My definition of the Emerging Church is a group of people within the church or without that are wanting to come out of the current mold and trend to become something different that connects them with God in a deeper more passionate way.

I knew I wanted to go into ministry but after two semesters as a Youth Ministry Major I realized that Bible school wasn’t going to give me the answers I needed. Most of my classes were about how to grow my youth group and how to put on a summer camp, but none taught me how to baptize a new believer in the Holy Spirit or how to lead daily prayer meetings or how to get out of my sin and live a mature Christian life.

Five years ago I left Bible School and I moved somewhere that I felt would have answers for me as a man looking to live an effective Godly life. There are many more like me who are calling out asking for relevance and freshness in their life. They want something different than what they are currently getting.

What has created this emerging culture of people?
I think the reason there is a cry coming out within the church today for something different is because of the leadership over the past 80-90 years. There has been a decline in the preaching of the word and the importance of prayer in the Church.

D. Matyn Lloyd-Jones says that preaching has declined because

…sermons were replaced by ethical addresses and homilies, and moral uplift and socio-political talk… [also] the form became more important than the substance, the oratory and the eloquence became things in and of themselves, and ultimately preaching became a form of entertainment.

I have spoken with so many people who have said that their pastor preaches good sermons but they’re not challenging them. They’re not being led into deep things of the Word. People are being entertained instead of led from the pulpit.

What does the Emerging Church really want?
I think most leaders within the emerging church are answering the cry of this movement in the wrong way.

Most churches I have visited or heard about that are claiming to be a part of the emerging church, or most bloggers and writers that I read that claim to be a part of the emerging church are doing things wrong and even un-Biblically. One of the dominant focuses of how to do church the ‘emerging church way’ is to stress the visual and performing arts, music, interaction with the local culture, and to not ignore the influence of pop culture.

What has happened is that many of these emerging churches have become seeker friendly. They are trying to make it as easy as possible for the most messed up, stuck sinners to come to church but nobody ever gets out of their mess. They stay stuck and the preacher makes excuses for them as to why it’s o.k. In fact, often the Bible is even taught as only one of the ways to god; many leaders in the emerging church say the Bible is too constricting and they actually promote interspirituality.

I’ve read magazines that claim to be relevant to the emerging church but all they seem to do is talk about what “R” rated movies are good and what secular music is cool. Do the young people of this nation really need an excuse to “eat more chocolate cake“? Do they really need someone telling them that it’s good to have balance? I think they are already doing plenty of that without anyone’s encouragement. A little nudge in that direction just might push them over the edge. Not to mention what most would call ‘balance’ and ‘relevance’ is actually sin.

The emerging church does not need flash and hype to enjoy God. They don’t need liberties and leeway and ‘grace’ in their lifestyle. They don’t need a reduced, laymen’s translation of the Bible. I have talked to people that are being led by these leaders, and they’re not saying, “yeah, I finally broke out of my boring church into a Godly community that has cool graphic design brochures every Sunday and well produced movies as the announcements and I feel good about drinking with my friends.” They say “I need something more real and raw from the Word of God. I need something deeper and more radical. I need a life in God.” They’re saying that they want something that will cost them.

I am positive that what the emerging church wants and needs is to live a holy passionate life before God.

• They want us to lead the way into holiness and maturity and a fasted lifestyle.
• They want the plain Word of the Lord and Bible teaching without apology and reductionism.
• They want prayer meetings and Bible studies.
• They want to get a real baptism in the Spirit and to live an apostolic lifestyle.
• They want excuses and leadership to go hard after God.

The greatest way we can lead is by living the life ourselves and continuing to point people to the Word of God and to Christ by prophesying with our words and actions. In the words of my good friend Corey, we need to shut it all down and pray. We need God. We contend for the fullness of God’s promises not only in intercession but by living the lifestyle today that we want and need to live in the days to come.

U P D A T E : A respected minister gave a comment that by and large the churches they work with do not lack an emphasis on Scripture nor do they teach an ‘all roads lead to God’ theology.

My emphasis in this article is not to bash the emerging church but to give a statement of what I have seen and encountered in many (not all) places, and to call us all to a place of loving Christ and leading others to do the same.