Scot McKnight, of Jesus Creed, presented a discussion at Westminster Theological Seminary last week on the subject of the Emergent/Emerging church, which is rather thought-provoking and much more useful in understanding where this movement has come from, where it is, and where it is headed, than reading critics’ works which are often unsubstantiated extrapolation, based on assuming the worst.  Scot’s paper has some valid self-criticisms, as well.

He says

Which is where I want to go now: to define a movement we must, as a courtesy, let it say what it is or describe it until the other side says “Yes, now you’ve got it.” To define a movement, we must let the movement have the first word. We might, in the end, reconceptualize it – which postmodernists say is inevitable – but we should at least have the courtesy to let a movement say what it is…

Here is a link to his full speech…

[ HT to EmergentWhat? ]