Missio Dei assumes God is up to something. That we can gather pretty easily. The problem comes down to what we think God is actually doing. That's not so easy. And in order for us to engage God's mission we actually have to know what God is doing.

I like to listen to really great Blues music and be reminded that I am human.

That is friggin awesome.

JR, I'm led to think Belcher isn't suggesting defining the EC movement simply by defining what it is against. The comment is, "The best way to do this is to look at what the emerging church movement is against." He say the movement needs to "look at", not be defined it. In many ways contrast provides a beginning basis for understanding a solution. The definition of the movement then becomes the response. The problem is that the EC movement has been slow to respond. But its coming.

Much love brother

JR, I agree with Ken here that the US version of the conversation largely came out of the Terra Nova project. Most of the influential authors Ken cites were part of that conversation. But like you said the origins go much farther back.

The Terra Nova project in many ways is the quintessential story of emergence. The root question of the project was to ask why those under 35 were no longer going to church, but the problem existed BEFORE the project started. What the Leadership Network did not expect was for the group to begin asking fundamental questions that called virtually everything into question, especially Evangelical understanding of theology. When they discovered the deeper obstacles to faith, especially the emergence of postmodern approaches to thought the Leadership Network was unprepared to go in that direction.

The UK conversation is so important because the UK is arguably 50 years ahead of the US. The 9 o'clock service (and others) were simply an idea to address a culture that had almost entirely rejected Christendom.

JR, I would suggest that much of the birth of the Emerging church, especially in the US, could be traced back to an author named Gene Edwards. Edwards wrote about twelve books that could pass for postmodern approach to Christianity. Edwards' early books mirror the dialog that has been happening now but he wrote back in the 80's. Edwards was deeply influenced by Jeanne Guyon.

Roger Oakland was semi-famous for his early criticisms of the church. When McLaren first started releasing books he did a series on the emerging church and it was essentially the only thing you could find on YouTube. It was very similar to this.

LOL! All I can say is, "Dooooooh!" Roger Oakland did this same talk (I'm assuming) about four years ago. It's still on YouTube I think and I've met so many people who are biased before even understanding it. It's sad...but oh well.