Emerging churchEmergents favor the sharing of experiences and interactions such as testimonies, prayer, group recitation, sharing meals and other communal practices, which they believe are personal and sincere over propositional, evangelistic preaching (preferring to guide persons to a full understanding of Christian faith through friendship and mercy). Exegetical teaching in the Emerging Church tends to uses modern & postmodern scholarship to view the Bible and its stories through a lense which (hopefully) more closely resembles the original intent of the authors and finds significance/meaning in the convergence with today's social and personal stories. Emerging church participants are thus true to the social constructs of their local narratives and the intent of scripture.
The movement's participants claim they are creating a safe environment for those with opinions ordinarily rejected within modern conservative evangelicalism/fundamentalism. Non-critical, interfaith dialog is favored over dogmatically-driven evangelism in the movement. Emergents do not engage in apologetics or confrontational evangelism in the traditional sense, preferring to allow persons the freedom to discover their faith through conversation and witness.
Missional Living:
Participants in this movement assert that the incarnation of Christ informs their theology, believing that as God entered the world in human form, adherents enter (individually and communally) into the context around them, aiming to transform that culture through local involvement in it.
This holistic involvement may take many forms, including social activism, hospitality, and acts of kindness. Emergents call this beneficent involvement in culture "missional living." Missional living is thought to make emergents part of the culture rather than outsiders who call people to come out from among the culture; and this approach leads emergents to their focus on temporal and social issues, as opposed to the Evangelical emphasis on eternal salvation. The hope of the emerging church movement's "gospel" is to enhance the lives of others regardless of their lifestyles or beliefs. Therefore, social action, community involvement, and sacrificial hospitality are more emphasized in the movement than preaching and teaching.
Creative spiritualityThis can involve everything from expressive, neocharismatic style of worship and the use of contemporary and films to more ancient liturgical customs and eclectic expressions of spirituality, with the goal of making the church gathering genuinely reflective of the local community's tastes.
