
opportunities for Christianity in our time.”

“Emergent will continue to connect people through
conferences, events and the Internet, with Baker Books serving in a sponsorship
role. “We’re looking forward to publishing books that will extend this
conversation as widely as possible,” Chad Allen, acquisitions editor for
Baker Books, said.”

Even Baker’s confused about what Emergent is- “the Emergent
conversation, a movement…” I sincerely hope that Chad Allen’s statement
accurately reflects the future of Baker’s publishing relating to Emergent.
There are only four books currently in print that contain criticisms of the
emerging church (Carson’s Becoming Conversant, Reclaiming the Center, The
Emerging Church, and Christianity and the Postmodern Turn). Of the four, 2 are
more of an interactive exchange between both sides. Baker did recently publish
the last one on the list, Christianity and the Postmodern Turn, but I’ve yet to
see a single person interact with anything that’s discussed in the book. I know
of only one book on its way to print that’s critical- R. Scott Smith’s Truth
and a New Kind of Christian- due out in September on Crossway (I’ll be
interviewing Dr. Smith when it comes out). So that will make 5 books that are
at all critical, while I’ve got some 30 books on my shelf that embrace the
movement, and I figure I have maybe half of them out there- and there’s plenty
more on the way.

Timbo called it a “moversation.” Whatever you want to
call it, it’s exceedingly obvious that Emergent is more than voices. The
question is, how open are they really? Whose voices are being heard? Is there
room in the discussion for those who disagree? If Baker really wants to “extend
this conversation as widely as possible,” will they be publishing works
critical of the emerging church? If they’re looking for other critical authors,
they can reach me at rogeroverton@hotmail.com.

Related posts:

1. ETS 2006- Brett Kunkle: Essential Concerns Regarding the Emerging Church
2. Modern Reformation #1- The Emerging Church by D.A. Carson
3. The End of the Emerging Church
4. ETS 4- John Hammett on the Emerging Church
5. Defining the Emerging/Emergent-Church/Movement/Conversation
6. Is the Emerging Conversation Going Nowhere?

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