Brokaw Reports on the Emerging Church

An unfortunate portrayal of the “emerging church” as a “youth movement.”

I’m always surprised by these types of reports by networks—why don’t they feature churches like Solomon’s Porch, Church of the Apostles—I wouldn’t be surprised if some folks at Pine Ridge probably wouldn’t want to be associated with Emergent…it seemed like much more the “candles & coffee” type of “emerging church.”

Just my initial thoughts.

It’s much easier to portray only one piece of this wide breadth of a movement, than it is to tell the entire story as it continues to unfold before even those of us that are in its midst. I don’t mean to sound too protective of the media, but certainly we know that the report was quite inaccurate if taken as an entire definition of the Emergent Movement.
I’ve recently been working to connect with like-minded or willing to converse folks in Phoenix, AZ and there is and likely will continue to be that perspective of many that Emergent = Liberal or Anything Goes. But what I’ve been finding is that once I get past the initial “oh my” and I’m able to share (and listen), I’m finding that more people (not in their 20’s or 30’s as NBC might have some thinking) are experiencing and practicing those things we are conversing about, though they don’t know we are talking about the same thing. Maybe the word-of-mouth, relational method will end up working better than mass media once again.
Good thoughts.

Is it just me or does the pastor of Pine Ridge look eerily like Ben from Lost…?

I’m probably most troubled by the parting thought that the “youth movement” is in competition with the aging majority. I am afraid someone who wasn’t informed about some differences before this news report will feel they have to choose sides to defend themselves in some coming conflict. The hostility that is already present really doesn’t need to be stirred up any more by such notions. Being young myself, I am not ready or willing to join any such age war.

David, I agree with you. The last comment struck me as odd, but revealing.

most troubling to me is that emergents are automatically assumed in this piece to be both “evangelical”, hip as in gimmicky hip and, closet conservatives or more specifically, disapproving of gays and lesbians but just not saying anything about it. That’s not good enough. The movement however is much broader than this skewed summary, thank God

All truth is broader than a 3 1/2 minute news story. But if the movement is starting to get enough attention to bring Tom Brokaw out of his semi-retirement, then that is something to celebrate! This was just one small step in getting noticed and another will come soon in the political season as the media has learned to pay close attention to Christian politics (which is an unfortunate oxymoron in my opinion).

I’m part of Pine Ridge and have posted a couple items about Pine Ridge and the NBC story on my site, with some mixed reaction in the comments.

Cleave’s right that Pine Ridge isn’t typically associated with Emergent, and as with most perceived “youth churches” have more older people than is expected (none of the launch team members are younger than 35, though the staff is younger). The rest of the comments here are generally right on, especially as regards to NBC’s angle on the story – it clearly seemed NBC already had the story written and then went searching for a church that they could fit into that storyline. The story isn’t inaccurate per se, but it’s obviously terribly incomplete and somewhat misleading, though I don’t think in an intentionally harmful way.

Also, Pine Ridge pastor Tadd Grandstaff blogs.

Ed Stetzer commented on this on his blog:

http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/2007/11/nbc_nightly_news_and_the_emerg.html

I saw on this pastor Tadd’s blog that he said he would certainly NOT associate himself or his church with the emerging church. i think that is beautiful because it shows that the emeging church is not just a checklist of doctrines, it is a bunch of people thinking about jesus… it doesnt have to be in the name of a church.

I did not know about Tadd Grandstaff and PRC prior to the NBC piece, so I cannot say anything about them as an emerging community beyond referring to Tadd’s own comment, “I DO NOT consider us an emerging church.” What did catch my ear (I was in the kitchen when the story started) was “emergent church” and Jerry Falwell in the same sentence! I can’t imagine anyone going from studying/ministering under the tutelage of Falwell, to embracing the emerging conversation. Especially if this is a Liberty(University)-approved church plant.

I don’t know why reporters can’t go into a story letting the people/org (who are the focus of the story) define themselves.

It is obvious from Tadd’s comments that they never mentioned the emerging conversation in their time with him, and they misrepresented a woman’s comment by changing the question she was asked.

It seems to me that someone forces a news story subject, they find a church that fits, and then they borrow some story editors from the reality TV division, to edit everything into what the ‘suits’ want it to be.

Maybe someday they will see the fact that the emerging conversation brings together people of a wide range of ages, backgrounds, and personalities; and then maybe they will see this as a much bigger story than your run-of-the-mill battle of young versus old!

the thing that crossed my mind watching that was, I’m always trying to explain to fundamentalists what this ‘emerging church’ is all about, and i think that report just made that job harder.

it does show a pretty serious lack of research on the part of NBC to put a Liberty grad pastor up there as their emerging guy, why not just dress Mohler up in jeans and a goatee and let him pretend to be hip?

and not 1 mention of anything social justice or kingdom of god related…i guess its good to get press, but that kind of press is questionable at best. after all, if the most notable thing about emerging Christians is that we aren’t as republican as our parents, then that is a shame.

i’m most suprised by the last statement brokaw makes about the competition of church. If we are viewed in competition with each other then we have missed the point.

Well, can we be surprised? The MSM is confused because we, ourselves, are confused. We can’t give a streamlined definition of “emerging,” or “emergent.” We are afraid to call the “emergent,” church a “movement,” so we cryptically call it a “conversation.” Yet, despite all this, we expect the mainstream media to give an accurate portrayal of all of this? Whose fault is that? I’m not the least bit surprised by Tom Brokaw’s report. But I sure don’t blame Brokaw; this “conversation,” with it’s own terminology, it’s leaders who say they aren’t leaders (leading a movement they say isn’t a movement), It’s all enough to make any head spin. If we don’t want the media to define “emergent,” than we better get busy with something that defines it on our own terms – or they WILL define it for us.

Well said Mike.

This is about as accurate as the media ever gets. It only becomes obvious when they report about something about which one has intimate knowledge. Remember, they aren’t experts in anything and TV especially only cares about the view from 36,000 ft. Nuance – what’s that?

I’m really getting tired of these kinds of 1/5 true stories about ‘emerging church’ in the mass media.

This is about theology and community, not candles and coffee.

I’m ‘ordained’ female, black, and an EV board member and a post – liberal episcopalian, and I know lots of other ‘mainliners’ in north america and europe who are part of the church emerging, yet our presence and contribution is always overlooked when the emerging church is described only as a ‘young evangelical’ movement.

I’ve not been interviewed by nbc or any other national media group (or has any other female emergent leader?) what is this saying…?

If Tom came to our community and other more mainline ones like Quest, Seattle, Tribe of Los Angeles, Church of the Beloved, Edmonds, WA, Wicker Park Grace, Chicago, The Crossing, Boston, Hot Metal Bridge, Missio Dei, in the Twin Cities, Charles River Church…) they would find different and untold emerging church stories.