Phyllis Tickle has written a book, The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why. I was introduced to these ideas by Dr. David Busic at his inauguration as President of Nazarene Theological Seminary.
Tickle suggests that about every 500 years there is a kind of era change in the world that requires a “reformation” of the church.
30-50 - The Birth of the Church (Pentecost)
50 – The Jerusalem Council – Gentiles did not have to become Jews first to become Christians.
500 – Councils contended for orthodoxy and the confessional faith (mostly conversations about Jesus)
1000 – The Great Schism between Roman Catholicism and the Orthodox Church.
1500 – The Great Protestant Reformation – Martin Luther – The birth of modernity.
2000 – The Great Emergence. (Tickle’s term) – The birth of post-modernity, from the age of reason to post-modernity.
A generalized social/political/economic/intellectual/cultural shift, and like previous “re-formations”, the church is trying to figure out how to remain missionally effective in this world.
According to Mark Dyer, a study of church history reveals that with each of those “great” movements . . . about every 500 years . . . “the church feels compelled to hold a giant rummage sale”.
"We’ve got to figure out what missional practices we need to take to the corner and sell. . . What “missional expression and strategies” that may have worked in the 20th Century but have served their purpose and need to be replaced? We must discern what is truly biblical and worthy to keep and what is extra-biblical and needs to be drug to the corner and sold."
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