Transforming Church

Emergent Village

In the fall of 2002, I received a brochure for the first Emergent Convention to be held in San Diego during the winter of 2003. Escaping the cold Ohio winter for a week and going to warm and sunny Southern California enticed me. However, I had stirrings in my heart that said the way we are doing church today isn't working in our post-modern culture. The first official Emergent Convention sought ways to bring leaders together with these stirrings to find a path together through the post-modern/modern cultural matrix. The same goal applies today. The Emergent gatherings and the friendships gained through them across denominational lines have helped me find new and those "outside the box" ways God is using to transforming the church and transform lives with the gospel.

Emergent grows out of the Evangelical movement and backed by Youth Specialties and Zondervan Publishing. Mike Yaconneli, before his death last year, was also an advocate for its growth. However, the best explanation of Emergent comes from their website, "Emergent is a growing generative friendship among missional Christian leaders seeking to love our world in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Our dream is to join in the activity of God in the world wherever we are able, so that God's dreams for our world come true. In the process, the world can be healed and changed, and so can we."

Those who become friends of Emergent covenant to do ministry together while embracing common commitments: commitment to God in the Way of Jesus, commitment to the Church in all its forms, commitment to God's world, commitment to one another. I encourage you to do one of two things to get more familiar with Emergent: check out their website, or attend the Emergent Convention either in San Diego, February 2-5, 2005 or Nashville, Tennessee, May 18-21, 2005. Registration details can be found on the Emergent website.

Mike Weaver
Pastor
All Saints Lutheran Church
Worthington, Ohio
MikeW@saintsonhigh.org