Scot McKnight on House Churches
I’ve recently been diving into personal research about what the “Emerging Church” or the “Emergent Conversation” is all about. One of the resources I came across is a website called Emergent Village which appears to be a sort of clearing house for this movement in the US.
One of the resources they offer on the site are podcasts by a number of different speakers, writers and authors who are leading this movement or “conversation” as they like to call it. People like: Brian McLaren, Scot McKnight, Doug Pagitt, Diana Butler Bass, Tony Stone, and many more. You can also subscribe to the Emergent Village podcasts through iTunes.
I have found the communication by one of these leaders to be very good. His name is Scot McKnight, and he is a professor of Biblical & Theological Studies at North Park University here in the Chicago area. He has written a number of books, including one called Jesus Creed… which is also the name of his blog… which I highly recommend subscribing to.
One podcast that is outstanding is Scot speaking to a leadership group of Northpoint Community Church in Atlanta about “The Whole Gospel.” You really must listen to it.
Near the beginning of his talk, Scot highlights some amazing facts about “the church.” First, that there are 20 million Christians in the US who are currently not involved in any organized, institutional church. They are completely disconnected from it, and they meet in organic house-based churches. These organic churches are “growing like crazy” according to Scot, who was basing his facts upon research done and reported by George Barna. This growth is mostly by new believers being “added to the church.”
He also pointed out that a research group in Europe has been studying this same trend worldwide, and they estimate there are currently 125 millions Christians worldwide who do not go to a “local church.” They predict that in 2025, there will be 250 million Christian like this.
He notes that “This is the growing generation”… and that many of his college students graduate and then end up getting together informally with other believers informally on Friday night and weekends and they do not attend a local church. They feel that this is “good enough.” This pattern usually lasts up to 5 years.
My response is: what is the institutional, organized “church” have to say about this? Does this not reflect a growing sense of “irrelevancy” that many of the young are saying they experience toward “the church?” What is “the church” going to do about it? How will it respond?
I sincerely hope that we “moderns” who have grown up in the institutional and organized “church” can find the maturity and humility to look at ourselves, and change where we need to change in order to stay relevant to not only the younger generation of Christians, but more importantly to the “post-modern” culture around us.
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April 22nd, 2008 at 9:08 am
Hi Randy, I didn’t know you had a blog like this until just now - nice clean design
I’m excited to see you recommending The Jesus Creed.
I haven’t read that but I am currently reading 40 days living the Jesus Creed and I’ve also read The Real Mary and a Community called Atonement. His books are thoughtful and well-written. While staying within an orthodox conservative understanding of the Bible, whatever he writes about he does so in a fresh new way, seeking to bring balance and make sure the whole gospel of Jesus is honored. I think he accepts the label Emerging, however he is definitely at the conservative orthodox end of the Emerging spectrum, which is quite wide.
I read Scot’s blog regularly and I’ve heard him speak and met him personally - he’s a great guy; articulate, friendly, personable, has a good sense of humor. He attends Willow Creek, by the way - he has not opted out of organized church :). I’ve heard him on the WMBI morning show a couple of times in recent months - I was pleased to hear him on there.
I don’t know if you’ve seen this - if not I recommend it: Scot’s article for Christianity Today about the Emerging Church and Emergent:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/february/11.35.html
Amongst other things he explains the distinction between ‘Emerging’ and ‘Emergent’ which I was very confused about when I first began reading about them.
Since Scot is local, you might be able to have him come give a talk for you if you wanted to have some sort of meeting for conservative Christians who want to learn more/ask questions about Emerging/Emergent. Or if you want him to talk about anything in his books. He’s a great speaker.
Another local conservative Christian who understands the Emerging/Emergent conversation well is John Armstrong. John wouldn’t call himself Emerging whereas I think Scot would. But John has lots of friends in the Emerging church and understands their concerns well. I don’t think John has written any books lately; he does have a blog where he writes regularly.
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:33 am
Twould be interesting to see some corroborating evidence from another polling outfit which was not selling books about the alleged “Revolution.”
The Barna data is all over the page, btw. Later, after the publication of “Revolution” he reported that 80 per cent of those who left the insitututional church were actually still tethered to it.
A new USA landscape survey - the largest ever - from the Pew Forum didn’t mention house churches at all.
???