Emerging Church Resources: A Beginners Reference Guide
When people find out that I am one of Ryan Bolger’s understudies I get asked what I think of the emerging church and frequently what resources are good for people interested in finding out more about the Emerging church. In hopes of making a useful guide I’ve created a small list that is meant as a starting point for ideas, stories and theory about the church in the postmodern world.
Top Five Books for People Interested in Learning about the Emerging Church
- Emerging Churches – Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger (the most comprehensive resource on the EC, very readable and very done in a creative format)
- Shaping of Things to Come – Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch (Offer both theoretical and concrete ideas about models of church that are emerging in the postmodern world)
- Out of Bounds Church – Steve Taylor (A short easily accessible book about the emerging church)
- A New Kind of Christian – Brian Mclaren (A short story that helps to get at some of these ideas in narrative form)
- Church Re-Imagined – Doug Pagitt (A week in the life of the emerging church)
Theoretical Insights for the Emerging Church
- Primer on Postmodernism – Stanley Grenz
- Generous Orthodoxy – Brian Mclaren
- Jesus and Community – Gerhard Lohfink
- Jesus and the Victory of God – NT Wright
- Transfiguration of Mission – Wilbert Shenk
- Practitioners: Voices Within the Emerging Churches – Greg Russinger
A Couple Emerging Church Blogs (some I read and some I don’t)
- Alan Creech
- Emergent Village
3. Jordon Cooper - Steve Taylor
- Karen Ward
- Tony Jones
- Open Source Theology
- Andrew Jones
(And anyone else on Ryan’s blog roll)
Online Emerging Church Resources
- Alternative Worship is a great site to go to for worship ideas
- Barclay Press on Emerging Churches (also see here)
- Religion Link offers a list off definitions, emerging church leaders, scholars, websites, etc
- Emerging Village – the forerunning community of people
A List of Important Names for the Movement
- NT Wright
- Brian McLaren
- Dallas Willard
- Scot McKnight
- John Howard Yoder
- Stanely Hauerwas
- Ryan Bolger
- Wilbert Shenk
- Elizabeth O’Connor
- Nancey Murphy
Critiques on the Emerging Church
- Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church – DA Carson (and a review of it)
- Emergent No
- Theologica
- Thinkerup
This is not a comprehensive list but one that is meant to be a kind of beginner list – starting points. I am interested in hearing about more resources out there for each of these categories. What or who have I missed? Didn’t find what you’re looking for? Use the Emerging Church Customized Google Search Engine for more specific searches (see post about it here).
EDIT: Also be sure to check out my Four Models of Emerging Church which you may find helpful.