The gift of the emergent movement
The "Emergent Movement," which began sometime in the mid/late 1990's, has suffered criticism over the last couple of decades. Criticism like, "All people in the Emergent Movement did was criticize the church, and then lit a bunch of candles in their worship service and called it something new." Harsh. I wondered where the criticism came from: what was the expectation that was clearly unmet for some?
I think some expected a more concrete outcome - a new denomination, perhaps, or at the very least, an organized something we could belong to. I can see how the Emergent Movement failed to meet this expectation.
But I think, actually, that the Emergent Movement was incredibly successful at what we really needed at that time. As Gen Xers moved into adulthood in the 1990's, we brought our skepticism with us. For those of us raised in conversative Christian traditions, we felt stifled by the insistance that there was ONE WAY to be a Christian, ONE WAY to read the Bible - or else you're not really a Christian, and oh-by-the-way "backsliders" might go to hell.
But Gen Xers don't move through the world without asking the hard questions, without skepticism that things aren't so black-and-white. The Emergent Movement was born of this generation- and its main objective was giving all of us permission to doubt. We looked to the writings of Mother Theresa - this paragon of Christian devotion - who struggled with incredible doubt most of her adult life as she bandaged the wounds of diseased people. We embraced the stories in the Bible that left us wondering, "What the f*ck, God?!" We were the beginning of the deconstruction of harmful theology because we decided to reclaim doubt as part of our faith.
The Christian church in America continues to benefit from the Emergent Movement's wild success at inviting questions and doubt to the table. I am constantly meeting more and more and more people who are deconstructing their faith - because they can. Because they have others to look to who came before then - and didn't get struck by lightning for their supposed "apostacy."
No - I think the Emergent Movement did exactly what it was supposed to do. It was the first phase of the next 500 years of Christianity (check out Phylis Tickle's excellent historical reflection on this). The post-evangelical, progressive, or whatever other label we might give it, version of Christianity that is now unfolding in the U.S. and elsewhere should take a pause for thanks to the Emegernt leaders of the late 90's and early 2000's. I know I'm incredibly grateful.