Deep Church

I recently finished reading Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional by Jim Belcher. If you're a pastor, get this book and read it. You won't regret it.

I've been fascinated with the whole emerging church movement for several years now. I've read tons of books about it, been on the bandwagon, off the bandwagon, etc... Like everyone in the emerging church camp, I've always struggled with feelings of disappointment in the state of the modern/traditional church. Most of the time whenever I would read an emergent author or hear a speaker, they were writing/speaking about things I was already thinking and/or trying or, at least, considering trying.

But what initially started as a conversation about changing church methodology, changed into a conversation about changing theology. That's when the emergents jumped the shark (or "nuked the fridge" I believe is the newer terminology).

In Deep Church, Belcher gives the best analysis of the emerging/traditional debate and offers great solutions for those who feel the ecclesiastical angst, but aren't interested in becoming heretics. The chapters "Deep Truth", "Deep Evangelism", and "Deep Gospel" are alone worth the price of the book. Belcher advances the philosophical points of the debate by attempting to encourage both sides to make nice and find common ground. But he also offers great practical guidance on how to develop your own "deep church".

Best book I've read on this topic and I'll be re-reading sections of it over and over I'm sure.

(One caviat: Belcher writes from a Presbyterian point of view. So you may need to think through translating some of his advice into your own tradition.)