Emerging Church Makes "Contemporary" Obsolete

Norman Jameson

LAKE HICKORY - Church leaders struggling to blend "traditional" and "contemporary" styles into their worship learned from blended worship guru Robert Webber that a third style already is making "contemporary" obsolete.

Webber, president of the Institute for Worship Studies and emeritus professor of theology at Wheaton College, told two dozen N.C. pastors and worship leaders at the Hollifield Leadership Center that the "emergent" church is gaining ground from the impetus of "20 something" Christians who find worship comfort in ancient rituals.

These young Christians, said Webber, who is also the Myers Professor of Ministry at Northern Seminary, reject the "huge Wal-Mart church with something for everyone" in favor of very small churches in which they find community. They reject the suburban lifestyle and churches spawned by the "great disruption" after World War II that pulled people into ever more isolated, individualistic and consumerist lifestyles.

Read the entire article on the Biblical Recorder website.