Monday, October 22, 2007

Summary of Francis A. Schaeffer Lecture Series -2-

The Emerging Church: Discerning a Missional Milieu
Covenant Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri
Friday and Saturday, October 19-20, 2007

Short Summary

I attended the series beginning Friday evening. In the History and Streams of the Emerging Church, Pas. Patrick first recounted his personal story of conversion and call to ministry. He then outlined the key leaders in the Emerging Church Movement, highlighting a timeline that began in the mid-1990's. Most of these key players were back then a number of mostly youth pastors and seminary students.

Pas. Patrick then moved to talking about the influential entities of Emerging that exist today, represented by Acts 29 and Emergent Village. He clarified that there are three underlying categories of any Emerging-style church: Emerging Conversational, Emerging Attractional, and Emerging Incarnational. Each catetory has its leaders who challenge evangelical Christianity in their own way.

Lastly, Pas. Patrick explored some often used vocabulary of Emerging churches, including "missional," "authenticity," and "narrative." He followed these terms by showing a series of Pomotivator posters that brought a level of amusement to the audience.

The evening sessions ended with formal Q & A.

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