Transforming Church

The Emerging Church by Dan Kimball

By Dan Kimball, Rick Warren, Brian D. McLaren

Publisher: Zondervan Publishing Company | Released: 01 March, 2003

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The Emerging Church is shock to the evangelical world and a puzzlement to the mainline, particularly liturgical mainliners like Lutherans. What Dan presents in his subtitle "Vintage Christianity for New Generations" marks a shift that evangelical churches coming out of the Willow Creek, Saddleback, Bill Bright modes are struggling with as they watch postmoderns leave or just ignore them entirely. Dan argues that the values of emergent generations (basically the under 40 crowd - Gens X and Y) are wired differently spiritually, culturally, and in communication.

The book begins with an excellent primer on a working definition of postmodern. Rather than just focusing on one aspect of postmoderns (i.e., tattooed, body piercing crowd), Dan focuses more on the cultural shift that transcends any subgroup. Basic questions of meaning, cultural yearnings, sense of community, all are presented to build a case for a shift to what some now call an "ancient-future church."
For evangelicals, Dan's advocacy of multisensory worship flies in the face of the theater style, passive congregation models of the 80s and 90s. What is connecting to postmodern spiritual searching is personal experience, not personal decision. Weekly Communion, incense, candles, art, and other worship recommendations sound medieval and a rejection of the megachurch.

For Lutherans, much of what Dan suggests, particularly in the realm of worship will lead to a puzzled response of "aren't we doing this already?" We are but not well and not in a way that connects with the emerging church. The strong base of discipleship and spiritual formation is largely lacking, creating worship that is more formula than formation. Dan argues for an indigenous, transcendent worship experience that is deeply grounded in a spiritual community that lives and breathes in the real world, not the subculture that most mainline congregations exist in today. With 50% of people under the age of 40 having no religious upbringing or roots of any kind, the church must learn a new language if it wants to become relevant and life changing again.

A very fast read, it is a must read for worship leaders today. The issue is not of style: traditional vs. contemporary; entertainment vs. participation; etc... What Dan challenges us to consider is effective communication in a postmodern world that speaks the Gospel to people in the world they live in. A challenging book for worship teams and pastors to move out of modern constructs for ministry and stretch their wings.

For me, this book is a must read for this decade in the same way The Purpose Driven Church was in the 1990s. It is a challenge for change for evangelicals and a challenge for authentic renewal in the mainline. You can find more resources at Dan's website www.vintagefaith.com.