Comments on: Presbymergent for Noobs

By: Presbymergent Retrospective, 2007 : presbymergent

Presbymergent Retrospective, 2007 : presbymergent — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 01:24:27 +0000

[...] Presbymergent for Noobs, by Shawn Coons [...]

By: Emergent Article in Presbyterian Outlook | Presbymergent | Presbyterian Church (USA) | Emergent

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:01:50 +0000

[...] mentioned, and then author of the article drew heavily from both Shawn Coons’ post “Presbymergent for Noobs” and its subsequent [...]

By: Chris Lee

Chris Lee — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 16:02:32 +0000

Shawn,
I just moved to take a youth minister position, but for a few years before I was a worship leader. I was growing in east Tennessee as a known worship leader in my travels, but I was eventually hired to begin a contemporary/emergent/Christians worshipping with rock music kind of worship service.:) After beginning it from the ground up, I began meeting other church staff who had tried similar endeavors. I quickly began to find what works and what doesn’t, and began to see the ways that churches half way do things that make for ministries that aren’t responded to well. I also began consulting other churches on the do’s and dont’s as I found them to be. I could type a forever long message on many things that I found, but it might be easier to just email back and forth. I would be more than happy to share with you what worked for me, what didn’t work for me, and things that I’ve seen in many churches. Just email me at trinityumcyouth@comcast.net–I’d love to hear from you, and I hope that I can help in some way. God bless!

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 22:45:51 +0000

A short while ago I got off the phone with a member of COM who is arranging their regular visit with our Session. Since my efforts to encourage the church (and the Session) to talk about the congregation’s self-understanding seem to be getting nowhere, I talked with him to see if COM would address the issue at their upcoming visit. He said they’d be able to do that. I need to find out if I’m contributing to communication barriers in the congregation I serve.

Shawn, it doesn’t sound like you’re dealing with communication barriers like I am, but I shared this story in case you are.

As for your latest question, based on what little I know, I’d have to agree with Nancy and Drew. I’d say:

Emergence isn’t a style, and it isn’t just about worship (Nancy’s point). Emergence is a worldview that attempts to get behind/underneath the overlay of authority/hierarchy/traditions/structures in order to find what is essential to the life of the communitty and its relationships with God, others, self.

Therefore, emergent worship is less about style and more about purpose. Emerging worship attempts to be a living answer to the question, “Why do we worship?” not “How do we worship?”

I think the same things can be said for emerging mission, fellowship, nurture (teaching), evangelism, stewardship, care, and (gasp!) polity. Emergence is focused on the purpose and holism of Christian living, not so much upon technique or style.

That is not to say that mechanics aren’t important, because emerging communities seem to be devoted to living faithfully, and that requires a certain amount of mechanics. However, if I might be so trite, it seems to be a matter of form following function.

I know, it’s not as pithy as Rabbi Hillel (teaching the entire Torah while standing on one leg) or Professor Barth (condensing the Gospel into the words of the song “Jesus loves me, this I know”), but that’s what I’ve observed in my exceptionally limited experience of emergence.

By: Drew Ludwig

Drew Ludwig — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 12:20:35 +0000

To answer the earlier question: I’d say it’s what happens when when you question all of the assumptions about what worship is “supposed to be,” and listen especially to the voices (women, minorities, people outside of the church) that have not been heard as well. Its worship that comes from community, rather than hierarchy.

It’s worship the way worship is supposed to be. (hmmm. that’s kind of snarky, but I think it is true.)

By: Drew Ludwig

Drew Ludwig — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 12:15:11 +0000

Well. Green for change and Purple for hope.

But maybe we should melt to candles together–I guess green and purple make brown, right?

By: Shawn

Shawn — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 13:45:19 +0000

Drew, you wrote, “I see that you are doing a whole lot more than lighting candles and hoping that changes things…”

Which color candles do we light for this to happen?

By: Shawn

Shawn — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 13:43:43 +0000

Thanks to everyone for the comments. You all have shared a lot of good information that will be helpful. Most of it was further down the road than we are right now. I was really just hoping for how you’d first explain this to someone.

If you were given five minutes to talk to someone about emerging worship for the first time what would you say?

But maybe that isn’t the right question.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 19:20:38 +0000

pardon me just nit-picking a bit about semantics… it seems to me that there are several ways to explain “emerging” – style, theology and way of life. To a great extent, ‘emerging’ is not so much a worship format or ingredients as it is a mindset — being Jesus instead of talking about theology, being community 24-7 instead of gathering for a show on Sundays. Being casual and less top-down and teaching -oriented is just the beginning, and perhaps the place to start. I would probably call it a “postmodern” style of worship since it is part of a larger church.

By: Bob Pearson

Bob Pearson — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 04:24:30 +0000

At our church the focus was not on starting a worship change or process, but to form a community. We started with a church leader to explore this. Someone other than the/a pastor. A pastor leading this change is to risky for many in the existing congregation. Then start some study classes to read some books. Start with “A New Kind of Christian”. Those that “get” it will become excited, and those that do not will check themselves out. Then get some covenant groups to read the books. Check out your Presbytery to see if anyone else is exploring this. In our Presbytery this was the New Church Development team. Join it or others to explore this new idea. It may give you some credibility with Session and other leaders in the church.
This could consume nine months or more to this point.

Then we hired a summer intern with Emerging church experience. They can become a catalyst to develop relationships with young emerging people and even other young pastors in your community. Start a weekly group to talk about this, to support the intern and to explore what is desired.
At this point you should have a new community starting that will explore what it wants to do. Listen and support it, and be prepared for some radical requests from this community, like doing communion in new ways, using the old rec rom for worship gatherings, doing services in the park, using art throughout the building, etc.