Whoever wrote that is not paying attention to what is happening. The emergent church is not dead. Far from it. Just because some of the initial structures put in place to nurture the emergent church have passed does not mean the ideas are dead. Go to any megachurch youth group and tell me with a straight face the emergent church is dead. They've probably spent the last five years getting bombarded by Rob Bell's Numma videos. People declaring its demise have no idea how deeply these ideas have infested American Evangelicalism.
I dunno. Do you count the megachurches as part of the "Emergent Church movement?" I think more in terms of the informal and usually heterodox house churchs Yuppies are fond of that tailor worship and doctrine to their own preferences.
The megachurch movement and the Emergent Church both have their roots in the Leadership Network. While the outcomes have been different, the leaders of both have been influenced by business books, and the leadership of both have the same faulty assumptions guiding them. I think they are both destined for the same landing, but the emergents have found liberalism (postmodern liberalism, but liberalism nonetheless)quicker. Rick Warren is on record saying "Deeds, not creeds." What does that sound like to you?
I had a debate with Warrenite Richard Abanes on that very topic here a few years ago. No question that you're right in your analysis of where those guys are coming from. If anything, "postmodern liberalism," if it isn't redundant, is the worst kind.
"Deeds, not creeds" has all kinds of bizarre implications, not the least of them being "works, not faith."
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I dunno. Do you count the megachurches as part of the "Emergent Church movement?" I think more in terms of the informal and usually heterodox house churchs Yuppies are fond of that tailor worship and doctrine to their own preferences.
"Deeds, not creeds" has all kinds of bizarre implications, not the least of them being "works, not faith."