A smoking hot quote about the Emerging Church from Soong-Chan Rah’s new book, The Next Evangelicalism:
I personally find the use of the term “emerging church” to be offensive. I believe that the real emerging church is the church in Africa, Asia and Latin America that continues to grow by leaps and bounds. I believe that the real emerging church is the hip-hop church, the English-speaking Latino congregation, the second-generation Asian American church, the Haitian immigrant church, the Spanish-speaking store-front churches and so forth. For a small group of white Americans to usurp the term “emerging” reflects a significant arrogance. (pg. 124)
Whether or not the use of the term emerging is inappropriate, I think he is right on in his assessment of where the church is really emerging. The real growth and future of evangelicalism is found outside of white suburbia.
Comments
2 responses to “Emerging Church Offensive?”
This is not the first time Soong-Chan has been upset with the white American evangelical community. Are there any other smoking hot quotes?
Frank,
Check out this post:
http://julieclawson.com/2009/05/06/book-review-the-next-evangelicalism/
It was written by a leader in the emerging church movement, and it sounds like she took issue what she perceived as Rah’s ‘hostile tone’. There is quite a bit of discussion in the comment section include 3+ comments by Soong-Chan himself.
You can also see my review of the book here:
http://www.pilgrimmarch.com/2009/05/the-next-evangelicalism-freeing-the-church-from-western-cultural-captivity/