Stories of Emergence: Moving from Absolute to Authentic

by Spencer Burke (Contributor), Mike Yaconelli

Imagine coming to a crossroads where you're no longer sure who you are, why you do what you do, why you believe the way you do. You're not even sure you care. Where do you go? Follow the stories of people who were steeped in their beliefs--a former fundamentalist, a former Pentecostal, a former liberal, a former feminist, a former communist, and several other 'formers'--and walk with them on their journeys out of those beliefs. See what twists and turns arise before them, and find out what they learned (about faith, themselves, their beliefs, the world) as they emerged on the other side. This diverse group of Christian leaders discloses and shares in vulnerable, uncommon ways, allowing you full access into their doubts, fears, convictions, and unanswered questions. Each takes you on a path from absolute to from a place of false conviction and thin resolution, through struggles and growing pains, to a new place that's much more about process than about having 'arrived.' When it comes to journeys of faith, we often don't know what lies at the end of the road. It's difficult to take the first step when we are so unsure of the destination. As you read these stories, you'll find there is room to challenge your fears as well as your faith.

Genres: Church, Christianity

240 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2003

Reviews

[Mitch · Rating 1 out of 5]

This collection of short pieces, often partially autobiographical and from varying contributors, is united in that each one is dissatisfied with Christian churches and their messages.

This complaint is hardly news.

My problem with this collection is the tendency of the authors, in spite of their backgrounds, uniting also in their usage of high-grade 'Christian' verbage without bothering to define what these specialized 10-dollar words mean. These words remove meaning for most laymen and leave it open mainly for a single, specialized group who have spent some quality time in bible colleges and seminaries.

For example, one author contributed this: "...the individual, rational, scientific skepticism of modernity was being supplanted by the communal, experiential, constructivist spirituality of postmodernity." I had trouble even typing that, let alone understanding it.

If the goal was to describe what was going on and to suggest a better way forward for the church, well, the authors could have said something a lot simpler and more contructive(ist) than that.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each chapter contains the story of one individual’s journey, mostly from some form of modernist/evangelical Christianity via a crisis of some kind through to a broader, more relationship-based faith. It could have been rather dull; the plot of each story is, essentially, the same albeit with different details. But this is not a book to read at one sitting. I dipped into it irregularly over the course of a few weeks, and found much to ponder.

The book is divided into three sections, grouping the writers by those who had a crisis in ministry, those who had a crisis in worldview, and those who simply had a crisis in faith. Each individual describes openly and honestly how he or she become disillusioned in some way with the church or other belief system of their youth, and how they eventually found a new and vibrant faith that embraced postmodernist culture while staying true to Jesus.

Some of the stories are fascinating, some of the childhood churches staggeringly rigid or oppressive. One writer describes his childhood as a committed Communist, and one as an ardent feminist. They are all careful not to condemn their earlier views or their upbringing, instead explaining how their eyes were opened at some point, usually due to some dramatic circumstances. The writing styles are quite different; I found some a bit heavy-going, others light and more personal. There were things to ponder in almost every chapter.

Out of print and not easy to find second-hand, but I would certainly recommend this to those asking questions about the relevance of the church in the 21st century, and also to those who are suspicious of the 'emerging church' movement.