Catching Meddlers

Here is a link to Dr. Mark DeVine’s blog post where he discusses the emerging church as it relates to the Southern Baptist denomination (h/t Tall Skinny Kiwi). There is a link in this post to an article he wrote for the Midwestern Journal of Theology. In it he cites Bolger and Gibbs’ book, Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures and Scot McKnight’s article from Christianity Today, ““Five Streams of the Emerging Church: Key Elements of the Most Controversial and Misunderstood Movement in the Church Today.”

Interestingly he notes the emergent critique of evangelicalism is similar to several movements, including Methodism (something noted by Adam Hamilton some time back). Of course you will find yourself disagreeing with DeVine on several points about the emergent movement, but I still believe it is helpful to examine his look at the emergent movement.

In the end, I’m still confident that United Methodists have the right “DNA” to minister from the emergent paradigm and reach postmodern folks. It remains to be seen how these will fit into our structural arrangement with itinerant ministers and connectionalism.