The Pastoral Ministry Study Group of this years ETS meeting was devoted to the emerging church. I was shocked and impressed with the number of geeky middle aged men in tight pants who crowded in to hear the sessions in the study group. Anthony Bradley delivered a paper and John Hammett made a noble attempt to respond to Emergent's (capital E) Response to Our Critics.
Both papers (and the questions asked of the presenters) displayed charity, a desire for understanding, and a humble search for greater clarity and dialogue. I was surprised. I believe that the academic community has responded laudably to the gauntlet that was thrown down for them, and I hope to see leaders from the variety of emerging church movements at the 2006 ETS meeting in Washington, D.C.
Hammett made it clear that he would gladly email his paper to anyone who asked for it. Many of the conference papers are also supposed to be posted on Zondervan's site (though I couldn't find them there or at the ETS page-- if anyone knows how to do this, advise us all in the comments).
Additionally, Justin Taylor is presenting a paper tonight on his perspectives on the movement. You can get a pretty good idea of what Justin is presenting through his McKnight-esque string of posts "What is the Emerging Church Movement" (part I, part II, part III, part IV, part V, part VI, part VII, part VIII, ...).
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