Lutheran - Emergent? What Can One Say to the Other?

In a previous post, I tried to come up with some ideas of how the Lutheran movement and the Emerging Church conversations have some converging realities.  (That post has some background and some disclaimers.  Please go check it first before reading this one!)  Now I want to speculate as to what the two movements/ conversations might be able to give each other as mutually-exchanged gifts.

I'll start with what I think Lutherans could gain from listening to and interacting with Emergents.  Then I'll try the other direction in a new post.

First of all, Lutherans could learn a lot about incarnational faith practice from emergents.  Lutherans major on "head knowledge."  (The longest 18 inches in the universe?  The distance from a Lutheran's head to their heart.)  We lack in terms of daily practice.  By this I mean not only devotional practice, but also how the Law and Gospel shape our daily choices.

Lutherans could also gain a great deal in terms of engagement with the world around us by paying attention to emergents.  This is probably where we could stand to learn the most.  Lutherans tend to either "roll over" to the culture around us (1930's Germany) or withdraw and disengage.

Lutherans also have a hard time in how congregations relate to one another.  We tend to be either lone rangers (as churches and as pastors) or part of/ reacting against a hierarchical, top-down driven model of denominationalism (that is thoroughly modern and business-llike, even if the model is one that is "baptized" by liturgical theology).  Emergents could teach us a lot about mutual accountability, non-hierarchical networks, and "organizing from below" in ways that maintain responsibility and authority but are also extremely responsive to local conditions and promote leadership that is servant-like and committed to resourcing and supporting mission more than preserving a denominational organization (which is precisely where the ELCA is right now).

Emergents get their hands dirty and serve.  Lutherans advocate.  I'm not saying the latter is bad, but it definitely tends to be driven by some questionable agendas.  Lutherans should have dirtier hands.

As much as Emergent folks are contextual, they are also very conscious of being part of global Christianity.  Generally not so with Lutherans; we're parochial.  But Christianity is exploding all over the world, in places NOT where Lutherans have emigrated from in the past.

Here's another one related to cultural engagement.  Lutherans are very willing to take the culture around us as a "given."  Emergents are much more willing to critically examine, test, critique, and deconstruct the wider culture.  Lutherans need to learn that.  As said above, we either withdraw into irrelevance or capitulate to the gods of the day.

Coming next : What can Lutherans bring to the table?

Comments

[Lee]

With all due respect to what emergent folk are trying to do, a lot of these are things that it seems Lutherans could also learn from ... Roman Catholics! Daily practices? Check. Service? Check. Engagement with the world? Check.

I don't mean to sound cheeky, but a lot of the emergent blogs, etc. that I read seem to have an air of breathless discovery, but what they're discovering often turns out to be things that the rest of the church has known about for hundreds of years. This could be in part b/c many emergents seem to be (former?) evangelicals, and evangelicals are notoriously ahistorical in their approch to theology and church practice.

I would also point out that RC's and Eastern Orthodox probably have resources for responding to "postmodernity" (ill-defined term that it is) that we Prots could benefit from.

Mind you, I'm all for evangelicals re-connecting with the heritage of the larger church, but I'm skeptical that emergents have discovered a fundamentally new way of being the church.

[Evers]

Lee,

Thank you for your comment!

I have a great deal of sympathy with what you're saying. I'd like to offer a different take on it, though. I think your "checks" are a little too fast. Yes, at its best the Roman Catholic Church has these things. However, the vast majority of RCs in the United States, at least, are largely disconnected from them, at least as best as I can tell.

Emergents, I think, are re-discovering things that the Church has "known," but has largely "forgotten." I do not mean to be dismissive (and I perceive that you don't, either), but let's face it: if the Orthodox and Roman communions were as "on top of" this as one might want to think, then the ecclesial and cultural lanscape of North America would look considerably different.

I think that these communions do have resources for engagement with the post-modern world, but I fear that they are kept in a largely modern mindset. This is probably less the case with the Orthodox than with Rome, but I suspect it is true to a large extent of both.

I too am wary of "fundamentally new ways to be the church," as much as that wariness might turn off some Emergents. What is "new" is "new" only from a particular, truncated, perspective. But, most of the Church has lived in a truncated perspective (either in the dimension of time or the dimension of ecclesiastical scope) for quite a long time now.

Peace to you!

[Lee]

Eric -

First off, sorry if my comment seemed a bit snarky. I guess I'm a just a bit wary of things that market themselves as "new and improved" versions of Christianity.

Thought I think your point about Rome and Orthodoxy is fair enough. They have often hidden their lights under the proverbial bushel. (As have Lutherans of course!)

I do think that what American Protestants could use is a wider & deeper engagement with the fullness of the church catholic. If that's part of what Emergents are after, then I'm all for it.

[Evers]

Lee,

No worries about "snarkiness." One of the real challenges for the Emergent movement will be whether it can bring its very sharp understanding of contemporary problems and complexities into a fruitful conversation with the Church's tradition(s).

One unfortunate outcome could be that no real interaction takes place. Another would be that the treasures of the past are seen as a salad bar, with a pick-and-choose approach. But another would be to become lost in the traditions of the past and not maintain that lively need to bring them into conversation with the present.

[Thea]

Lee,

I am a Lutheran who gets my hands dirty all the time.

We have a community dinner every Wednesday that's packed. The community come, we sit, eat, and converse with them, along with serve.

We go to Seattle and hand out out coats, blankets, socks, and encouragement.

We work at a soup kitchen twice a week.

We host a respite care program twice a week for seniors.

We have a summer breakfast and lunch program open to school children in the community.

Our doors are open and we talk. We have diversity in cultures and ages.

We don't need to pretend to be monks, have a room full of candles, be attrative to certain age groups, or be high tech. We preach the gospel and pray. Most of all, we are Christians.