Emerging, Emergent, Etc.

I really had not heard much about the Emerging / Emergent Church movement. I have recently become more curious as to what the Evangelical church was discounting or denying. I had a basic understanding of its ties to post-modernism and an understanding that it tended to ask some important questions that many Christians should ask, but often at the cost of losing the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the essential doctrines of the cross in the atonement. I had heard of McLaren & McManus, read Donald Miller, and listened to Mark Driscoll, but never really understood where they were diverging from orthodox Christianity, if at all?

If you are in the same boat, I'd highly recommend this 6 part series on a blog called Parchment and Pen (a collaborative blog with several contributers, including Dan Wallace of DTS) by C. Michael Patton: "Would the Real Emerger Please Stand Up?"
It will probably only take about an hour or so to read. It is a very educational and respectful approach to the complicated issue that only tends to get more complicated with labels and boxes and the oh-so human tendency to categorize things we don't understand in order to know who we can agree or disagree with, and often times to our shame, who we can or cannot be friends with.
You can click the link above and go from part to part or click this link to download the series in its entirety in PDF form. I would recommend however, looking at some of the comments and conversations that come up at the end of each post of the blog. Below is a quote from one of those comments as to why Patton wrote this series:

I was hoping to help a primarily evangelical audience that does not know much about the emerging movement outside of the criticism of MacArthur and Carson realize that to be emerging is a complex issue that cannot be broadbrushed with a simple critique. I want people to have balance in their understand, realizing that the voices in the emerging movement are real and significant.

I also wanted people to understand that to be emerging does not mean that you have departed from historic Christianity. I want people to know that there are many within the movement who are extremely orthodox such as Dan Kimball, Scot McKnight, and Mark Driscoll. And I want people to see that there are those such as Tony Jones, Brian McLaren, and Doug Pagitt who are stepping outside the bounds of orthodoxy...

Finally, I hope that this distinction between emerging and Emergent becomes widely recognized so that honor will be given to those who are truly soldiers of the cross reaching out with a pure Gospel even if you don’t agree with them on everything (i.e. Dan Kimball).

This is really worth taking the time to look over so that we 1) know where we stand and more importantly why we stand where we stand within Christian orthodoxy, 2) that we become more respectful to those we disagree with, and 3) that we are walking in the freedom Christ has given us and the obedience to Christ that He calls for us day by day as His representatives to the world.

P.S. Here is an extra clip of some theologians discussing the emergent movement (or at least the section of it that is most tied to post-modernism) CLICK.