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Here is the story.
It's always a bit of a thrill to associate with something scary.
That might have explained the large turnout at Covenant Seminary last
weekend for the Rev. Darrin Patrick's three lectures on the emerging
church.
The term "emerging" has come to define a movement that uses alternative
ways of attracting younger people by tapping into secular culture.
Patrick's St. Louis-based church, The Journey, is affiliated with the
Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the
country with 16 million members.
The leadership of the Missouri Baptist Convention — the state arm of the
Southern Baptists — has campaigned against the emerging church, though it
has a working relationship with The Journey. It says Patrick's methods of
evangelizing to young people conflict with what the Bible teaches.
But some scholars say those Baptists are afraid. Afraid because the
emerging church is reaching a generation they've been unable to reach
themselves. And without the young, how will a denomination survive?
The seminarians attending Covenant's Frances A. Schaeffer lectures last
weekend seemed more curious than bent on destroying denominational
Christianity. That Patrick delivered the three lectures within the walls of
a denominational institution (Covenant is run by the Presbyterian Church in
America, a conservative evangelical church) put to bed any conspiracy
theories about the emerging church stomping all traditional denominations
into the ground.
But there were signs that some seminarians at the lectures were there to
scope out the emerging church movement to see how it might fit into their
plans for their own ministries.
Bo Kyle, a 23-year-old Covenant student from Louisiana, said he was brought
up in a "traditional church" but "grew a lot" when he began worshipping at
emerging churches. He said he could see himself eventually practicing his
ministry in the emerging church.
Dawn Salyer, 25, and her husband are students at Covenant. "We came from a
small, traditional church in Nebraska," she said. "But we got here and we
found we have a real heart for what Darrin Patrick is doing in St. Louis."
Patrick, the lead pastor of The Journey, founded the church in 2002 with 30
people. It now has 1,800 members on campuses in St. Louis' Tower Grove
neighborhood, Clayton and west St. Louis County. A fourth campus will open
in south St. Louis County in February. The Journey also has started two
more churches — one in St. Charles called The Refuge, and another called
The Mission that just opened in Edwardsville.
It's that kind of rapid growth and energy that worries church leaders
across the denominational spectrum who look down from the pulpit and see
only white hair. Many would give anything to tap into the fleece jackets,
jeans and hip, bed-head hairstyles that populate Patrick's church.
Patrick said The Journey also is starting to attract more people in their
50s who are looking to find a church that would be palatable for their
young-adult kids who lead very secular lives.
Despite its enviable 18- to 34-year-old demographic, not all is going
swimmingly for the emerging church.
In his lectures, Patrick described the ideological and theological shifts
that led to a splintering of the movement.
Patrick's branch, which is the most theologically conservative, coalesces
around a national network of 125 churches called Acts 29, of which Patrick
is the vice president. Then there's a less conservative branch. And the
most theologically liberal branch is organized around another network
called Emergent Village.
Patrick was educated in Southern Baptist seminaries and believes that the
Bible is the literal word of God. He took issue during one lecture with his
more liberal emerging church cohorts, saying many of them question
orthodoxy. "When God has clearly spoken, we don't converse, we obey," he
said.
The annual meeting of the Missouri Baptist Convention begins Monday at the
Tan-Tar-A Resort in Osage Beach, and the emerging church is sure to be a
hot topic of conversation. Patrick, and many of those involved with Acts 29
in the state, will be there. The meeting is scheduled to end, appropriately
enough for those scared by the emerging church, on Halloween.
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