There was an excellent blog entry at TheBlogBlog. The term Emergent and Postmodern is getting thrown around quit a bit these days. The post I’m quoting from basically reflects my feelings on the issue. For me, the biggest change, in my understanding, has been moving more to a missional arena. I’m not there yet, but I am in transition. When I was studying to become a pastor (In the last 1988-1992), I had no idea that one day I might see myself more as a missionary to the culture around me than a pastor, but, that change is happening. I believe the who Emergent movement is trying to deal with the issues surrounding such a transition. Perhaps when I have time I’ll go into more detail on where I’m at in relationship to all this and include links as to why. Here’s a quote from the blog entry:

When the organization started as Young Leaders in 1996, they, like everyone else, were talking about generational ministries, connecting to Gen X, looking for techniques to reach out and become relevant. At their conference in 1997, there was a bit of disquiet, as some of the younger leaders felt that much more than a generational change was at play, and some began to use the postmodern word for the first time. By 1998, the third YLN conference put generational strategies to the back-burner and really began to look at culture and mission. This was the first conference planned by Doug Pagitt, and was the first conference attended by Brian McLaren and Tony Jones. By 1999, their name changed to Terra Nova Theological Project reflecting their change from technique modification to something entirely new. Two years later, Brian McLaren’s New Kind of Christian reflected this new understanding of postmodern culture that was developing in the movement.

 

At this time also there was a budding sense that cultural changes required new theologies. At the same time, NT Wright and Dallas Willard’s influence grew — not only was there a new culture, but a new understanding of gospel, kingdom, and atonement emerged. It was at that time that it dawned upon the leaders that a whole new theology needed to be developed, i.e. a new message as well as a new method was required. Terra Nova Theological Project became Emergent at that time.

 

 

[TheBolgBlog]