Bill Easums Observations

Many who follow my writing know that two of my favorite metaphors for describing the signs of the times are National Park and Jungle (you might want to read this before reading on). Briefly what I mean by this is that prior to the 1980s we lived in what I describe as a National Park world. If you let your imagination run wild with this metaphor you will conjure up many images about the world that was, but for now just think of the world prior to 1980 as a tame, either/or world that played by a set of well known rules. Now change mindsets and think about the world since 1990 as a jungle and let you imagination run wild as you compare the two metaphors, but for now think of the emerging world as a wild and unsafe place of both/and that has no established rules other than the law of the jungle- survival.

In this wild, unruly world, a growing conversation is taking place that no Christian leader can afford to ignore.  The players in this conversation are multiplying like rabbits.  As we will see in a moment, much of the future of Western Christianity lies at the heart of this conversation. So we had better pay attention.

Here’s a list of the primary players as of now

The Emergent Folks
The Incarnational Folks
The Organic Folks
The Attractional Folks
The Reproductive Folks

Here is the where they fall on my continuum with the far left being a radical departure from traditional Christianity and the far right being the closest to third century Christianity.

Emergent —Incarnational — Organic — Attractional –Reproductive

Several books are shaping this conversation. Here is a list of some of them based on the above continuum:

Emergent

The New Christians by Tony Jones
Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church, by D.A. Carson
Everything Must Change, by Brian McLaren
A Generous Orthodoxy, by Brian McLaren
A Christianity Worth Believing, Doug Pagitt
Truth and the New Kind of Christian, R. Scott Smith
They Like Jesus But Not the Church, Dan Kimball

Not Emergent Anymore

Radical Reformission, by Mark Driscoll

Incarnational

The Shaping of Things to Come, by Alan Hirsch
The  Forgotten Ways  by Alan Hirsch

Almost  Incarnational

The Tangible Kingdom, by Halter and Smay
Pagan Christianity, Viola and Barna

Organic

The Organic Church, by Neil Cole
Inside the Organic Church by Bob Whitesell

Attractional

The Externally Focused Church, Rusaw and Swanson
The Purpose Driven Church, Warren
The American Church in Crises, Olsen

Reproductive

The Multiplying Church, by Roberts
Missional Leader, Roxburg
A Second Resurrection, by Easum
Unfreezing Moves, by Easum
The Sticky Church, Osborne (TBR)

The Conversations of Our Time

This conversation is primarily focused on the nature and mission of the church in the postmodern world as well as how Scripture is interpreted. Over the next few weeks I will try to shape each of these conversations and their implications.

Bill Easum
www.easumbandy.com