Emerging Investigation

I am desperately trying to remain objective as I investigate the Emerging Church conversation however it is becoming increasingly difficult. There is no shortage of hypocrisy in this conversation at the academic and leadership levels within all the denominations. If my investigation continues in the direction it seems headed now I’m going to post my conclusion soon and drop it. The door is still open for now and I’m allowing that perhaps I’ve only picked up a few bad apples but here I stand to date. I humbly request that anyone more informed in this conversation critique my observations.

Peer pressure tactics are often used to coerce non-adherents at the academic level and there is a condescending attitude toward anyone not familiar with the conversation including non-believers. The language of the conversation is English redefined according to the postmodern rule of deconstruction. The original meaning of the words are deconstructed and redefined. The definitions are usually derived or directly extracted from books or articles written by one of a handful of writers (which could indicate this may well be a fad and not a true step toward an ecumenical Church). This creates a language barrier and has the effect of isolating non-adherents from adherents. The language redefinition is not accommodating to current culture non-believers who must be educated in it as well. The postmodern philosophy seems to thrive within the academic community of this conversation. Those within the “real-world” context seem to be burdened with the task of translation and serve as test subjects for Emerging Church theories. There is an increasing gap between the Emerging Church leaders within each denomination and their denominational leadership. This would seem a logical process where the postmodern philosophy has been adopted by the Emerging leadership. While many claim a desire to return to the original teachings of Christ they only back up a few centuries adding back many of the icons and rituals adopted by the third through fifteenth century Church. This they consider to be the rich history of the Church abandoned during reformation.