"The New Christians " Awakening The Sleeping Giant

Tony Jones’ “The New Christians” is the latest dispatch from the emergent frontier. In The New Christians, Jones describes the genesis of the EC and explicates emergent theology. While a casual perusal of emergent blogs reveal that Jones has succeeded in impressing the “choir”, it remains to be seen if the effort will also succeed in achieving the primary purpose for its writing.

Purpose of “New Christians…”
Jones believes that the “academy” must accept EC theology as a legitimate critique of, and alternative to, modern era theology. Nowhere is this view more apparent than in his blog post about the rejection of his Wheaton Theology Conference paper.

Because of this belief and considering the subject matter, it is reasonable to conclude that Jones has two separate, but interrelated, purposes for writing this book. The first is to present the theology of the EC for consideration by people of faith; second, is to promote and expand the EC movement. It is unlikely that current participants in the Emerging Church community were among his primary target audience, as most emergents are familiar with the information contained in the book (with the possible exception of the events leading up to the establishment of EmergentVillage). It is arguable though, that Jones desired for emergents to also be encouraged by the stories, and their faith buttressed by the explication of emergent theology.

I have not interviewed Jones, nor have I read any interviews on this matter, so the most I can do at this time is speculate about his purposes. However, no matter what his purposes are, it is likely that in the final analysis this book will do more to harm than help the EC movement.

Awakening a Sleeping Giant
The New Christians is touted as the seminal source for accurate information concerning the theology and construct of the Emerging Church movement. Dan Kimball’s endorsement says it well: “This is the book to read to get the actual insider’s view of all things emergent.”
The New Christians will do more to damage than promote the EC precisely because Jones does such a good job describing the movement.
It is undeniable that the EC is growing in numbers and influence; and emergents know it. What emergents apparently do not know is that one reason for their success is most evangelical Christians do not know anything about the EC.

I have spoken to pastors all across the USofA about the EC. Most of those that I talked with believe that the EC has something positive to offer the church. However, when I ask them what it has to offer, they cannot answer. As it turns out, they know precious little about the EC, other than it is an effort to communicate the gospel in terms that are relevant to the postmodern generation. These pastors take this position concerning the EC because they heard or read someone say that the traditional church can learn from emergents (usually referring to EC criticisms of modern era Christian practices). In other words, the reason so many evangelicals are willing to entertain the notion that the EC is good for the church, is because they heard it or read it somewhere.

Ignorance is not the same thing as acceptence. Emergents have made a terrible miscalculation, if they confused evangelical ignorance of the EC movement with acceptence of the liberal theology of the EC. Contemporary evangelicals have not abandoned the struggle with theological liberalism. Conservative evangelicals are no more willing to acquiesce to the theological presuppositions of liberalism than did their forebears twenty-five, fifty, or a hundred years before. The reason contemporary conservatives are silent about liberalism is because they believe it is dead.

I attended the SBC national convention in San Antonio in June 2007. On more than one occasion, someone speaking to the members emphatically stated that liberalism is dead.
Conservative evangelicals are woefully unaware that liberalism is not dead. To the contrary, it is very much alive and thriving in the form of the Emerging Church. Though they are unaware of liberalism’s resurrection, I am seeing hopeful signs that the sleeping giant of evangelicalism is stirring - not waking up just yet - but beginning to stir.

Changing Perspective
The evidence of this stirring is the fact that only a year ago, few people outside the EC itself could speak knowledgeably about the movement. Now, an increasing number of blogs dedicated to informing conservatives about the EC are showing up on the internet. Not long ago, the only book of any consequence about the EC was D.A. Carson’s “Becoming Conversant With The Emergent Church”; now a number of books explicating an evangelical response to the EC are available and more are due to be released.

To summarize, one reason the EC has been able to grow in size and influence is that conservative evangelicals were largely ignorant of emergent theology. However, the situation is changing. As more evangelicals realize what the EC is teaching, and when they realize the influence emergents have gained, the limited response we are seeing now will explode into an all out effort to expose the folly of the new liberalism of the Emerging Church.

Tony Jones’ belief that EC theology is a legitimate alternative to conservative evangelical theology, and his desire that the academy accept him as a legitimate intellectual, blinds him to the fact that the EC’s success is due in large part to its anonymity. His blindness and his desires are behind his efforts to force the EC out into the open - into the mainstream of Christianity. Jones is effectively saying to the church at large, “Here we are; this is what we are about; this is what we believe. Prove me wrong!”

Jones’ goal might be to inform and promote, but instead of growth and legitimacy, his effort might spell the beginning of the end for the "New Liberals that he calls "The New Christians."

Steve