scot mcknight recently delivered some lectures at westminster theological sem, one specifically on “what is the emerging church?”. the transcript of the talk is available (in pdf download) from mark at sacred journey. here’s the link to the pdf. mcknight blogged about the time at wts here.

it’s a 30-page doc, but it’s the single best reasonably consise description of the emerging church (and the differences between emerging and emergent, one of my pet peeves) that i’ve seen. highly recommended read. thanks to andrew jones and a few others who linked to this.

loved this bit:

“Here’s my point: if you narrow the emerging movement to Emergent Village, and especially to the postmodernist impulse therein, you can probably dismiss this movement as a small fissure in the evangelical movement. But, if you are serious enough to contemplate major trends in the Church today, at an international level, and if you define emerging as many of us do – in missional, or ecclesiological terms, rather than epistemological ones – then you will learn quickly enough that there is a giant elephant in the middle of the Church’s living room. It is the emerging church movement and it is a definite threat to traditional evangelical ecclesiology.”