** spoiler alert ** This prescription from the Old Testament prophet Micah appears both early and late in this collection of 25 essays from emergent practitioners from many different parts of the US.

Emergent is the term in 2007 being used to describe a collection of people and communities critiquing and challenging Christian thought and practice in late 20th-early 21st-century America. It was previously called "postmodern," but on further review, that was a misleading term, because it gave the impression that it was primarily a philosophical project. For example, in reading Brian McLaren's essay "Church Emerging: Or Why I Still Use the Word Postmodern but with Mixed Feelings," I get the impression that McLaren is weary of telling people "No, we haven't rejected the idea of truth."

I'm not crazy the use of the word "Manifesto" to describe the emergent community, as it has the connotation as the declaration of a group of people who believe they are going to save the world, or usher in some great new way of thinking and acting. This is not that kind of book. There's a lot of humility expressed its pages.

So what is emergent community about? Some of the threads have been around for a while, some are newer. There are probably better ways of saying it, but here's what I grasp from reading this book.

Being conformed to the image of Christ is so much more than book learning. It involves honoring and leveraging the different kinds of intelligences people have.

People don't want to think of themselves as a target of someone's gospel marketing technique.

A Christian is not merely a consumer of a body of ideas and the services of a church, but part of a creative, creating community.

A lot of Protestants are historically prejudiced. There were the apostles, then 1,500 years of more-or-less nothing, then the Reformation, then 500 years of more-or-less nothing, then now.

Being culturally prejudiced is part of the human condition, and transcending cultural prejudice is part of the redemptive work of God in people and communities.

If you're a church leader, and you're not considering the consequences of acts of cultural prejudice done in the name of Jesus Christ, you're not paying enough attention.

Christians in America need to get out more, both historically and culturally.

God didn't put pastors in the body of Christ to implement the next church growth fad. Churches are not businesses.


This book is a snapshot of the emergent community in 2007. Each of the essays are generously footnoted, and the notes section at the end of the book gives some good suggestions as to what books to read if you wish to examine this further. I don't give the book five stars because of the misleading word in the title and the lack of an index.

Full disclosure: I attend Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis, where Doug Pagitt (co-editor) is the pastor, and Tony Jones (co-editor), Carla Barnhill (contributor) and Thomas Olson (contributor) are members.