Emerged

In this final episode of Emerged, we combed through 70+ hours of interviews with dozens to look back on the movement and assess its successes, its failures, and its legacy. We talk about the central aspect of the ECM — friendship — and we listen in as two churches die. And finally, we say our goodbyes. Voices include Mark Scandrette, Doug Pagitt, Brian McLaren, Jason Mitchell,

In this episode of Emerged, we are joined by Anthony Smith, a Pentecostal minister, local activist, EV Cohort leader, town councilman, and Theo-blogger at Musings of a Postmodern Negro. This long-time leader of the ECM shares his personal journey, highlighting how questions of race, class, and identity politics changed the movement. The discussion also delves into the significance

From the beginning, church leaders criticized the Emerging Church Movement. At times painful, at other times laughable, it came from the right and the left. The critics took on what ECM leaders said and wrote, how they led churches, and even how they looked. And none were more the target of criticism than Brian McLaren, Doug Pagitt, and Nadia Bolz-Weber. In this episode, they get t

In 2011, Tripp sat down with Rachel Held Evans (1981-2019) to record some conversations for a project that never got off the ground. This never-before-heard audio provides a fascinating glimpse into what was going on in the church and the world — and in the head and heart of one of the most beloved Christian authors at the time. But it also reveals just how much has changed, and

For all the talk about theology and postmodernism, for all the books and conferences, the heart of the Emerging Church Movement was always one thing: planting new churches. In this episode, we sit down for extended conversations with two ECM pastors: Tim Keel planted Jacob’s Well in Kansas City, and he’s now pastoring it toward its 25th anniversary, and Danielle Shroyer was the

The church was not emerging just in the US, but also around the world – and even in other religions. In this episode of Emerged, we take a tour around the globe, stopping to talk with leaders who emerged in the UK, South Africa, Malaysia, and Australia. Then we land the plane in Los Angeles to remember the historic meeting of emerging pastors and rabbis in 2006. Guests include Jo

Phyllis Tickle (1934-2015) was a force of nature. She was a poet, author, publisher, teacher, professor, and so much more. She was one of the leading experts on the church in America, and her Divine Hours books introduced a generation of Christians to fixed hour prayer. And in the mid-2000s, she became a leading ally for and advocate of the Emerging Church Movement. She seemed the

By 2001, a lot had changed for the nascent emerging church movement: Doug Pagitt left Leadership Network to start a church, and shortly thereafter, Leadership Network shut down the Young Leaders Network. (Also, a notorious pastor in Seattle was asked to leave the group.) The “Group of 20” became the “Terra Nova Project,” before ultimately settling on the name, Emergent Vill

Many people point to the Re:Evaluation Forum, held at the Glorieta Conference Center in October, 1998, as the birth of the Emerging Church Movement. That gathering followed a chain of events that included the founding of Young Leaders Network in 1993, and seminal conferences at Glen Eyrie in 1996 and Mt. Hermon in 1997. And at that latter conference, Mark Driscoll made his national

The Emerging Church Movement did not come from nowhere. It sprung from a history that included the Jesus Movement, the Seeker Sensitive Megachurch Movement, and a revolution in youth ministry. In this episode, hosts Tony Jones and Tripp Fuller talk about what was happening in the 1980s and 1990s in the American church that laid the groundwork for the ECM. Their guests include Danie