Just the other day, our youth pastor and I were discussing the subject of the Emerging Church. This evening with a little extra time on my hands, I decided to do a search here on the MyChurch blogs and see what has been posted. Here is the search line:

http://www.mychurch.org/blog/search.php?s=&q=Emerging&sort=score&order=DESC&page=0

Thanks to the MyChurch Team's insight into how "we" would like to use their services, they have allowed us to sort the results in 6 different ways. Very nice to help zero in on what we are looking for.

I was a little surprised to see that of all the blogs on this subject, only one had received a star, and a single star at that. Hmmm... Is this a topic that is considered too hot of a potato to touch? Even at that, the most comments anybody received was two. Let's pause for a moment to recognize the blogger that took first place in both of those categories (most stars and most comments). Drum roll please...

Brother Dave Apel: http://www.mychurch.org/daveapel congrats!

After reading some of the blogs on this subject, many posted long ago (some by OnTheBeach were posted 3 decades ago according to the reverse-sort by date :eek: and that is really one forward looking Aussie down in Australia), I decided to see what might be new on the subject. Of course, I always turn to Amazon Books first to see what new publications might be out there.

Sure enough, here is a new book with a publication date of March 2007:

Has anybody here purchased that book? There are some reviews at the Amazon page by other readers. Click on the book cover, seen to the left, to read the comments.

I would like to hear from some of the newer members of MyChurch that have not weighed in on the Emerging Church or Church 2.0 topics.

I am 50 years old but not "set in my ways" and am always looking for relevant ideas. Healthy and productive discussions will give our church leaders ideas for moving forward in the 21st century. Of course, I would never deviate from the "Full Gospel" approach of preaching the Word. But that is only one aspect of the whole picture. Besides, if we wanted to take the approach of our forefathers, we would all be in non air conditoned buildings. I hear back in the early 1900's, quite a few of the churches were doing great using hot, stuffy single-room sanctuaries with good success in winning the lost. However, I have a feeling that the environment and decor of yesteryear is NOT fully applicable to today's society. As a matter of fact, some of the Christians that I know start complaining if the sanctuary is not at the "right" temperature; which seems to vary from 68 degrees for one person to 76 degrees Fahrenheit for another. LOL

So yes, there are probably some things that need to be addressed in the TOTAL church environment for the Emerging Church.

So back to the subject, The Emerging Church... Where are we today? (April 13, 2007)