Some interesting thoughts about the emergent church

Eddy Gibbs's view of "emerging church" and his list of emerging church characteristics...

• Their churches are worship inspired with everyone playing an active role in creating the worship experience.
• They are mission focused, committed to responding to the needs of their community and especially in serving the poor.
• They are shaped by context, i.e. seeking an indigenous expression of church that is culturally appropriate.
• They seek to contextualize discerningly, ensuring the integrity of the message and refusing to soften its radical impact.
• They disciple intentionally, which means that they are more concerned to challenge people to live as Christ-followers rather than gathering a crowd.
• Their churches are structured relationally rather than hierarchically. This means that everyone has their place to belong and ministry to which they can contribute.
• Their churches grow organically, which means that they are reproducible, much like a strawberry plant sending out runners that set down new roots and produce more strawberries.
• They network extensively, usually by means of regular contact with the internet, with chatrooms and blogs.
• They gather together periodically the smaller cell churches for times of celebration and re-tooling for mission.
• Lastly, they serve compassionately, in that they are committed to holistic spirituality, rejecting any separation of the spiritual from the secular, which occurred under modernity.