Emergent:
Spencer Burke wrote a book or rather compiled thoughts from his website www.theooze.com. He says he originally called the book "more than coffee and candles". I remember thinking originally how in the world can someone confuse such a radical thought such as emergent church with merely lighting a few candles and serving coffee. Then I walked into my local christian book store and say how.

They had a full corner display dedicated to "the emergent church" they even have an emergent Bible now...whatever that is. So now this thing I had hope in of revolutionizing the church because like Reggie McNeal states I believe this church our way of doing church is on lifesupport and that unless there is a radical change of not just how we do things but what we do the church will die. Not the church of Jesus Christ...that church is good and will make it until Christ returns but our way of doing church.

So now that Emergent is popular I wonder what will separate the "style" emergent with the mindset emergent. Because styles change from year to year but the mindset seems to be the one of the culture that we are attempting to adjust to. Lighting a few candles is a style change, changing the mindset goes much deeper and is much more...scary. I think we will find in the next years or perhaps the next decade most pastors are going to be ready to undergo style change if only for the reason to stay up on the trents, very few will be willing to go to the style change which requires a paradigm shift from shepherd to gardner from teacher to student from advice giver to one who live in community with his people. There will still be a need for a leader in the emergent church but his/her role will be drastically different.

more to come...