Emergent Church Practices in America: Inclusion and Deliberation in American Congregations

Abstract

In the last 15 years a small but growing movement organized under the label “emergent church” has begun to help push the church through what many of them believe to be the first careful steps that will usher in a new understanding of Christianity for the twenty-first century. An emergent church model is quite a radical one that prioritizes the agency of those in attendance to determine the beliefs and direction of the church. In this way, emergent churches, at least in theory, are radical deliberative democrats in orientation, which may have profound effects on how the church is run and how members view the church, each other, and society as a result. Using the first dataset known to acquire this identity of Protestant clergy, we assess whether emergent Christian clergy adhere to a different set of religious beliefs, values, and deliberative norms than those in the modern church.

Coding Appendix

Emerging church “While no one likes religious labels, do any of the following describe your religious identity?” 1 = Emerging church, 0 = not circled. (the same coding applies to “progressive” and “ecumenical” in Fig. 1).

Exclusive values Averages across two items that were initiated with, “How often do you preach on the following values in your sermons?” The first item was, “To be a good Christian, it is important to shop at stores owned by Christians.” The second item was, “To be a good Christian, it is important to associate primarily with other Christians.” Each item was coded 1 = never, 2 = seldom, 3 = often, 4 = very often so the final index ranges from 1 to 4.

Inclusive values Averages across two items that were initiated with, “How often do you preach on the following values in your sermons?” The first item was, “To be a good Christian, it is important to love your neighbor as yourself.” The second item was, “To be a good Christian, it is important to invite others to church even if the church changes as a result.” Each item was coded 1 = never, 2 = seldom, 3 = often, 4 = very often so the final index ranges from 1 to 4.

Deliberative norms Is an averaged index ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree including responses to four statements: We explicitly encourage participants to think seriously about the opinions of others; It is essential that a range of viewpoints be presented; It is essential that participants learn how their values and religious beliefs relate to social and political issues; It is essential for participants to learn how to talk through their differences of opinions on such matters.

Mixed class church “Which of the following do you think best describes the nature of your congregation?” 1 = Mixed, 0 = Working class, or lower-middle class, or Upper-middle class.

Clergy-church issue disagreement “How would you compare your own views on social issues with most members of your church?” 1 = about the same, 2 = mine somewhat more liberal/conservative, 3 = mine much more liberal/conservative.

Church size “Approximately how many adult members are there in your church?”

Urban/Rural “What is the kind of community in which your congregation is located?” (for rural, 1 = rural, 0 = all else) (for urban, 1 = Suburb of a very large city, very large city (over 500,000), Suburb of a very large city, or Large city (100,000–500,000), 0 = otherwise).

Religious conservatism An averaged index composed of seven questions. Each is coded from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree (except for the fifth, which is reverse coded), which means the index runs from 1 to 5 (α = .93). The items include: “Adam and Eve were real people;” “Jesus was born of a virgin;” “The Devil actually exists;” “The Bible is the inerrant Word of God both in matters of faith and in history;” “All great religions of the world are equally good and true;” “There is no other way to salvation but through belief in Jesus Christ;” and “Jesus will return bodily to earth 1 day.”

Education “What is the highest level of education you have attained?” 1 = Grade school or less, 2 = High school graduate, 3 = Some college, 4 = College graduate, 5 = Postgraduate work (other than seminary).

Age in years.

Male = 1, 0 = female.

Political conservatism We hear a lot of talk in politics about liberals and conservatives. How do you think of yourself? 1 = Extremely liberal, 2 = Liberal, 3 = Somewhat Liberal, 4 = Moderate, 5 = Somewhat conservative, 6 = Conservative, 7 = Extremely conservative.

Years at church/ministry in years.

Total adherence rate Taken from the 2010 RCMS.

Evangelical adherence rate Taken from the 2010 RCMS.

Herfindahl index This measure takes the sum of the square proportions of the religious traditions’ adherence (not the rate per 1,000) in states in 2010. We used proportions of evangelical, mainline, Catholic, Black Protestant, Orthodox, and other. Values toward zero indicate high pluralism and little concentration; values toward 1 signal monopolistic conditions. The measure ranges from .09 to .49 in these data.