21세기 한국의 상황에서 이머징 교회의 선교적 가능성

Abstract

This paper is to review the cultural background and key characteristics of the so-called emerging churches, which originated in the postmodern American and British contexts, and to explore their relevance to the Korean context in the twenty-first century. Emerging church is an attempt to embody the life and message of the historical Jesus within the postmodern context. In addition to that, it is also deeply connected with cultural manifestations of a specific generation in the American context. Thus it is necessary to recognize the historical and cultural background with which emerging church leaders are confronted. Emerging church is seen in contrast to the seeker’s church which was a religious response to the culture of baby boomer generation,while emerging church is a response to the Gen-X culture. The baby boomer generation is generally considered to range from 1946to 1964. Those who were born in this duration had to undergo social and cultural turmoils that their predecessors had never experienced. 1960s and 1970s in America were marked by a series of events that pursued human rights, rock'n roll, the value of free choice and so on. It was in this period that the majority of boomers grew up. Being saturated with a liberal ethos, the boomers felt the discrepancy between the Christian faith and their contemporary culture. Thus it is inevitable that many boomers left the church. When the boomers reached the mid-life, however, they began to retrospect on the trace of their life and ask its ultimate meaning. This period usually drives people to seek a religious value. It was since the mid 1980's that the mid-life boomers took interest in religions again and the seeker's church movement began to arise. The seeker's worship was fit for this kind of potentially religious boomers in that it replaced the traditional symbols and rituals with culturally relevant programs such as drama, contemporary music,and the use of vernacular language in sermon. It was successful in drawing the boomers somehow. Just before and after the year 2000, the American churches were left with a new situation in which the children of the baby boomers entered the society as the main figures. They began to seek an utterly different style of religion. Being raised in the liberalistic context and absorbed into the postmodern values, they developed a longing for a different shape of Christian community. It can be said that emerging churches attempt to reflect the Gen-Xer’s desire for community, authentic experience, and generosity. Thus it can be assumed that in order to understand the emerging church properly we must recognize its surrounding generational culture and its preceding counterpart, which is the baby boomer culture. The key features of the emerging church vary depending on its critics. Gibbs and Bolger lists nine core practices of the emerging church based on in-depth interviews with its leaders. McKnight identifies five streams of river flowing into the emerging lake. Building upon their analyses, I would bring up four key areas that characterize the emerging church: (1) deconstructive evangelicalism, in that it tries to rule out the hierarchical system and doctrinal sectarianism of the church, and the individualistic view of salvation. (2) commitment to the historical Jesus, in that it take the life of Jesus into a serious consideration for their own faith development. (3) missional church, in that emerging church leaders unanimously place weight on the physicality and hospitality of the local churches within their vicinity. (4) recovery of the ancient spiritual practices, in that it seeks to be in touch with the profound and multisensory experience of spirituality beyonds rational knowledge of God and the bible study piety. Having established the cultural and religious understanding of the emerging church, this paper explores the possibility to apply its purports into the Korean context in terms of missiological concern. According to some studies of Korean culture, the contemporary Korean society has just turned the age of meaning pursuit. People are seeking a certain reality that can give them meaning and purpose to live beyonds the bounds of materialism and entertainment. It becomes apparent that a significant number of people pilgrim into temple stay or monastic retreat, even though they are not affiliated with those religious institutions. Also, Korean society becomes highly individualistic, but people are thirsty for meaningful connections. With this in mind, this paper recommends that both archetypal and contemporary Korean cultures could shares much in common with the concerns of emerging churches. These can also serve as the basis to consider the issues related with emerging churches within the Korean context from the missiological perspective. Rather than trying to replicate the external practices of emerging churches and worship, serious students and ministers may want to look back upon the inherent spiritual desire of the younger generation in Korea. Also, we need to take into account the paradoxical nature of godliness and freedom that can be compatible in the Christian ministry such as within the context of worship, nurturing, and communal living. In general, emerging Christians are active in finding spiritual sense by participating in the secular space while they are receptive of the contemplative and monastic way of spiritual expression. My overall contention is that the recent interest in the emerging church among the Korean church leaders should understand its cultural background first and learn its essential agenda that can be common to our context for missiological application. Emerging churches are worthwhile considering as far as we are faithfully eager to reach the emerging postmodern culture in Korea with the unchanging gospel of Jesus.