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A perceptive evaluation of the new "emerging church" movement showing how we must not only interact with a fast-changing culture but also have our vision and practice of ministry shaped by biblical theology with Scripture as the norm.

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• Amazon Sales Rank: #41781 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From the Back Cover
A careful and informed assessment of the "emerging church" by a respected author and scholar

The "emerging church" movement has generated a lot of excitement and exerts an astonishingly broad influence. Is it the wave of the future or a passing fancy? Who are the leaders and what are they saying?

The time has come for a mature assessment. D. A. Carson not only gives those who may be unfamiliar with it a perceptive introduction to the emerging church movement, but also includes a skillful assessment of its theological views. Carson addresses some troubling weaknesses of the movement frankly and thoughtfully, while at the same time recognizing that it has important things to say to the rest of Christianity. The author strives to provide a perspective that is both honest and fair.

Anyone interested in the future of the church in a rapidly changing world will find this an informative and stimulating read.

D. A. Carson (Ph.D., University of Cambridge) is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He is the author of over 45 books, including the Gold Medallion Award-winning book The Gagging of God, and is general editor of Telling the Truth and Worship by the Book. He has served as a pastor and is an active guest lecturer in church and academic settings around the world.

About the Author
D. A. Carson (Ph.D., University of Cambridge) is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He is the author or coauthor of over 45 books, including the Gold Medallion Award-winning book The Gagging of God and An Introduction to the New Testament, and is general editor of Telling the Truth: Evangelizing Postmoderns and Worship by the Book. He has served as a pastor and is an active guest lecturer in church and academic settings around the world.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church
Copyright © 2005 by D. A. Carson
Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Carson, D. A.
Becoming conversant with the emerging church : understanding a movement and
its implications / D. A. Carson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN-10: 0-310-25947-9 (pbk.)
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-25947-3 (pbk.)
1. Postmodernism—Religious aspects—Christianity. 2. Non-institutional
churches. I. Title.
BR115.P74C37 2005
262—dc22 2005000360
CIP
All Scripture quotations from the Old Testament, unless otherwise indicated, are taken
from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984
by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
All Scripture quotations from the New Testament, unless otherwise indicated, are taken
from the Holy Bible, Today’s New International Version®. TNIV®. Copyright © 2002,
2004 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
The website addresses recommended throughout this book are offered as a resource to
you. These websites are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement on the part
of Zondervan, nor do we vouch for their content for the life of this book.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy,
recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior
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Interior design by Tracey Walker
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PREFACE
A simplified form of the substance of this book was first delivered as three
Staley Lectures at Cedarville University in February 2004. I would like to
thank the president and faculty who welcomed me so warmly, and the
numerous students who went out of their way to engage thoughtfully with
what I was saying.
As I attempt to make clear in the opening chapter, the “emerging (or
‘emergent’) church” movement, though scarcely a dozen years old, exerts
an astonishingly broad influence. An entire literature has sprung up, with
those on the inside quoting and supporting one another in publications
and conferences. In other words, a self-identity has already been established.
Nevertheless, the diversity of the movement, as well as its porous
borders, ensure that I have not found it easy to portray it fairly. I have tried
to be accurate in description and evenhanded in evaluation. Even so, I must
underscore the fact that when I am forced (for the sake of avoiding endless
qualifications) to resort to generalization in order to move the discussion
along, one can almost always find some people in the movement for
whom the generalization is not true, and others who do not think of themselves
as belonging to the emerging church movement who nevertheless
share most of its values and priorities. (Also, let it be noted that some of the
leaders feel that this has not yet reached the dimensions of a movement
and prefer to call it a “conversation.”)
I have tried to avoid too much technical discussion. The flavor of the
lecture series has not been entirely removed. In reality that means this book
will probably frustrate some readers in opposite ways: some will find the
treatment of postmodernism to be too elementary, and perhaps others will
find parts of it heavy going. The notes will help the former, and I hope that
rereading will help the latter. But the book is several times longer than the
manuscript of the lectures. The brevity of the latter meant that I could not
indulge in detailed documentation or introduce a lot of nuances and exceptions.
Owing not least to the fact that some emerging church leaders have
criticized the lectures, in various blogs, for such omissions, I have tried in
this book to fill that gap as much as possible.
Whenever a Christian movement comes along that presents itself as
reformist, it should not be summarily dismissed. Even if one ultimately
decides that the movement embraces a number of worrying weaknesses, it
may also have some important things to say that the rest of the Christian
world needs to hear. So I have tried to listen respectfully and carefully; I
hope and pray that the leaders of this “movement” will similarly listen to
what I have to say.
I would like to thank Jonathan Davis and Michael Thate for compiling
the indexes.
Soli Deo gloria.

