Introduction and living missionally
Preliminary considerations
There is much that I could address concerning the Emergent conversation. While I’m sure that I am biting off much more than I can chew, at present the list of topics that I feel pressed to tackle includes:
- A humble attempt towards a definition - A brief history of Evangelicalism - The Emergent desire to reject “exclusivist” or “exclusionary” language - The Emergent understanding of the relationship between message and method - The Emergent understanding and presentations of modernity/postmodernity - Emergent church worship practices
These are just a few of the issues that I would like to engage. More may be added to this list, but this is probably enough for now. I plan to address just one at a time and to do so relatively slowly. I presuppose that the reader have at least some familiarity with Emergent writing. To gain a better understanding of what the Emergent Church is see my bibliography, especially Justin Taylor’s very helpful chapter. Two final words of clarification, first these are not meant to be thorough or comprehensive articles, they are simply some of my present thoughts on the Emergent conversation; please don’t take them for more than what they are. Second, I apologize that this first installment lacks explicit Scriptural references. That will change in the future. I hope that these articles prove to be helpful to both those fully aware of the conversation as well as those who have no clue what the Emergent Church is. Feel free to add your comments to what I write. Well, that’s probably enough qualifications for now.
Living Missionally
It seems appropriate to me to begin these series of articles on a feature of the Emergent conversation that I find beneficial. One of the main emphases of the Emergent conversation is its call to live missionally. The word “missional” is often used in Emergent writing and dialogue. At its heart, the call to live missionally is a call to live like a missionary in one’s own sphere of influence. This includes a desire to think about Christian living and cultural engagement as a missionary would. Missiologists have long discussed the portability of Christianity to other contexts and cultures. Indeed one of the reasons why Christianity has flourished around the world is the fact that it can, to some degree, be separated from the culture in which it thrives. I say to some degree only because I believe that God specifically revealed himself to the Jewish people in their culture, parts of which must then inevitably become ours if we are to understand them rightly. For example, one will completely misunderstand Christ’s cross work if they do not first have a solid understanding of Jewish temple practices involving sin and sacrifice. That issue aside, on the whole, Emergent folks do a good job of encouraging Christians to distinguish between those parts of Christianity which are essential to it and those which are the cultural outworkings of it. As a result, their call to understand the culture, like a missiologist would, and to then live in ways appropriate to that understanding are completely commendable.
As I see it, living missionally has two major components. The first is to take a hard critical look at present day Evangelicalism and to separate the Biblical wheat from the cultural chaff. That is to say, they call us to look at Evangelicalism, specifically some of its ethical outworkings, and rethink them. For example, is it appropriate for a Christian to frequent a local bar with the intention of befriending some of the people there? The contention of the Emergent folks is that, at least according to their own experience, the forms of Evangelicalism in which they have grown up would have been hostile to such practices. They say that this kind of activity would have been discouraged because they were told that a Christian does not belong at a bar. This is because bars are perceived to be a place where drunkenness occurs and where one might be negatively influenced by the world. The Emergent folks rethink this attitude and say that it is not a sin to frequent a bar, instead it is a sin to engage in the activities which a bar might, but not necessarily, foster.
Reflecting on this example just for a moment, I would say that their contention seems to be more with fundamentalism than with evangelicalism. The way that they describe their experiences and the kinds of things to which they are describing, appear to me to be very similar, if not almost identical, to the kind of things that early Evangelicals in the 1940’s and 50’s said about fundamentalists. The whole reason for creating a distinction between fundamentalists and evangelicals was this issue of cultural engagement and the approach with which Christians interacted with the world. Early evangelicals reacted strongly to those fundamentalists who, in the face of secular perils like evolution, retreated to the trenches, as it were, and disengaged from public debate and dialogue. This is something that I hope to pursue further in an upcoming article.
This example of the Christian at the bar leads to the second main feature of what it means to live missionally; that is the emphasis on growing one’s circle of non-Christian friends. The bar, Emergent folks say, is exactly the place where Jesus would be in our culture today. He was one who befriended those in society who were labeled “sinners”. Besides it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. When that is understood, what better place to spread the good news of Jesus Christ than the bar? As such they encourage us to live like a missionary in our own town. I have to admit, that it is quite convicting to think about the number of non-Christian friends that I have. Honestly, the number is very small. Therefore, their call to have us befriend non-Christians is warranted and commendable.
That being said, one thing that I see missing from their discussions of what it means to live missionally is the need to be discerning. They are so passionate about challenging the assumed norms of evangelical ethics that they neglect the fact that there are some parts of culture which are “off limits” for Christian engagement. For example, I would say that it would be inappropriate for a Christian to attend a strip club, even with the desire to evangelize them. Although, I do agree that befriending individuals who are either employed at strip clubs or frequent them is an appropriate and necessary task of Christians. Unfortunately, it is these kinds of helpful and necessary discussions which, it seems to me, are completely missing from the Emergent conversation.
A word of caution that I would like to add to this conversation about living missionally is a reminder of vocation or calling. There are times when I fear that this call to live missionally will be misunderstood. Because living missionally is often compared and contrasted with being a missionary in a foreign country, I’m worried that to some individuals it will sound like a call to leave one’s daily vocation. One does not need to leave their present calling in order to live missionally. What is more, staying in one’s present vocation is an integral part of living missionally. It is not necessary to get discouraged and feel like “if only I could cut out parts of my daily calling then I would be able to better focus on this goal of living like a missionary.” Again, that is not what living missionally entails. We all receive different vocations or callings and it is our responsibility to be faithful to Christ’s work in the place that he has called us. Living missionally does not mean that you need to quit your job in order to have more time to focus on the work of local missions. Let me quickly add that living missionally might require one to make some modifications to their living style, but Christians can feel quite confident that they can live missionally in the very place that God has called them. Remain as a Christian businessman or woman. Remain as a Christian homemaker. Honor God in your work and seek to love others in that place. If a church is committed to living missionally it needs people in all parts of society. This reminder of Christian vocation is not to say that the wrong mentality is being promoted by Emergent leaders, rather it is something that I think most of them would agree with, I simply wanted to make it more explicit.
Let me make one final point about the call to live missionally, what exactly is new here? I mean, when I read most Emergent folks, they speak as if this whole call to live missionally and for ordinary Christians to be engaged in the work of local evangelism is something new. Maybe it is just my upbringing, but I have heard that message before; it is not new. Throughout middle school and high school I was constantly encouraged by my youth group leaders to get to know those non-Christians at my school and to invite them to our small groups. Never was I told to “hit and run” evangelize them in the hallway during a passing period, as some Emergent writers would characterize as happening all the time. I wish that some of these individuals would be more specific in their critiques than so broad and generic, for not all wings of Evangelicalism are the same. Moreover, as I said above, what is so often characterized as Evangelical sounds more to me like fundamentalist. Showing some recognition of this, I think, would provide a necessary amount of nuance to their critiques and it would provide a more positive (even encouraging) example of how to live missionally.
In conclusion, the call to live missionally is indeed a needed and commendable feature of the Emergent conversation. I pray that it does spark something within Christians to allow their identity as a follower of Christ to influence every aspect of their lives, including their relationships with non-Christians. God’s people are called to be an example of Christ’s love in their specific spheres of influence. It is an important and necessary work of building the kingdom. Take seriously the call to live missionally in the context of your vocation. Do so with a confidence in Him who has called you because ultimately it is his work that we are doing and it is by his strength that we do it. Honor God, love and serve others and do both with great joy.