Emergent in Lithuania?

We had our second orientation session today, and we've encountered a bit of an issue I've seen a little about in the US--the Emergent Church movement. In fact, someone here in the program suggested we read a book called unChristian, which, upon a quick skim of some chapters, looks like a treatment of this movement. From what I can gather, it is a movement that takes stock and heed of the kind of problem I talked about briefly in this blog last summer. (See several previous posts--here, here and here.) Namely, the postmodern mind (particularly of the younger, now emerging generations) needs to be addressed and therefore evangelized differently than earlier generations. This book, unChristian, is based on survey data of these younger generations.

Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill has written a nice overview of the Emergent Church. To summarize, he sees three strains. Relevants, basically orthodox and evangelical, want to update worship style to be more hip. Reconstructionists, basically evangelical, are dissatisfied with the forms (seeker, e.g.) and the content of Christian lives--Christians live like everyone else in society. Revisionists critique theological doctrine for not being appropriate to the postmodern mind. He notes that none are seeing significant conversion growth. He also worries that as the debate among the three intensifies, we'll end up with a variety of different denominations, some of which are more committed to figuring out the postmodern mind than sharing and preaching the Gospel.

He worries about the Revisionists and hopes for more Relevant work. I am intrigued by the Reconstructionists. According to Driscoll, they "are generally theologically evangelical and
dissatisfied with the current forms of church (e.g. seeker, purpose, contemporary). They bolster their critique by noting that our nation is becoming less Christian and that those who profess faith are not living lives markedly different than non-Christians; thereby, proving
that current church forms have failed to create life transformation. Subsequently, they propose more informal, incarnational, and organic church forms such as house churches."

Frankly, I don't understand this response. House churches seem uber-contemporary/seeker, etc., not more Christian. I guess that's because I incline toward the Relevants. In any case, Reconstructionists and Revisionists, if not Relevants as well, seem to be flirting with bending the church and the Gospel message toward the particular preferences/tastes (rather than the redemptive needs) of the target audience.

And here in Lithuania, I want to be careful that I don't participate in bending it so far as to value the postmodern mindset above the Gospel truth. Survey data? Sounds like a political campaign, and a potentially slippery slope to reifying the ephemeral desires of the individual audience members.

Please pray that we'll speak in ways that people understand, but not by giving them a wrong, incomplete, or inaccurate message.