I have become increasingly intrigued by the cultural gaps which occur between the Emerging Church in the US and the missional/alt worship developments in the UK.
Frankly I have been increasingly bored by the attacks on Emerging and Missional Church from the evangelical wing of the Church in the States, and increasingly surprised by the amount of time and energy that some folk on the UK blogsphere spend defending "new forms" of Church from these attacks, which seem to only give credence to the criticisms.
So it interesting to read a summary of an observant and participatory experience of the UK emerging Church by a large group of people from the US who belong to a progressive evangelical strand of the Church there: see this write-up from Professor Kevin Corcoran from Calvin College.
It is so encouraging to read thoughts like this:
Tolerance and dialogue are two practices those in emergent and altworship both welcome and invite. Someone who really appreciates our human finitude and situatedness might be more inclined to say, “Here’s how I see things and here’s why. But, I recognize that I am a finite and frail human being; so I could certainly be the one with blind spots. How do you see things?’ as opposed to saying “I’m right. You’re wrong, and going to hell. End of story.”.
These values of tolerance and dialogue are essential Anglican values which are under attack in the worldwide Anglican Communion by strands of our tradition which have become tainted by this trend to judging others before sharing communion.
I've read about the differences in worship music between the altworship and Emerging Church experience and the older "contemporary" music. But most of the academic literature stops with concluding that altworship includes a wider array of styles, values theological difference and is influenced by the British music hall scene. But what does that mean? What are some examples of music that could be listened to (e.g., available on line)?
Posted by: Michael Montgomery | 31 January 2008 at 17:03
Michael - sorry you have lost me with this - what is the "academic literature" which you are reading - there is hardly any in the UK about alternative worship. If you could offer a reference then I might be able to explain ( or discount?) what they are refering to.
Tom
Posted by: Tom Allen | 31 January 2008 at 18:51
You didn't know that you were already passe? :) The first book was by Dan Kimball, 'The Emerging Church' and is in primary dialogue with American evangelical mega-church pastors. More scholarly is Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger's 'Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures". Both of the latter authors are at Fuller (Evangelical) Theological Seminary. the reference on diversity is from them
Posted by: Michael Montgomery | 31 January 2008 at 23:12