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CONGREGATIONS
Emerging Church trend expands, diversifies
STATE
BY STATE
• Jordan
Cooper's blog gives resources
on postmodern Christianity, including a list
of local churches by state.
IN
THE NORTHEAST
• Theologian
Miroslav Volf, director of the Center
for Faith and Culture at Yale Divinity School, is a favorite scholar of
emerging church leaders. He wrote Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in
a Culture Stripped of Grace (Zondervan, 2006). Contact 203-432-5332, miroslav.volf@yale.edu.
• David
F. Wells is an ordained Congregationalist minister and is the Mutch Distinguished
Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological
Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass. He is an expert on religion and postmodernism
and can discuss how the Christian faith is adjusting to a new culture. He wrote
Above All Earthly Pow'rs: Christ in a Postmodern World (Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing, 2005). Wells calls emerging church the third major constituency
of evangelicals (after the traditional postwar evangelical generation and the
later, pragmatic seekers, typified by Willow Creek Community Church). Contact
978-468-7111, dwells@gcts.edu.
IN
THE EAST
• Brad
Jackson is pastor of the 40-member emergent church The
Well in Feasterville, Pa. Contact 215-364-5288, brad@thewellpa.com.
• Jeffrey
K. Jue, assistant professor of church history at Westminster Theological Seminary
in Glenside, Pa., is a critic of the emerging church movement. Contact 800-373-0119.
• Heather
Kirk-Davidoff is a pastor in Maryland and serves on the board of Emergent. She
is founder of the Emerging Women Leaders Initiative. Contact revhkd@comcast.net.
IN
THE SOUTHEAST
• John
Kenney is pastor of the Quest
Church in Augusta, Ga., affiliated with the United Methodist Church. ("We're
real people who don't have it all together, but who are taking the journey of
life together.") Weekly attendance varies from 40 to 60 people of all ages.
The emergent identity is unusual in the denomination and the congregation sees
itself as a mission. Quest's focus is community, relationships and exploration
of faith by ancient and contemporary models and means. Contact 706-833-6170,
john@thequestonline.com.
• Bill
J. Leonard, professor of church history and dean of Wake Forest University Divinity
School in Winston-Salem, N.C., says emerging church movement members are trying
to recapture the intimacy of the early church. Contact 336-758-5121, leonabj@wfu.edu.
• Lauren
F. Winner is the author of three books, including the popular Girl Meets
God: A Memoir (Random House, 2003), about coming to Christianity in her
20s. She is completing a doctorate in the history of American religion and lives
in Durham, N.C. Contact lauren@laurenwinner.net.
• Kenneth
J. Surin, literature professor at Duke University in Durham, N.C., wrote the
entry on postmodernity in the Encyclopedia of Protestantism (Routledge,
2004). Contact 919-684-4364, kenneth.surin@duke.edu.
• Liz
Buxton is pastor at Cedar Grove and Harmony United Methodist churches in Alton,
Va. She is working to connect women in the movement (they call themselves (f)emergents).
Contact 434-753-2961, mizliz00725@hotmail.com.
• The
New Day Café in Largo,
Fla., is an emerging community within the established Pathways Community Church.
Contact Pastor Brian Saylor, 727-399-2360, brian@pathwayscc.com.
IN
THE SOUTH
• Alan
Creech has been blogging about his life in the church since 2002; he is
a founding member of Vine
+ Branches Christian Community, an emerging community in Lexington, Ky.
Contact alan@qx.net.
• J.
Ligon Duncan is minister of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Miss. He sees
the emerging movement as another in a never-ending cavalcade of "what's
new" in the evangelical world. Contact 601-973-9104, lduncan@fpcjackson.org.
IN
THE MIDWEST
• Cary
Fuller is active in the emerging conversation through her Indianapolis, Ind.,
church, The Dwelling
Place, where her husband, Shane Fuller, is pastor. Although the emerging
church is largely led by men, Cary Fuller points out that it is becoming more
diverse and that its roots are in conservative denominations where women are
not encouraged to question what they've been taught. Fuller's congregational
blog is intended to build relationships and create a safe atmosphere for
questioning and debate. It mixes recipes and parenting chat with discussions
of faith and theology. Contact CaryFuller@hotmail.com.
