ChurchMorph: How Megatrends Are Reshaping Christian Communities

Eddie Gibbs was born and grew up in the UK where he served in the Anglican Church as well as working for many years with the Bible Society in the areas of church growth and church development.   In the video on Alan Roxburgh's page, Eddie talks about the way God is working, changing the institutional church and re-shaping it.

Elsewhere he notes that it is among the 'dowdy' Anglicans and Methodists in the UK that the Spirit is at work re-shaping communities in mission for the kingdom.  Eddie writes in churchmorph how some of the gurus who’ve been telling us all the institutional, organized church is over will probably be writing books about the rediscovery of the church among the denominations.

In churchmorph, he goes beyond an analysis of causes to show how many churches and faith communities are actually breaking the downward trend.  He expertly maps current converging church movements - emerging and missional churches, mainline renewal groups, megachurches, urban mission, new monasticism, alternative worship, and expanding networks - and offers a positive assessment of the reshaping of today's church. The core of the book identifies trends and movements that provide signs of the kingdom and reveals how different faith communities are working out what it means to be "church" in a changing world.

The emerging church has not really emerged

The title of this post comes from a series of personal observations about trends in Queensland churches - so don't take it as a statement of fact...!

John Sweetman has written ten observations about the church, and has this to say about the emerging church:
Experiments are continuing in Queensland, but there are few success stories yet. Perhaps the conservative nature of Queensland means that new things happen more slowly. Perhaps the emerging church will never have a strong following but will minister to a niche market. Time may tell.

The emerging (or emergent) church idea has been all the rage in recent years. Maybe it's time has come, maybe it hasn't; maybe it's only part of the whole. There's an excellent overview of it on Wikipedia (fast becoming the encyclopedia of choice!), but for an even more detailed view, check on Scot McKnights, 'Five Streams of the Emerging Church' in which he quotes Eddie Gibbs' definition of 'emerging church':

Emerging churches are communities that practice the way of Jesus within postmodern cultures. This definition encompasses nine practices. Emerging churches (1) identify with the life of Jesus, (2) transform the secular realm, and (3) live highly communal lives. Because of these three activities, they (4) welcome the stranger, (5) serve with generosity, (6) participate as producers, (7) create as created beings, (8) lead as a body, and (9) take part in spiritual activities.

McKnight checks out the points in this definition, and goes much further. Well worth a visit.