D. A. CARSON
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
10 BECOMING CONVERSANT WITH THE EMERGING CHURCH
Chapter 1
THE EMERGING CHURCH
PROFILE
What Are We Talking About?
When I have mentioned to a few friends that I am writing a book on the
emerging church, I get rather diverse reactions.
“What’s that?” one of them asked, betraying that his field of expertise
does not encourage him to keep up with contemporary movements.
“Are you going to focus primarily on Acts, or are you going to include
the Pauline and other epistles?” queried another, presupposing that I am
writing about the church as it “emerged” in the first century—since, after
all, I teach in a New Testament department at a seminary.
Another colleague, known for his worldwide connections, asked, “How
did you become interested in the difficult and challenging questions surrounding
the emergence of the church in the Two-Thirds World?” After
all, the last hundred years have witnessed remarkable stories of “emergence”
in Korea, many parts of sub-Saharan black Africa, Latin America,
certain countries of Eastern Europe (especially Ukraine, Romania, and
Moldova), and elsewhere.
The responses are sensible enough, since “emerging” and related terms
are words that have been applied to these and other circumstances,2
including some fairly esoteric discussions in the philosophy of science.
But during the last dozen years, “emerging” and “emergent” have become
strongly associated with an important movement that is sweeping across
America, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere. Many in the movement use
“emerging” or “emergent” (I will use the two words as equivalents) as the
defining adjective for their movement. A dozen books talk about “the
emergent church” and “stories of emergence” and the like.3 One website
encourages its patrons in “emergent friendship,” which turns out to refer,
not to friendship that is emerging, but to the importance of friendship in
the movement—thus confirming that “emergent” is, for those in the
movement, a sufficient label of self-identification, so that “emergent
friendship” is formally akin to, say, “house church friendship” or “Baptist
friendship.”
At the heart of the “movement”—or as some of its leaders prefer to call

Customer Reviews

Balanced, Fair, and Biblical Perspective of the Emerging Church Movement
Dr. D.A. Carson offers a fair, balanced and biblical review of the emerging church movement which is fastly changing the scope of American Christianity (and I believe for the worst). Carson opens his book with a careful review of the movement by allowing the various authors and teachers of the movement to share their thoughts in their own words. Carson has numerous footnotes to help the reader see where the quotes are coming from.

The book is quite loving in its approach. Dr. Carson does not seek to tear down the emerging movement but he does seek to expose both its strengths and weaknesses. He does this with much grace. Dr. Carson is not blind to what the emerging church movement can teach the evangelical church but he does not hesitate to point out where the movement falls short by testing it with the Word of God. Truth, writes Carson, is not optional nor is it fuzzy. Truth comes directly from God and it contained in the Bible. Everything must conform itself to the Scriptures or it will not stand at all.

I greatly enjoyed this work. Having read much of emerging church authors and visiting various emerging web-sites, I found Carson's work to be a prophetic voice in our age. I highly recommend this work to every disciple of Jesus.

Important Contribution to the Conversation
While much has been written about the Emerging Church (henceforth known as EC), D.A. Carson is, as far as I know, the first person to write a book-length treatment evaluating and leveling critiques at the movement. At any rate he is certainly the most widely-respected. And yes, I know the EC leaders prefer to call it a "conversation," but since Carson does not shy from calling it a movement, nor will I. In Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church, subtitled "Understanding a Movement and its Implications," Carson seeks to introduce the movement, assess it, and address several of the most glaring weaknesses. There are few men who are better suited to this task. Carson is a scholar and is known for his conservative, biblical theology as much as for his sound research and presentation skills. All of those admirable attributes are displayed throughout this book.

In the preface Carson writes, "Whenever a Christian movement comes along that presents itself as reformist, it should not be summarily dismissed. Even if one ultimately decides that the movement embraces a number of worrying weaknesses, it may also have some important things to say that the rest of the Christian world needs to hear. So I have tried to listen respectfully and carefully; I hope and pray that the leaders of this "movement" will similarly listen to what I have to say" (page 10). That spirit of love and charity pervades the book.

The book follows a logical format - introduction, admiration, criticism. The first chapter, "The Emerging Church Profile," is an uncritical summary of the Emerging Church. Carson arrives at three conclusions. First, the EC must be evaluated as to its reading of contemporary culture. Second, the EC needs to be evaluated as to its beliefs regarding Scripture. Third, the EC's proposals for moving forward in this postmodern culture need to be examined.