• John
W. Riggs is professor of historical theology and church history at Eden Theological
Seminary in St. Louis. He is an expert on Christianity in the postmodern world.
Contact 314-918-2583, jriggs@eden.edu.
• New
Testament scholar Scot
McKnight is an observer of the emerging church movement. The lack of concrete
certainty about theology among many in the movement appeals to young seekers,
McKnight says. He wrote The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others (Paraclete
Press, 2004) and is Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park
University in Chicago. Contact 773-244-5783, jesuscreed@northpark.edu.
• Debbie
Blue is a pastor and author of creative urban church in St. Paul, Minn. Contact
debbie@houseofmercy.org.
• A.K.M.
"AKMA" Adam, an Episcopal priest, teaches New Testament and early
church history at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill. He
has written numerous books and articles, including the forthcoming Faithful
Interpretation: Reading the Bible in a Postmodern World (Fortress, October
2006). He is not an expert in the movement but a sympathetic, critical observer
of it, maintaining an ongoing conversation with several active emerging church
leaders and working with students interested in the subject. Contact 800-275-8235,
akm-adam@seabury.edu.
IN
THE SOUTHWEST
• Elaine
Heath, McCreless Assistant Professor of Evangelism at Perkins School of
Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, taught a class in spring
2006 called "Postmodernism, Evangelism and the Emergent Church." Contact 214-768-2167,
eheath@smu.edu.
• Carl
A. Raschke, religious studies professor at the University of Denver, is the
author of The Next Reformation: Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernity
(Baker Academic, 2004). Contact 303-871-3206, craschke@du.edu.
• Roger
Olson is an expert in historical theology and professor of religion at Baylor
University's Truett Theological Seminary in Waco, Texas. Olson co-chairs the
evangelical theology group of the American Academy of Religion. He wrote the
"theology of evangelicalism" entry in the Encyclopedia of Protestantism
(Routledge, 2004). Contact 254-710-3755, Roger_Olson@baylor.edu.
• Danielle
Grubb Shroyer is pastor of Journey
Community Church in Dallas. She serves on the national Emergent Coordinating
Group in the area of social justice. Contact dgshroyer@yahoo.com.
IN
THE WEST/NORTHWEST
• Bob Hyatt is lead pastor at the Evergreen
Community (Motto: "Life's short, why not apply for an extension?")
a young emerging community that meets in a pub in Portland, Ore. Hyatt is a
megachurch escapee who says American churches that get bigger and bigger foster
a culture of church consumerism and they neglect individuals. Contact 503-997-0407,
bob@evergreenlife.org.
• Mark Oestreicher is president of Youth
Specialties in El Cajon, Calif. He is a leader in the emerging movement.
Youth Specialties markets training seminars, conventions and educational materials
to Christian workers. Oestreicher has authored numerous books and training materials
that help youth workers present traditional Christian concepts to the modern
youth sensibility. Contact 619-440-2333.
• Wade Clark Roof is F. Rowny Professor of Religion and Society and chairman
of the religious studies department at the University of California at Santa
Barbara. He is a columnist for Beliefnet and author of, among other books, Spiritual
Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion (Princeton
University Press, 2001). He is also editor in chief of Contemporary American
Religion (Macmillan Reference USA, 1999). Roof says admonishments to believe
in God and attend services regularly aren't sufficient to help people make sense
of today's world - hence the attraction of the questioning alternative (emerging)
church movement. Contact 805-893-7136, wcroof@religion.ucsb.edu.
• Rose Madrid-Swetman is a pastor and social justice worker in Seattle.
Contact rose@vineyard-cc.org.
• Deborah Loyd is a pastor and planter of The
Bridge Christian Church for street kids and socially disenfranchised people
in Portland, Ore. She is writing a book about women in Christianity, Without
a Voice. Contact 503-516-1415, thebridgepdx@msn.com.
• Rachelle
Mee-Chapman is abbess and founder of a small urban abbey, ThPM
(Thursday Night Gathering) in Seattle. Contact urbanabbess@monkfish-abbey.org.
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