Visionary
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Essential reading on the emerging church 

1. The Church in Emerging Culture, Leonard Sweet (Ed), Emergentys, Zondervan

This book is authored by a great team of writers including author and thinker Leonard Sweet, Andy Crouch of Christianity Magazine, Professor and reformed theologian Michael Horton, Frederica Mathewes-Green (an Orthodox believer), Erwin Raphael McManus from Mosaic church and Brian D. McLare. This was one of the early works from the emergentys imprint of Zondervan. It has a great conversational format with each author writing a piece but the other authors writing comments on it.

2. Listening to the Beliefs of the Emerging Church, Robert Webber (ed), Zondervan

Another multi-author book- this time the debate gets heated thanks to Mark Driscoll as usual not being backwards in coming forwards. If you like the opportunity for a genuine discussion where writers have to respond to criticism of their viewpoints, this is a book to get your teeth stuck into. You won't agree with every author but it is great to understand where people are coming from.

3. Becoming conversant with the emerging church, Don Carson, Zondervan

Don Carson has written some exceptional books - his commentary on John's gospel is masterful, and his expositions of the Sermon on the Mount were seminal in my formation as a Christian. but this book is in my view the low point of his writing. Carson is polemical, angry and unsympathetic particularly of Brian McLaren's work. He also unusually demonstrates a naive proof-texting approach to his epistemology. Unfortunately Carson did not take the time to speak with those that he sought to oppose in this book. However it has been a best seller and has influenced a lot of people so it needs to be on the list.

4. Irresistible Revolution, Shane Claiborne, Zondervan

Some might argue this book is better placed under the label "new monastacism" but as a new style hero of subversive forms of church Shane's book is a manifesto statement. Refusing to acquiesce to a division between gospel, community and politics this book needs to be read. There are bound to be things that you disagree with - I struggled with Claiborne's use of the words attributed to St Francis of Assisi "preach the gospel use words if necessary" and he doesn't offer much in the way of help for those who are married or in more traditional forms of church. Nevertheless this book is worth the read for its passion and its prophetic challenge.

5. The New Conspirators, Tom Sine, Authentic

From the pen of veteran futurologist Tom Sine this book is a great example of the older generation listening with humility and generosity to the next generation. Writing with passion and clarity, Tom provides a four fold analysis of current church movements - missional, mosaic, new monastics and emergent. Though based in Seattle Tom has a very good grasp of the UK situation and many of his examples are taken from the UK scene.

 

For more essential reading on the emerging church, visit Krish's blog.