Fernando Gros, Mark Van Steenwyck and several others I have spoken to this week seem to all be talking about the same question: Is the emerging church is really emerging or just regular church? This is a question I have been asking myself lately. As a staff member of Spirit Garage an “emerging church” associated with a Lutheran denomination in the U.S. I will venture a few of my thoughts.

Honsestly, I am not really sure what the “emerging church” really is. Some folks are talking about postmodern ministry, others worship styles, some are working on scholarly definitions, and a few people are just saying, hey look, that church is kind of different. So far I have found only one framework really helpful. In the circles I travel in, we have been commenting on a common theme in so called emerging churches is attention to two primary questions: Who are we? and Where (and when) are we? Identity and Context. You might say, ‘aren’t these questions that all faith communities should ask?’ and I would say, well yes. What makes these emerging churches different from any church? Well nothing except Identity and Context.

On Context
Many, and I’ll venture, most emerging churches have arisen in urban areas in the English speaking West and made up of well educated and typically white. Why? I believe there has been a fundamental shift in values and economic systems that have made the lives and world views of young, middle-class (typically white) western people very different from those of their parents and grandparents. Some people have talked about this as a postmodern shift, and while that may be true, I find the p-word about as helpful as the emerging label.

I will say that what it takes to make it in a globalized, knowledge economy is very different than what it took to make it in the agrarian and industrial economies of previous generations. Young people are holding self-expression values such as: creativity, high levels of social mobility, individual expression, meritocracy, etc. Congregational forms that were developed in agrarian and industrial economies have not worked well in the knowledge economy, and if churches wishing to be missional in a knowledge economy will have to change their structures. This is what I believe emerging churches are trying to do.

On Identity
Anyone starting a new church must bring themselves and their history with them. The emerging church is growing up from church circles and trying to move beyond traditional denominational (or non-denominational) spaces. I think is great that churches are working to be missional in new geographic and cultural spaces, but I also think that it is unreasonable to expect people coming out of churches into this new space will leave all of their experience, training, and community behind. It is not surprising that emerging churches look a lot like other churches, it’s because they are churches.

Some of the recent discussion about the leadership of the emerging church has been appropriate criticism about the lack of female and non-white voices. While there are likely many reasons for this that must be addressed, I believe that the lack of diversity has developed for a few reasons. First, racially, the emerging church is growing up in a cultural space not known for its racial diversity. Second, in gender equity, churches have often been boys clubs in pastoral leadership, particularly in the denominations that are more active in evangelistic practice, resulting in a number of new churches in which women are under-represented. That said, much more needs to be done in order to make racial and gender equity a hallmark of emerging churches.

Well, that’s about my longest post ever. Your comments are appreciated.