The Conversations of Our Times: Part One
Many who follow my writing know that two of my favorite metaphors for describing the signs of the times are National Park and Jungle (you might want to read this before reading on). Briefly what I mean by this is that prior to the 1980s we lived in what I describe as a National Park world. If you let your imagination run wild with this metaphor you will conjure up many images about the world that was, but for now just think of the world prior to 1980 as a tame, either/or world that played by a set of well known rules. Now change mindsets and think about the world since 1990 as a jungle and let you imagination run wild as you compare the two metaphors, but for now think of the emerging world as a wild and unsafe place of both/and that has no established rules other than the law of the jungle- survival.
In this wild, unruly world, a growing conversation is taking place that no Christian leader can afford to ignore. The players in this conversation are multiplying like rabbits. As we will see in a moment, much of the future of Western Christianity lies at the heart of this conversation. So we had better pay attention.
Here’s a list of the primary players as of now
The Emergent Folks
The Incarnational Folks
The Organic Folks
The Attractional Folks
The Reproductive Folks
Here is the where they fall on my continuum with the far left being a radical departure from traditional Christianity and the far right being the closest to third century Christianity.
Emergent —Incarnational — Organic — Attractional –Reproductive
Several books are shaping this conversation. Here is a list of some of them based on the above continuum:
Emergent
The New Christians by Tony Jones
Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church, by D.A. Carson
Everything Must Change, by Brian McLaren
A Generous Orthodoxy, by Brian McLaren
A Christianity Worth Believing, Doug Pagitt
Truth and the New Kind of Christian, R. Scott Smith
They Like Jesus But Not the Church, Dan Kimball
Not Emergent Anymore
Radical Reformission, by Mark Driscoll
Incarnational
The Shaping of Things to Come, by Alan Hirsch
The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch
Almost Incarnational
The Tangible Kingdom, by Halter and Smay
Pagan Christianity, Viola and Barna
Organic
The Organic Church, by Neil Cole
Inside the Organic Church by Bob Whitesell
Attractional
The Externally Focused Church, Rusaw and Swanson
The Purpose Driven Church, Warren
The American Church in Crises, Olsen
Reproductive
The Multiplying Church, by Roberts
Missional Leader, Roxburg
A Second Resurrection, by Easum
Unfreezing Moves, by Easum
The Sticky Church, Osborne (TBR)
The Conversations of Our Time
This conversation is primarily focused on the nature and mission of the church in the postmodern world as well as how Scripture is interpreted. Over the next few weeks I will try to shape each of these conversations and their implications.
Bill Easum
www.easumbandy.com
September 1st, 2008 at 7:22 am
Reading about these various movements made me recall in the unpublished manuscript of Ed Friedman’s “Failure of Nerve” all the combinations of symptoms, problems, and issues that therapists deal with. If we think about and focus upon all of these various movements, are we not just dealing with ’symptoms’ of the dis-ease that is going on in society?
September 1st, 2008 at 7:31 am
Friedman’s Fables is one of my all time favorites. I love the one about the bottom feeder. Anyway, I dont see the correlation between these conversations and the symptoms of disease in society. Can you be more specific
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:34 am
Hey Bill:
You may have said it and not sure…but which one of these things do you see as the future of the church…
September 2nd, 2008 at 10:40 am
Phil, I havent said it directly yet, but all of them will be players in the future church. the future wont be monolithic as was modernity
September 27th, 2008 at 11:09 am
[…] The Conversations of Our Times at Bill Easum’s blog is a great expose of the different dialogs in Christianity today. Check it out. Many who follow my writing know that two of my favorite metaphors for describing the signs of the times are National Park and Jungle (you might want to read this before reading on). Briefly what I mean by this is that prior to the 1980s we lived in what I describe as a National Park world. If you let your imagination run wild with this metaphor you will conjure up many images about the world that was, but for now just think of the world prior to 1980 as a tame, either/or world that played by a set of well known rules. Now change mindsets and think about the world since 1990 as a jungle and let you imagination run wild as you compare the two metaphors, but for now think of the emerging world as a wild and unsafe place of both/and that has no established rules other than the law of the jungle- survival… […]