What is the emerging Church? Why do we need it? These are questions that have been bouncing around my head for the last few days, so I will take a stab at what I think the answers are. I think before I can define the Emergent Church, I must first define what the Church is. In Galatians 3:26-29 it states "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus, And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise." To me this is the description of who makes up the Church. Through faith in Christ Jesus we become sons of God. Through baptism into Christ, we become part of the body of Christ. If we belong to Christ we then have complete access to the promises given to the heirs of Abraham. In 'The Cost of Discipleship' Dietrich Bonhoeffer laid out the clear and simple description of what constitutes the Church, when he wrote "The Church is one man. All who are baptized are "one in Christ". The Church is "Man", the "New Man". The Church is created as the new man through Christ's death on the cross.......Adam was the first man to be created after the image of the creator, but he forfeited that image at the fall. Now a second man, a last Adam, is created after the divine image - Jesus Christ. Hence the man is both Christ and the Church. Christ is the new humanity in the new man. Christ is the New Church." So with that rather long explanation, we come to the conclusion, that the Church is Christ and those who are part of the body Christ become one through Christ, and form the Church. So now having defined the Church as Christ, I will approach the question of what is the emerging Church and why do we need it. I see the Emergent Church as a group of Post Moderns, who have decided to become Christ-like, and are pursuing him with a crazy passion. Since they are part of the body of Christ, then the Emergent Church should be viewed as Christ emerging. That, I think should be the object of every Church movement around the world, to create an environment where Christ emerges to the world. I am not going to use this forum as an opportunity to bash main stream religion but I will leave you with a quote from Bono that I think sums up what the Emergent movement is not. He was quoted in a interview with the Toledo Blade as saying "Religion, to me, is almost like when God leaves and people devise a set of rules to fill the space,". Hang in there and keep emerging.
Big Pappa
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