ok, so I've said a while back that we would be blogging on Emerging Churches by Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger and I haven't. I went back through what I have read so far and made some notes. I will catch us up and notate as I go. [I'm so slow getting through books it's sad.]

This book was a joint effort as a follow up to ChurchNext, by Gibbs. Which was theoretical, he wanted to go more practical and experimental. Bolger brought to the table an understanding of Emerging Churches, not just Buster/Gen-X churches(7). So they set out interviewing and observing these communities. They were on a shoe-string budget so they limited the book to the UK and the US. They speculate that these trends can be found elsewhere in the Western world. Their research discovered 9 trends of Emerging Churches and that is how the book is set up to discuss these "patterns"(9).

So I will do the same. I will work through each of the chapters at the pace necessary to do some good.

This quote from page 29 may shed some like on why this book has been a good read for me.

"This present work seeks to present the key tenets of emerging churches to a wider audience, to those who may be unaware of its development as well as to those who have some notion of significant changes afoot and are seeking further information and clarification. To those who are aware of, or count themselves apart of, the emerging church, it is our hope that this work will illuminate the familiar, giving words to those who have an intuitive understanding that has yet to mature into critical reflection."

This is my motivation for starting this blog. Questions like: Why is the Church not growing? [In health and numbers] How can we/I be more affective in ministering to the culture? Postmodern? What the crap is the Emerging Church? How can I help the Church of God with all these? This book has helped me to start answering some of those questions. I hope it will help you too.



Parenthetical references are for page numbers so I avoid plagiarism of their hard work.