Why We're Not Emergent: Five Years Later

Ted Kluck:

I'm viewing this article as a sort of five-year reunion.  Imagine myself, Kevin, Don Carson, Brian McLaren, Doug Pagitt,  Phyllis Tickle, Tony Jones and others all standing around awkwardly in a high school gymnasium with mixed drinks and nametags that read, "Hi, My Name Is: Brian McLaren"  and saying things like, "So, what have you been up to since our particular brands publicly clashed and sold us both a lot of books a few years ago?"  Rob Bell would be on the roster but will have missed the reunion in favor of giving a talk in a major sports arena or launching a television network.

Recently, by the grace of God, I've been made aware of some long-un-dealt-with areas of sin in my own life including (but definitely not limited to) arrogance, pride, cynicism and a kind of pervasive lack of humility.  Not the kind of pervasive lack of humility which wears sunglasses in the building, demands the best of everything, and routinely big-times people.  Not that kind at all – in fact, I was the antithesis of that – a real people pleaser.  Rather, I was the kind of un-humble person who lived for the praise of others (and therefore used people for praise), and who would quietly seethe when I felt others were receiving credit or success that I thought I deserved more.  In America we sometimes call that competitiveness, but in reality it's just sin (jealousy, envy) and it makes a person (read: me) the worst kind of jerk at times.  Slowly realizing that has been like having my skin scraped away with sandpaper.  It's been painful and humbling.  I think previously I had confused failure with humility – that is, when something would go wrong, as it often did, I would confuse that with "becoming more humble."  I apologize for that, and I particularly apologize for how that attitude/cynicism found its way into some of my writing.

So all of that to say this essay probably won't be the zinger-filled ha-ha fest that some of my past emergent/emerging/missional-related writings has been.

You can read the whole thing here.