glfredrick...
Thank you for staying on topic and providing an informative link to Emerging Church.
. . .
Is there a way to identify Emerging Churches in specific communities?
...Bob
No problem... Lots of misinformation in this thread.
Identifying emerging churches is difficult, because they are only subtly different than other newly planted churches. At the end, it comes down to grasping their theology, not viewing their culture, etc. Culture can be almost anything, but theology sets apart one church from another in the truest sense of "sets apart."
Emerging churches will lay aside any tenet of theology that they find problematic (or find some creative work-around for that theology) instead of preaching the whole Word of God. Which tenets they set aside depends on the individual church. Some have issues with the Trinity. Some with the law. Some with God saving by grace through faith. Some have given in to metaphysical dualism (God is actually at war with a co-equal evil power). Others have strange doctrines regarding the ordinances. Almost all feature "mystery" over substance. Defining "mystery" is about as impossible as defining Roman Catholic "Sacred Tradition" (and the two are related in kind -- all rather "Gnostic" in nature).
How they set aside those problematic doctrines is where outside observers get in trouble, for mostly they see "culture" and the culture is often so far different from the run-of-the-mill Baptist church as to make the emerging church almost unrecognizable. The room is often dark. They feature candles. They are often liturgical. They are about "absorbing God" versus "learning of God." Their preaching is often more along the lines of "good examples to follow" than propositions designed to point out our shortcomings before an Holy God, who is also our Judge.
I recommend checking out the church links in the website I supplied above. Follow some sermons, etc. See what they are doing.
One other thing... Many would see the church I currently attend as "emerging" and we "almost" are. Some have lumped us in with that group. We have adopted a lot of the same cultural indicators as many emerging churches. But, there is one big difference. We preach the gospel as presented by the Scriptures and have NO reservations about the entirety of God's Word and the doctrines of the Scriptures. In our church you will hear sermons on a weekly basis that major on God's sovereignty, and that present God's way of life for believers. We are more formal on this aspect of our work than many a traditional Baptist church. We actually covenant with our members to live out the gospel and we will enact church discipline for those who refuse (not simply fail -- we all struggle!) to live Christianly according to the teaching of our Elders and the contents of the Scripture (one and the same -- tested in the Berean means).
