Emerging, missional, or both?

[Brian Beckstrom]

Recently Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill, Seattle) complained that the emerging church has a startling lack of converts. David Fitch (Life on the Vine, Chicago) posted a great response to Driscoll's critique.

Although he refuted some of the charges leveled against the emerging church, he did maintain that not all emerging churches are necessarily missional. I agree with Fitch on that point, and am curious what others might think?

[Brian Beckstrom]

Great thoughts Lars. You do a good job of outlining the issues. I particularly agree with your concern about churches that are "cults of personalities". Your point about all churches being somewhat attractional is also well taken. I've been struggling with that myself. The tricky thing is finding a balance where the Sunday worship experience doesn't consume so much time and energy that there's nothing left for discipleship.

It's great to have a place for these types of discussions. I enjoy being in conversation with others struggling to understand these issues in our context.

[Ryan]

I would like to note that my experience with the UCC has not been characterized by:

"no defined beliefs or standards at all" or "a social group dominated by the rich and connected."

On the contrary, our UCC congregation is a community participating in both conversation and action dedicated to loving our "neighbors."