The emergent church movement
Date
2013-02
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Stellenbosch University, Department of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology
Abstract
Something about the word “missional” has captured the imagination of many
Christians in Western societies and beyond. The term, though relatively new as a
description of the church, is now used widely across confessional traditions and
within both “Emergent” and “Missional” Church movements. The employment of
the term “missional” includes the superficial along with the profound, the culturally
captive alongside the richly biblical. At its best, the word “missional” describes not
a specific activity of the church, but the very identity and vocation of the church as
it takes up its role in God’s story in the context of its culture, and participates in his
mission. This article will engage the Emergent Church movement and summarize
its contributions toward the development of the missional identity and vocation of
the church in the West. In the next article, the Missional Church movement will be
engaged and its contributions toward the development of a missional identity and
vocation for the church in the West will be summarized.
Description
Publication of this article was funded by the Stellenbosch University Open Access Fund.
The original publication is available at http://ngtt.journals.ac.za/pub
The original publication is available at http://ngtt.journals.ac.za/pub
Keywords
Missional Church, Mission -- Theory, Church
Citation
Sheridan, T. M. & Hendriks, H. J. 2013. The Emergent Church movement. Nederduitse Gereformeerde Teologiese Tydskrif, 53(3&4):312-323, doi:10.5952/53-3&4-271.