Remixing The Church

Doug Gay has written an interesting little paperback (Remixing The Church) which traces the Emerging Church movement and looks towards an Emerging ecclesiology.

Doug sees 5 different elements in the development Emerging: church ;

Here's a (over) simplified explanation:

1. Auditing (listening) - to our own tradition and detecting that which is 'missing')

2. Retrieval - taking from other traditions (the things we feel are missing)

3. Unbundling - separating the 'authority'/'tradition' from the retrieved element

4. Supplementing - significant additions to existing church practices

5. Remixing - Doug shows the variety of Emerging church expressions (the practical remixing)

Doug ventures a definition of The Emerging Church: "The Emerging Church can perhaps best be understood (and defended) as an irreverent (institutionally and in terms of protocols, not in terms of lack of giving glory to God) new wave of grassroots ecumenism, propelled from within low church Protestantism by a mix of longing, curiosity and discontent...DIY ecumenism, constructed by means of a series of unauthorized remixing and emboldened by an (evangelical) ecclesial culture of innovation and experimentation."

that's just a very quick and non detailed summary of an amazing book,

i'd sugest that you read it for yourself!