Emergent Huh?

I'm going to be talking about the new Emergent What? site, but first I'll tell you how I wound up there.

When I first googled "Emerging Church" I came across a few sites. Ok, I came across 9 million sites. But there some at the top that caught my eye, and like any savvy (read: lazy) netsurfer I decided to check out the first ones I saw.

On the "pro" side were Andrew Jones, The Emergent Village, and the people I eventually hooked up with (and can be seen on the links sidebar). On the "con" side were the popular Emergent No and the slightly less credible although more humorous Slice of Laodicea. I checked both sides out. Just to be sure. I'll be honest; from the beginning I was concerned that this whole Emergent phenomenon would turn out to be just another fad, and I could do without that. Remind me to tell you about my experiences in Deliverance Ministry circles.

Nope, I was not at all interested in "the next big thing."So I started with the Village's blog, and began reading the comments there. I was impressed at the willingness to talk and share that I found, and after creating a persona I became involved in the conversations -and eventually lives - of the people there. Some of them (like Jamie and Robbymac) I'm still friends with. But I knew I couldn't spend all my time with one side, and so I made my way across no man's land to find the other trenches. I arrived at E-No and was pretty shocked at some of the anger and hate I saw flying both ways. The writers were sarcastic and bitter sounding, and I tried hard to ignore it so I could listen to the criticisms they were making.

I saw some merit in what they were saying. They were noticing alot of the "fringe" aspects that many had also noticed - the side that wanted to throw out the concept of sin/absolute truth, elevate other spiritual texts to the level of the Bible (or take it down a few pegs) and have "free love" or whatever else. We were recycling hippies, I swear. Anyway, I saw Emerging Christians also notice the negative aspects and speak out against it. But few of them would do so at E-No, which I thought was a shame because the majority of the "Emerging Christians" that stopped by would generally be the extreme cases. Some even sent crude or explicit emails to Carla, one of the site's moderators.

I began commenting there in an attempt to be a balancing force. I guess I thought highly of my arbitration abilities, and that maybe Emergent and her critics could come to some kind of middle ground. I spent a frustrating few months there, having a few decent conversations and a whole pile of negative ones. As soon as I was identified as an "Emerging Sympathizer" I was blasted from every angle. I tried to reason with many of them, and some were willing to start from an assumption of mutual respect. Tooaugust/littlec in particular I maintained an email relationship for several months, and Kerri was another that, even though we disagreed, we didn't hate on each other. But many of them weren't and my frustration soon gave way to deep sadness. I couldn't keep going the way I was. Oh yeah - I received crude emails as well. Several of them.

Eventually I gave up, and wrote a farewell post to explain my absence. I let them know that I wouldn't be returning, and that (ironically) they were part of the reason that I now identified myself as emerging. As expected I was maligned for this, although a couple with whom I'd clashed expressed sadness that I was leaving. To my surprise, Carla (who has always been the more moderate of the 3 contributors) thanked me for participating and wished me well in the future. I was pleased to be able to leave on relatively good terms.

I haven't had much chance to engage with the critics of the EC recently, and that has made me sad. But just the other week I found a post on Robbymac's site about a new Emergent No at www.emergentno.com. This one wasn't owned or run by critics of EC, but instead was operated by Justin Baeder. I found this to be confusing, as I knew Justin to be a supporter of the emerging church. But what Justin had done was set up the site to receive all the posts from both the original E-No and Slice, and allow people to comment without fear of being banned for supporting the EC (apparently several supporters had been kicked off the original sites for disagreeing with the site owner, although I'm sure that there have been many who were banned legitimately because of their language or conduct). The name of the new site (when you reach the page) is Emergent What? I chuckled when I saw that because I remember suggesting that name to Jamie a while back for my new blog.

My reaction was mixed at first - the owners of the original site were crying foul, and while I found it humorous that they would accuse someone else of slander I could see how they would feel about it. The URL's are very similar, and there were some copyright issues that still are up in the air. But having a chance to comment on the criticisms levied, and maybe even engage again with some critics themselves? I missed the Village's blog since it shut down, and this looked like it could be a replacement.

Because let's face it - we still need criticisms. We need people who are watching us and keeping us accountable. We need outsiders to look in on us and challenge us. And we need to test our theology and reasoning; what better way to do so than with people who are passionately committed to the Bible and sound doctrine? If we can withstand the criticisms, then great. If some areas of our reasoning are flawed, they will be uncovered. And I hope that my interactions at Emergent What prove as fruitful as some of the others I've had in the past.

What do you think about the new site? Will you check it out? Care to share your stories about your interactions with/as an EC-critic?