The Emergent Church

I haven't attended church regularly for some time. In fact I have only been a handful of times in as many years. At times I miss the sense of community that should come with church, but not enough to dive back in. What I would like to find is a church that meets in a bar of coffee shop, which of course leads to a discussion of "emergent church."

I've been doing a bit of web research, with mixed results. There are a couple churches in Seattle that fit the bill, but I am wary. Of course there is the Mega church Mars Hill, whose conservative pastor Mark Driscoll (his blog and wikipedia) gives me the creeps. He represents many of the reasons I no longer attend church. Of course he has distanced himself from the emergent church movement, and has ranted against people like Brian McLaren, a rant that he later apologized for.

I've tried to read McLaren, but the ideas that he presented as radical seemed pretty straightforward to me. Maybe that means we are on the same wavelength, which is why my mom sent me the book, but I had a hard time slogging through and eventually gave up. In my recent websurfing I found out that there is a conference coming up in Seattle, Hear-Listen-Connect (snappy name), hosted by a group called Off the Map, with McLaren as one of the keynote speakers. And this leads to my own rant (Adam and Mark Driscoll can't be the only ones).

Int their own words:

"Off The Map explores new kinds of spiritual ideas and practices and seeks to take that information public. That's why we produce Off The Map Live each year. Think of OTM Live as a living lab of new approaches to spirituality. We are not only explorers we are also edutainers and hey, we need an outlet for all our creative juices at least once a year.

Who is this event designed for?
Young thinkers, learners, practitioners of all ages of all ages, pastors looking for validation, acceptance, hope and partnership. We call this group spiritual explorers. Essentially anyone who is searching or wondering and is tired of feeling alone and/or stupid is welcome."

Hey, I'm searching/wondering, and I've been thinking about finding something church-like in Seattle, maybe I should think about attending. Of course "edutainment" raises some serious red flags, red flags with biohazard symbols surrounded by razor wire and savage pit-bulls, but I could always duck out when the worship jam-band strikes up "Our God is an Awesome God".

But here's the kicker... if you are wondering, and tired of feeling alone, all you need to do is plunk down $120 bucks to attend the edutainment. That's for the individual with discount. It can drop as low as $79 each for a group of 3 students. But if you are coming as a group, chances are you aren't tired of feeling alone, being part of a group and all. I know it takes money to put on these big productions (red flag number two), so I understand the need to recoup some costs. But really, if you are charging $120 for an individual, you must realize that you'll be preaching to the choir, so lets be honest. This is for like minded individuals who are already part of the group, in one way or another.

I came across a post about a conference hosted by Zondervan, posted by a guy in Seattle who is part of a house church. He was bothered by the suspicion that much of the hype around the emergent church was created by, or at the least co-opted by the publishing industry. I can't help but share his suspicions. Not to say that there are not some honest, well intentioned individuals involved, but when a movement aimed at attracting the disenchanted/ disenfranchised becomes so large and established, certainly it risks becoming what it sought to replace.

In the end, I have discovered a group that meets somewhere in my neighborhood once a week or so for dinner. Maybe I'll look into it, but I'm still on the lookout for a small group in a bar