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Practitioners: Voices Within the Emerging Church
" Voices Within the Emerging Church" features challenging essays that tackle "how we do church" from a number of innovative thinkers and practitioners, including Doug Pagitt, Dan Kimball, Pete Greig, David Ruis, Craig Detweiler, Spencer Burke, Joyce Heron, Tim Garrety and Anna Pelky. Foreword by Erwin McManus.
253 pages, Paperback
First published September 2, 2005
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May 19, 2025A SELECTION OF WRITINGS FROM PARTICIPANTS IN THE ‘EMERGENT’ MOVEMENT
Editors Greg Russinger and Alex Field wrote in the Introduction to this 2005 book, “This book consists of essays, dialogues and diversions, all of which came out of several events that occurred in September 2003 and 2004. These intimate little affairs, most often referred to as the Soliton Sessions, brought together a wide array of practitioners for incredibly rich discussion, dreaming, friendship, food, drink and otherwise unruly behavior… you should consider what you read to be, absolutely and totally, incomplete. We also tend to view the incompleteness of the book as a benefit rather than a detriment. By this we mean that the conversation is most definitely not over, and will be continued on the Soliton Network website…” (Pg. 19-20)
Matt Gillespie says of the sinful prostitute [Lk 7:36-44], “Jesus created space. He allowed this woman to BE, without any judgment, without any conditions, without any confusion. He allowed this woman to come and sit, knowing that His touch, truth, time and relentless tenderness transform the human heart." (Pg. 39)
Pete Greig notes, “Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher, said that people learn to pray by praying. Perhaps we need to read fewer books, go to fewer seminars and stop trying to get people to pray for our prayerlessness problem. Perhaps we just need to create a space for people to pray; to lock the door, throw away the key and see what happens next.” (Pg. 55)
Doug Pagitt recounts being told, “We live in a very image-based culture, and the image that’s being promoted is very successful in influencing society in America. It appears to me that the image-based society that we have is also influencing the world at large. And the real question that comes to mind is, How do we tell that it doesn’t leave everybody thinking that now they have go create some sort of beautiful image in order to connect with an image-based society? How do we manifest the story of Christ in images and visuals in such a way that people go away saying, ‘This connects with my poor state of being---my humanity.’ I’m not an artist. But I want to know how a story communicates to me the life and the beauty of the life of Christ.” (Pg. 87)
Craig Detweiler asks, “What is our culture doing today? Are a lot of people sitting around in coffee shops reading the book of Isaiah? No, they’re not. The Christians aren’t doing that either. Biblical illiteracy is the norm in our culture; we’re primarily viewers, not readers. So the spiritual search has shifted from looking at Scripture to looking everywhere else: movies, music, TV, celebrity, fame, sports---everywhere but the Bible. But the search is on nonetheless.” (Pg. 118)
Doug Pagitt observes, “Sometimes Christians sort of look down on the Law, but if you look at the Old Testament, you’ll find whole systems of caring for the poor. The Jewish [calendar] canceled debts in the fiftieth year, the Year of Jubilee, and did all sorts of other things. So when Jesus talked about forgiving our debts as we forgive our debtors, He wasn’t making up a new ethic; he was harkening back to the year of the Jubilee.” (Pg. 158)
Dan Kimball states, “The exciting part is that the emerging church really sees church as mission. Church is no longer just that place we’re supposed to go to. Church is mission, and we’re on this mission together. Without that mission, I think that we become inward, we lose ourselves in consumerism, and we forget about the fact that the world is becoming increasingly this way.” (Pg.197)
Pete Greig says, “Together, as a voice within a culture (that has been dexterously lumbered with this title ‘emerging’), we are actively exploring a VERY BIG IDEA indeed: the idea that God’s strategy on Earth is centered on missional communities and that we are called to participate in such fellowships, reflecting and incarnating both the mission of Christ and the Trinitarian community of Christ right here, right now, on Earth as it is in heaven.” (Pg. 217)
This book may interest those Christians seeking a brief sampling of the opinions of various peoples associated with the ‘emerging church.’
Editors Greg Russinger and Alex Field wrote in the Introduction to this 2005 book, “This book consists of essays, dialogues and diversions, all of which came out of several events that occurred in September 2003 and 2004. These intimate little affairs, most often referred to as the Soliton Sessions, brought together a wide array of practitioners for incredibly rich discussion, dreaming, friendship, food, drink and otherwise unruly behavior… you should consider what you read to be, absolutely and totally, incomplete. We also tend to view the incompleteness of the book as a benefit rather than a detriment. By this we mean that the conversation is most definitely not over, and will be continued on the Soliton Network website…” (Pg. 19-20)
Matt Gillespie says of the sinful prostitute [Lk 7:36-44], “Jesus created space. He allowed this woman to BE, without any judgment, without any conditions, without any confusion. He allowed this woman to come and sit, knowing that His touch, truth, time and relentless tenderness transform the human heart." (Pg. 39)
Pete Greig notes, “Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher, said that people learn to pray by praying. Perhaps we need to read fewer books, go to fewer seminars and stop trying to get people to pray for our prayerlessness problem. Perhaps we just need to create a space for people to pray; to lock the door, throw away the key and see what happens next.” (Pg. 55)
Doug Pagitt recounts being told, “We live in a very image-based culture, and the image that’s being promoted is very successful in influencing society in America. It appears to me that the image-based society that we have is also influencing the world at large. And the real question that comes to mind is, How do we tell that it doesn’t leave everybody thinking that now they have go create some sort of beautiful image in order to connect with an image-based society? How do we manifest the story of Christ in images and visuals in such a way that people go away saying, ‘This connects with my poor state of being---my humanity.’ I’m not an artist. But I want to know how a story communicates to me the life and the beauty of the life of Christ.” (Pg. 87)
Craig Detweiler asks, “What is our culture doing today? Are a lot of people sitting around in coffee shops reading the book of Isaiah? No, they’re not. The Christians aren’t doing that either. Biblical illiteracy is the norm in our culture; we’re primarily viewers, not readers. So the spiritual search has shifted from looking at Scripture to looking everywhere else: movies, music, TV, celebrity, fame, sports---everywhere but the Bible. But the search is on nonetheless.” (Pg. 118)
Doug Pagitt observes, “Sometimes Christians sort of look down on the Law, but if you look at the Old Testament, you’ll find whole systems of caring for the poor. The Jewish [calendar] canceled debts in the fiftieth year, the Year of Jubilee, and did all sorts of other things. So when Jesus talked about forgiving our debts as we forgive our debtors, He wasn’t making up a new ethic; he was harkening back to the year of the Jubilee.” (Pg. 158)
Dan Kimball states, “The exciting part is that the emerging church really sees church as mission. Church is no longer just that place we’re supposed to go to. Church is mission, and we’re on this mission together. Without that mission, I think that we become inward, we lose ourselves in consumerism, and we forget about the fact that the world is becoming increasingly this way.” (Pg.197)
Pete Greig says, “Together, as a voice within a culture (that has been dexterously lumbered with this title ‘emerging’), we are actively exploring a VERY BIG IDEA indeed: the idea that God’s strategy on Earth is centered on missional communities and that we are called to participate in such fellowships, reflecting and incarnating both the mission of Christ and the Trinitarian community of Christ right here, right now, on Earth as it is in heaven.” (Pg. 217)
This book may interest those Christians seeking a brief sampling of the opinions of various peoples associated with the ‘emerging church.’
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February 19, 2016ok
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