Emergent theology... Wesleyan theology?

In 2000, as a newly appointed young adult pastor straight out of college, I sensed my huge inadequacies and was hungry to network and find helpful resources. However, young adult pastors don't have the wealth of literature, curriculum and conferences to constipate their pastoral digestive systems that youth pastors have. There are no youth specialties conventions or neatly packaged Saddleback curriculum to learn from or fall back on. So, I ended up at a conference for mostly church planters. It was sponsored by Young Leaders Network which shortly thereafter evolved (or should I say emerged) into Emergent. The 'spokesmen' (I'm not being sexist, they really are all men) for Emergent are big Zondervan authors like Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, Chris Seay and most recently Doug Pagitt (WHO BY THE WAY IS SPEAKING AT THE GRAND RAPIDS WESLEYAN YOUTH CONVENTION FOR THE YOUNG ADULT TRACK! See Doug's books here).

This first conference in 2000 was the beginning for me of a string of networking, resourceing and conferencing with Emergent and I have (and continue) to profit greatly from this relationship (in fact, I urge you to attend the next emergent gathering in Glorietta, NM).

I distinctly remember being at just such a gathering in Houston, TX at Ecclesia. I listened to pastors and laypeople that were going through a metamorphosis of sorts. They were redefining their faith and their theology. They were deconstructing the faith of their youth and the systematic theology of their educational preparation. Instead, they were embracing a theology that was unofficially being labeled emergent or postmodern.

My ears perked up as this theology was verbalized over the course of the weekend in personal conversations, in panel discussions and from the front of the room. These pastors were verbalizing their new-found faith for the first time. What surprised me was that their discoveries sounded all too familiar to me.

What seemed revolutionary to this group of emerging ministers sounded to me like the faith of my fathers:

• Theology and methodology should be worked out in community
• There can be more than one interpretation for a passage of Scripture
• Women can be gifted for leadership in the church
• People should be viewed wholistically, thus the church's ministry should be wholistic.
• Salvation, according to the Bible, is not only for the individual but also for the nations.
• All Truth is God's Truth, no matter where it is found.
• Salvation is a life long process and may not be wholly defined by a moment or a prayer.

All these statements, and more like them, are reflective of my Wesleyan heritage. And while John Wesley's social gospel was revolutionary in his day, it doesn't seem like it should be revolutionary some 200 years later. But, it is. Most of these pastors grew up in churches who cared more about alter calls than life transformation. Their brand of Christianity emphasized an individualistic, personal faith. And this is a faith that predominates Western Christendom right now. These pastors felt that their message was revolutionary… perhaps it would have been more accurate to describe it as reforming. Even Wesley was not as much a revolutionary as he was a reformer; bringing things back to the way they 'should have been', to their former state.

I'm proud to be a Wesleyan - a smug part of me thinks… "We've had it right all along." But I'm also sad to be a Wesleyan - the realistic part of me thinks… "How many of us our living out this 'revolutionary' faith?" What if the Wesleyan Church lived out the faith of its fathers? A social gospel that sees and ministers to people wholistically, a gospel that believes faith is to be worked out in community, a gospel that believes in the continual transformation that salvation brings, a gospel that is not only for the individual, but also for the nations.

A church whose mission is here and now: transforming society and transforming lives in the context of community. Now that's a reformation worth being a part of!