Here you will find a variety of miscellaneous resources.

Teaching Resources

• Emerging Churches PowerPoint: A short PowerPoint based off of the Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger book, Emerging Churches, created by Adam Walker Cleaveland.
• What is the Emerging Church?: A Handout put together by Tom Robinson for a Pre-Presbytery event.
• The Emerging Church: Rising from Falling Foundations: a presentation put together by Jim Bonewald for Presbytery.

alt.worship

• alt.worship photos: These are some photos taken from alternative worship gatherings that Adam Walker Cleaveland led both at Princeton Theological Seminary (in the Gambrell Room) and in the Princeton University Chapel. Blogger Will Samson writes about the .bE alt.worship service on the American Bible Society blog here.
• Handout of some Book of Order references that allow for some more freedom, as well as an example of a PC(USA) alt.worship order of worship

Book Recommendations

“Emergent” Introductions

• “A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/Conservative, Mystical/Poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/Contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-yet-Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished CHRISTIAN” by Brian McLaren. A vision for what the future of Christianity might look like.
• “A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey” by Brian McLaren. Part of a very good 3-part series including “The Story We Find Ourselves In: Further Adventures of a New Kind of Christian” and “The Last Word and the Word after That: A Tale of Faith, Doubt, and a New Kind of Christianity.” These stories are a great way to enter into the conversation that is taking place.
• “An Emergent Manifesto of Hope (emersion: Emergent Village’s resources for communities of faith)” edited by Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones. This book features a collection of the hopes and dreams and stories of those in the Emergent conversation, including a few essays by Presbymergents.

Theology/Philosophy/Bible

• “How (Not) to Speak of God” by Peter Rollins: This is one of the best Emergent books I’ve read. It basically explains the theological and philosophical underpinnings of the emerging church in the first half of the book, and then gives practical examples of what services look like in his church context.
• “The Secret Message of Jesus: Uncovering the Truth that Could Change Everything” by Brian McLaren.
• “The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church” by Greg Boyd. Excellent for helping people understand being Kingdom of God people, rather than kingdom of the world loyalists. Our staff of 10 is almost done reading it, and oh boy…the conversations!
• “Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith (Cover Image May Vary)” by Rob Bell. In a nutshell, this is Rob Bell’s theology. He challenges the reader to discover what the Bible really meant when it was originally written, and how it can be best applied in these postmodern times.
• “The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others” and “Embracing Grace: A Gospel for All of Us” by Scot McKnight.
• Beyond Foundationalism: Shaping Theology in the Postmodern Context by John Franke and Stan Grenz. Grenz and Franke propose a post-conservative approach to theology, that integrates the bible, tradition, and culture.
• The Character of Theology by John Franke - In what amounts to a prequel to Beyond Foundationalism, Franke describes what theology’s task is and what it is not.

Emerging Churches

• “Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures” by Ryan Bolger and Eddie Gibbs: An excellent book. Instead of being just the authors’ view, they were able to interview dozens of ‘leaders’ in the Emergent Church arena. It is very good research, not shallow at all, very accessible and very practical. The organization of the the subjects of the book too is very good.
• “Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches: Five Perspectives” including chapters by Karen Ward, Mark Driscoll, Doug Pagitt, John Burke and Dan Kimball.
• “A New Spiritual Home: Progressive Christianity at the Grass Roots” by Hal Taussig. Taussig surveyed over 1,000 congregations. From the description: “A new kind of Christianity is emerging at the grass roots. Full of heart-felt expression, artistic creativity, and liberal social values, progressive churches and small Christian communities have established themselves across the denominational spectrum.”

Church Ministry

• “Tribal Church: Ministering to the Missing Generation” by Carol Howard Merritt. Written by a young presbymergent pastor, Carol presents the sociological, economic, and cultural context of many young adults, and she explains how churches can respond, through a tribal, or relational, ministry.

• “More Ready Than You Realize” by Brian McLaren. This book has been out for quite a few years, but it is one of the most helpful books when it comes to re-thinking evangelism and sharing our faith in the 21st century.
• “Alternative Worship: Resources from and for the Emerging Church” by Jonny Baker and Doug Gay: A fabulous resource for those wanting to enter into the alt.worship conversation.
• “The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church” by Reggie McNeal.
• “Direct Hit: Aiming Real Leaders at the Mission Field” by Paul D. Borden. A great book for pastors asking these questions.
• “Hit the Bullseye: How Denominations Can Aim Congregations at the Mission Field (Convergence Series.)” by Paul D. Borden. A great book for middle judicatories - a couple Presbytery staffs have been reading Borden’s books.
• “The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World (J-B Leadership Network Series)” by Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk. This is an excellent resource for mainline pastors who are trying to move their churches in an “emergent” direction. Helps pastors understand their role as cultivators (as opposed to chaplains or CEOs), helping the congregation to discover its own missional role in their community and in the world.
• “Evangelism Without Additives: What if sharing your faith meant just being yourself?” by Jim Henderson. Formerly titled “AKA Lost,” this book helps people get beyond labeling non-Christians as “lost.” Instead, those who don’t know Christ are “the people Jesus misses most.”
• Revolution” by George Barna. Barna’s latest book takes a statistical approach to exploring the emergent revolution, focusing especially on the need for intimate and authentic community.
• Emerging Worship: Creating Worship Gatherings for New Generations by Dan Kimball, David Crowder, and Sally Morgenthaler. This is a great book that describes different approaches to doing worship differently. Especially helpful for a church that is looking to start a new worship gathering. Kimball alerts you to some of the pitfalls and challenges that lie ahead.
• “Church Next” by Eddie Gibbs.

Spiritual Growth

• “Flirting With Monasticism: Finding God on Ancient Paths,” by presbymergent Karen Sloan, tells a very personal story of getting to know a Catholic order, the Dominicans, and connects it all to the bigger picture of spiritual formation interests often shared among friends of Emergent.
• “Devotional Classics: Revised Edition: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups” edited by Richard Foster. This book alone will deepen the contemporary church and connect it with our ancient heritage and riches. The ideas in this book are utterly essential to grounding the emerging church movement of which we are a part.
• “Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality” by Donald Miller. Miller explores all the usual emergent stuff but with a laid back, humorous, and touching style.

Youth Ministry

• “Practicing Passion: Youth and the Quest for a Passionate Church” by Kenda Creasy Dean. It’s a Youth Ministry book but I think it speaks beyond youth to issues for all mainline churches.
• Postmodern Youth Ministry by Tony Jones. One of Tony Jones’s first books - it’s a great new take on youth ministry.