Earlier this year Rob Bell wrote a very controversial book entitled "Love Wins". As I read it before I started this blog you won't find a review of it on these pages but, who knows, perhaps I'll reread it next year. I will say it is worth reading and rereading and, even if you don't agree with his overall thesis, it is very encouraging to be able to accept that such a thing might be possible (how is that for a teaser?)
From "Love Wins", I went on to read a couple of books by Brian McLaren and that got me thinking about the Emerging Church. What is it exactly? This led me to read the book reviewed here, The Emerging Church by Dan Kimball. Dan has written a number of books that have received positive reviews and this book, written way back in ancient history in 2003, seemed to be a good one to give me an overall view of the movement. Sadly, it seems that eight years is a long time and the world - and the church - has moved on in the meantime. A quick glance on The Book Depository suggests that this may have occured to Dan as well as I see that he has new book due out in February entitled "Adventures in Churchland" which has the sub-title "Discovering The Beautiful Mess Jesus Loves". This may well address some of the changes of the last eight years. This is not to say that the book is not worth reading. Divided into two sections, the first section does well at setting the scene for the emerging church and explaining the difference in philosophy and culture between the modern and post-modern generations. I'd been briefly exposed to this in a lecture by Charles Erlam a couple of years ago but it was good to have it reinforced and have time to think it through. The second section talks about the practicalities of doing church in a post-modern world and this is where time has taken its toll. I can see how this would have been radical stuff eight years ago but nowadays most of his suggestions are common place. Perhaps the church has truly emerged after all?
From "Love Wins", I went on to read a couple of books by Brian McLaren and that got me thinking about the Emerging Church. What is it exactly? This led me to read the book reviewed here, The Emerging Church by Dan Kimball. Dan has written a number of books that have received positive reviews and this book, written way back in ancient history in 2003, seemed to be a good one to give me an overall view of the movement. Sadly, it seems that eight years is a long time and the world - and the church - has moved on in the meantime. A quick glance on The Book Depository suggests that this may have occured to Dan as well as I see that he has new book due out in February entitled "Adventures in Churchland" which has the sub-title "Discovering The Beautiful Mess Jesus Loves". This may well address some of the changes of the last eight years. This is not to say that the book is not worth reading. Divided into two sections, the first section does well at setting the scene for the emerging church and explaining the difference in philosophy and culture between the modern and post-modern generations. I'd been briefly exposed to this in a lecture by Charles Erlam a couple of years ago but it was good to have it reinforced and have time to think it through. The second section talks about the practicalities of doing church in a post-modern world and this is where time has taken its toll. I can see how this would have been radical stuff eight years ago but nowadays most of his suggestions are common place. Perhaps the church has truly emerged after all?
The Emerging Church and other books by Dan Kimball can be bought from The Book Depository:
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