Listening to the Beliefs...

Back in June I attended a mini-conference (or should we call it a "conversation"?) called Emergence that brought together 4 emerging leaders and gave them an opportunity to interact with one another (and with the audience in attendance). The basis for the conference/conversation was a book called"Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches". I got the book as a freebie for attending Emergence and I am proud to say that I finally got around to finishing it.

Isn't it a good day when you finish a book?

The book basically takes 5 different emerging leaders and gives them each an entire chapter to write about their theology. After an author has given their summarization, the other 4 authors each take an opportunity to respond to what has been presented.

This leads to lots of "I know this person" and "I like this person, but...". It's obvious that most of these people genuinely like each other but it's also quite apparent that they all have different opinions about different aspects of faith and theology.

My only advise is that you don't go into this expecting a handbook of "This is What the Emerging Church Believes". It's a good read to get a little bit more of the picture, but I don't believe it's the whole picture. It would probably not be "emerging" if it was the whole picture.