Emergingchurch.intro""

Michael Moynagh, in his book, "Emergingchurch.intro: Fresh Expression of Church, Examples that Work, the Big Picture, What You Can Do" sets out to define, explain, and set out to grow the Emerging Church movement. Moynagh is clearly caught up in the movement and writes from a pro-Emergent theology.

One of his main points is that the Church of Christ is dying. The author is writing from Europe where the Church is clearly fading into obscurity. Moynagh asks the reader, why is this happening? His basic answer is that the church has failed to be relevant and meet the needs of the culture. The Church, to him, is lost into the realm of modernity and absolutes while the culture is living in a world of postmodernism and relativity.

This leads the author to suggest cell churches rather than big cathedrals and church buildings. The emphasis, then, is on community. The author points out that people are drawn to communities and relationships over the format of the typical church. As a result, churches, or Emergent communities, will usually only be able to affect those around them. Therefore, the church in this community might look radically different than the one in the next community. Why? Because the church must adapt to the culture around them.

This is a radical change to ecclesiology and missions. Therefore, Moynagh sets out to explain how churches can do this. It will take a lot of courage and work, but by following his advice, every church can be successful at reaching those in their community.

Moynagh’s plan reveals a major problem with the Emerging Church: by adapting to the culture, we limit the effectiveness of the Church and as a result become irrelevant. In an attempt to be relevant, the Church becomes irrelevant and the fading of the Church in Europe illustrates this. It is good that Moynagh is trying to save the decay of the Church in Europe, but he fails to let Scripture define how Christ grows the Church and offers us a recipe for further disaster.