Emerging and Missional

I found an interesting interview from Steve at World Changers with Alan Hirsch published here.

I particularly found this quote to be noteworthy

"Question: What’s the difference between “Emerging church” and “Missional church”?

Answer: I’m moving away from Emerging church as a term. I think it’s been hijacked by side debates. Emerging is about contextualizing church and the Gospel in a postmodern world.

Context is a subset of missions. Missional church sees ourselves as a missional agency of God in the world. All churches have to be missional. Not all churches need to be “emerging”. Established church can be missional. Emerging churches can be non-misisonal and intenally focused." I think that Alan is right on with these notes. This response helps to more clearly define terminology. The emerging movement within the Christian church is not necessarily a return to effective ministry, but instead a way to live out being the church in a particular context - namely the postmodern culture.