The 'emerging church' comes into view

By PAM HOGEWEIDE

Across the Pacific Northwest there is a new kind of church coming into view.

Contemporary churches with non-religious approaches are springing up all over the region. This noticeable shift is becoming known by many as the emerging church movement.

"The emerging church is just the product of a lot of people coming to the same conclusion kind of at the same time," explained Bob Hyatt, pastor of Evergreen Community in Portland.

"Those conclusions being that the way we've been doing it (church) is working for less and less people." Hyatt says he noticed fewer young people attending church in the places he has served over the years.

This began an exploration for Hyatt, who found himself concluding that traditional approaches to church and evangelism were becoming less effective. Hyatt saw a need for change in the church's response to the postmodern shift in our culture.

A change, he says, that translates into modern Christianity's effectiveness in reaching this generation.

"We need to explore doing something differently so that we can have a Christianity that makes sense when we go to these people, when we love them and when spiritual conversations happen" said Hyatt.

Evergreen Community, which meets at the Lucky Labrador Pub, 7675 S.W. Capitol Hwy. in Portland on Sunday mornings, is attracting a growing number of 25-35 year olds, the very people Hyatt wanted to reach.

Evergreen employs a dialogue format rather than a sermon in teaching the Bible. Visitors and regulars alike are encouraged to participate in the service. "Dialogue," said Hyatt, "is a value because it's talking and it 's also listening."

With candles flickering around the room and music playing in the background, Evergreen services have a cozy living room feel to them.

It's an intentional effort to create a disarming atmosphere that invites newcomers who might not attend a traditional church.

"Our whole goal is to build a church of the unchurched and formerly churched," said Hyatt, a graduate of Portland's Western Seminary who has also pastored in the Netherlands and North Carolina.

One recent visitor to Evergreen, a Christian woman in her 50s, commented on how many young people were in attendance, "It's this new way of church. They are making it theirs and doing it in a way that's authentic to them. It's so refreshing."

Robert Blackman, youth director at First Presbyterian Church in Corvallis, says the emerging church movement is a label that a few leaders have chosen for now.

"The name gets at the process of spiritual change marked by trying to translate church and the gospel into today's emerging postmodern culture," he said.

Last year Blackman launched an alternative church service at First Presbyterian called Exodus. "Our service is called Exodus because that 40 year change process is a journey, the reshaping into a new community by God. That's what we're emphasizing."

Pastor Gary Hemenway, former worship pastor of New Song Community Church in Portland and now leading a church planting team in Walla Walla, Wash., observes that the church has become insulated from the rest of the world.

"We've always heard we're supposed to impact the world and not the other way around," he said. "I think we should be impacted when the homeless problem is apparent is our cities. This insulatory philosophy has got to die."

Hemenway's church, called Journey, is opening a coffee and art house with the hope of drawing people to Christ who will not attend church.

"Church is people, not a place," said Hemenway. "Where you go is where the church goes, and it's not just in these resource-hungry buildings."

In north Portland, Red Sea Church, at 7535 N. Chicago Ave., has opened a coffeehouse in the heart of the St Johns neighborhood. The coffeehouse, called Xenos, which is Greek for hospitality, "is the gospel cloaked in culture," said Red Sea's pastor, Shaun Garman. "People come here to experience culture. We're not a franchise. We are here because of the gospel."

Garman, who shies away from his church being labeled as "emergent," said, "This isn't a scorning of things in the past. The very essence of God as Artist and Creator is that there are new and fresh expressions of how we can go and reach out into the darkness."

These pastors are snapshots of the new kind of church that is emerging throughout the Pacific Northwest. This movement is not unique to the region, however, but is a trend picking up speed across the nation. A search in cyberspace on the emerging church will produce a host of websites and blogs including, www.emergingchurch.org. This site provides links to emerging churches across America including Portland's own Imago Dei, an emergent church founded by Pastor Rick McKinley. Imago Dei, which meets at the old Laurelhurst Church, 3212 S.E. Ankeny, has attracted a lot of young people since it began in 2000.

Another site, www.emergentvillage.com, is home to Emergent, a network that "works to bring people together who are having the same conversation," said Kelly Bean of Oregon City, who is involved with Emergent. "Pretty much this all comes out of a sense that we are all in major change in our paradigm that is not developmental or generational, but cultural," said Bean, who is a member of the Emerging Women's Lea-dership Initiative. Accor-ding to Bean, the movement is not an anti-reaction against anything, but rather is pursuing the question of where is God leading the church from here.

Besides websites and blogs there are a host of books that have been written on the emerging church. One book, The Emerging Church: Vintage Christian-ity for a New Generation, was named Christianity Today magazine's 2004 Book of the Year. Written by Pastor Dan Kimball, a graduate of Multnomah Biblical Seminary, the book describes the emerging church movement as "more of a mindset than a model."

Another notable author is Brian McClaren., a pastor from the Washington D.C., area. McClaren has written several books including Church on the Other Side, which offers strategies for churches in how to shift within the ever-morphing postmodern culture. McClaren's voice is one of the most amplified for the emerging church as confirmed by his recent guest appearance on CNN's Larry King talk show.

The emerging church movement is not without its critics. Some claim that this movement is placing great emphasis on contemplative prayer, a spiritual discipline of silence practiced by many religions. Deborah Dombrowski of Lighthouse Trails Publishing in Silverton said, "If you removed contemplative prayer from the emerging church movement all you would have left is couches and candles."

Dombrowski has published several books that warn about contemplative prayer bringing New Ageism into churches. Dombrowski says she recognizes today's young people are looking for something different. Her concerns are with the influential pastors and authors who are popularizing contemplative prayer in the emerging church movement. "What these leaders are promoting and believe is contemplative prayer which leads to interspirituality." Dombrowski's website, www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com, defines contemplative prayer as "mantra-styled meditation" and interspirituality as "the combining of the world's religions."

Hyatt defends the practice of contemplative prayer. "We don't reject spiritual practices which can bring us closer to God just because another religion has adopted them - we redeem those practices."

Opinions and perspectives vary concerning the emerging church movement. It is an ongoing, ever shifting trend that makes this movement difficult to define. It would appear that this transformation in the local church is more than just a fad, though. The emerging church is coming into view, and, some would say, it's about time.