Next-Wave Ezine > church & culture

The word that will replace emerging
By Bob Hyatt

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I think that within the next few years we’ll be talking less about the emerging church, and more about something else.

What's the word that will replace "emerging"?

Organic.

I can honestly say that I'll be both happy and sad to see this happen.

I'll be happy because I've long felt that "emerging" needed an upgrade. It just doesn't say much, does it? It's rather non-descriptive. That is, it says nothing about what it's meant to describe, how an "emerging" church functions, believes, etc. It’s more of a place holder word.

Organic is descriptive. It gets to the heart of how and why we do things (or don't do them, as the case may be). Organic could help steer me in leadership (“Should I consult the community on this?”), it lets people know what’s expected of them (to put themselves into the process of forming and shaping the community) and what’s expected of leadership (to guide the process, like a gardener looking out for weeds, watering and fertilizing rather than what’s often our pastoral model of “make it all happen”).

"Missional" might be even better, and though our Australian brothers like Michael Frost see what they are doing as being Missional Church and see the Missional and Emerging church movements as "kissing cousins" and really separate though related impulses, I tend to think "organic" will catch on here. It's more marketable, which is also the reason I'll be sad to see this happen. The American marketing machine will swoop in, grab hold of "organic" and within a year or two make it as absolutely meaningless as "premium" is now.

But I'm also happy because I believe in "organic" church much more than "emerging." In other words, I care deeply that we be organic. I don’t have a ton invested in seeing that we as a community are emerging, whatever that means (see what I mean?).

In fact, someone recently asked me about writing a book on organic church, something I've thought a bit about in the last year.

There are a couple reasons this hasn't happened.

The first is simply time. Between being a new husband, a new dad and planting a church (I even tried starting a doctorate last Fall), the idea of writing a book has been perpetually on the back burner. My attention span is perfectly suited to blog articles and writing for ezines. I seriously doubt I'd be able to sustain focus long enough to complete a book (of course, I better get that sorted out if I ever want to finish a doctorate).

The second reason I haven't done this is that I really don't know yet whether or not it "works." When I describe the ideas that have gone into evergreen and how they are taking shape, people often ask how it's going. I generally tell them to ask me again in ten or so years. ?The reason why we have chosen to pursue an organic strategy is more about long term health than short-term results. If it was the short term I was interested in, we'd just set up a Rock n Roll Worship Circus and as long as it was better than the one at the church down the block, I imagine we'd grow.

But I believe, and have gambled on the fact that refusing to do for people the ministry they should do for themselves, allowing the community to organize and structure itself according to its gifts and passions rather than according to my plan or that of some mega church pastor, creatively using the tension of our "not yet-ness" rather than rushing to fix it myself, and teaching the Scriptures but depending on the people to flesh it out in community will be healthier for our community in the long term and will lead to a more mature, less consumeristic group of Christ followers? But I could be wrong. I really won't know for a long while.

The third reason I'm doubting the whole book thing right now is that it seems like other people are already writing the book I had in mind. There's Neil Cole's Organic Church and now, next year, Joe Meyer's Organic Community. I'm sure the first is great (I don't have it yet, but from what I've seen in reviews and such, many of our ideas are the same) and that Joe Meyer's book will be great as well---I loved "The Search To Belong."

So, with my short attention span, my too-full life (baby number two on the way now!), and other people beating me to the punch, will we ever see "Letters from the Organic Church"?

I guess we'll see.

But I'm sure we'll be seeing more of the word "organic", regardless.

Bob Hyatt is husband to Amy, father to Jack and lead pastor to the evergreen community in Portland, OR. He is also in the beginning stages of launching the nextChurch network, dedicated to encouraging church planting through encouraging church planters.

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