Some like it. Some despise it. Many of its leaders find themselves in self-preservation mode, attempting to put a halt to the dwindling numbers and problems they have met in the last century.
But a new day has come.
The Emerging Church is a “new form of church life rising from the modern American church of the 20th century.” While its leaders find themselves answering to challengers from the outside, its adherents are seeking to introduce themselves and the world to a form of Christianity unseen in centuries. Its churches are a welcome haven to people disenfranchised with the traditional church.
Tony Jones, national coordinator of Emergent Village (the Emerging Church’s network) has written a much-anticipated introduction to this movement, The New Christians. Publishers Weekly has called The New Christians “the single best introduction to the Emergent Church movement.” In it, Jones interviews and explores four emergent churches: Jacob’s Well in Kansas City, Journey in Dallas, Church of the Apostle in Seattle, and his own church, Solomon’s Porch, in Minneapolis.
Jones writes of the crusts that have formed on the outside of the 20th century church in America. He says, “At its essence, emergent Christianity is an effort by people in a particular time and place to respond to the Gospel as it breaks through the age-old crusts.”
The church needs to be invigorated, to find a fresh way to share this message of faith. Jones and his cohorts are doing just that, and The New Christians is coming to let the world know more.
Tony Jones is a doctoral fellow in practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, national coordinator of Emergent Village, and a volunteer police chaplain in his hometown where he lives with his wife and three kids.
The New Christians is due in stores March 2008.