The second chapter examines the strengths of the Emerging Church. Carson praises four aspects of the EC. First, they are adept at reading the times and know that the presentation of the Gospel must change with the times. Second, they value authenticity. Third, they recognize the social location of the church, and know that the church is within a cultural context and cannot be removed from it. Fourth, they place high value on evangelism. Fifth, that they probe tradition and seek to build a faith that is rooted in the past while still being relevant to the present.

Having shown the strengths of the EC, Carson turns to several weaknesses in the third chapter. He critiques their evaluation and denigration of modernism, their condemnation of confessional Christianity and accuses them of having a view of Christianity under modernism that is both theologically shallow and intellectually incoherent.

The fourth chapter serves as an introduction to postmodernism and the postmodern mindset. For those who are unfamiliar with the changing times, and our society's emerging epistemology, this chapter is a valuable introduction.

Carson goes on, in chapters five, six and seven to critique the Emerging Church's response to postmodernism. He is especially critical of the EC's handling of truth, and frustrated by their refusal to deal with the tough questions. He finds that more often than not, the EC leaders refuse to deal with the tough questions related to claims of absolute truth. He is also concerned with the EC's stubborn refusal to use Scripture as the norming norm against appeals to tradition, as well as the EC's emphasis on "belonging before believing." He deals with two books in some depth - Brian McLaren's A Generous Orthodoxy as well as Steve Chalke's The Lost Message of Jesus, thus representing leaders of the Emerging Church on both sides of the Atlantic. Carson arrives at a chilling conclusion. "I have to say, as kindly but as forcefully as I can, that to my mind, if words mean anything, both McLaren and Chalke have largely abandoned the Gospel...I cannot see how their own words constitute anything less than a drift toward abandoning the gospel itself" (page 186-187).

The book concludes with a list of relevant Bible passages and "A Biblical Meditation on Truth and Experience." He closes with a challenge. "So which shall we choose? Experience or truth? Damn all false antitheses to hell, for they generate false gods, they perpetuate idols, they twist and distort our souls, they launch the church into violent pendulum swings whose oscillations succeed only in dividing brothers and sisters in Christ...If emerging church leaders wish to become a long-term prophetic voice that produces enduring fruit and that does not drift off toward progressive sectarianism and even, in the worst instances, outright heresy, they must listen at least as carefully to criticisms of their movement as they transparently want others to listen to them...If they manage this self-correction and worry less about who is or who is not emergent and rather more about learning simultaneously to be faithful to the Bible and effective in evangelizing the rising number of alienated biblical illiterates in our culture, they may end up preserving the gains of their movement while helping brothers and sisters who are more culturally conservative than they are learn to reconnect with the culture." (page 234).

Carson faced a great difficulty in this book. How does one fairly and adequately critique a movement as eclectic as the Emerging Church? Many have criticized this movement for being so hard to pin down. Carson admits that not every critique he makes will be valid for every person who considers himself a part of this "conversation." Yet I feel that McLaren did as well as could be expected, focusing the majority of his attention on those who have the majority of the influence.

My concerns with the book are twofold. First, while the Emerging Church is emerging at the popular level, this book is written to appeal more to scholars and to those who are well-versed in theology than to the neophyte. If it is true, as Carson claims, that most Emerging leaders come from a fundamentalist background, then perhaps this is appropriate. But I am not sure that this book offers a lot by way of popular appeal. If your teenage son has become enamored with an Emerging Church while at college, I do not know that this book will interest him or convince him to re-examine his church. That being said, he was not Carson's target audience for Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church. I have little doubt that the majority of the major players leading the Emergent conversation will read and absorb this book. I pray that the Spirit works in their hearts to humble themselves before the Word, that they can test what Carson says in the light of Scripture.

My second concern is that Carson does not address in any depth some of the major concerns of believers who examine this movement from the outside. Among these are the mysticism and ecumenism that seem foundational to the Emerging Church.

This book is surely the most valuable contribution available to us in challenging the Emerging Church. Carson evaluates the EC in the light of Scripture, showing where it falls far short and providing suggestions for appropriate remedies. This book succeeds in its task and I highly recommend it.

Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church
Great primer in understanding the strengths and very serious weeknesses of the Emerging church movement. Anyone who wants to understand how postmodernism is affecting this segment of the evangelical church will benefit from Carson's balanced and penetrating critique. Most of all I hope the leadership of the Emerging church will carefully read this book and use it as a wise corrective, given in the spirit of grace and truth, for their well intentioned movement.
Randy W. Rodden