As usual, Rick, over at Brutally Honest, has an insightful article about the demise of the "emerging church" movement.

The only movement they really managed was to move from the life of true local churches into the spiritual mortuary... and they tried to kill every one else with themselves.

EMERGING CHURCH ASSUMES ROOM TEMPERATURE

Why did the emerging church die?

1. Lack of Tact Theory: ...Don’t come in and beat up the old way of doing things thinking that your passion and belief in the necessity of change with be shared by others. It won’t. In fact, your demand for change will solidify people in their own places....

2. The Offense Theory. ... They assumed that Evangelicals would listen and exit the building with them. But what happened was not unlike a disrespectful teenager who thought that he suddenly had it all figured out through a series of unadulterated epiphanies. He tugged on the shirt of his parents letting them know how much more he knew than them and he was blown off because of arrogance....

3. Misidentified Evangelicalism Theory. ....Emergers failed to realize the shared DNA with Evangelicals and belittled them instead... Therefore, their cries of change, their proclamations of enlightenment, served only to belittle Evangelicals....

4. Heretical Tolerance Theory: ... The Emerging church refused to stand up for anything... they definitively cried out against Evangelical orthodoxy kicking us in the most sensitive areas. Abortion, Atonement, Justification, Assurance, and then there was the attempted burial of our belief that homosexuality was a sin. Oh, did I mention the attacks on Hell and the Exclusivity of Christ? They quickly moved from an insightful teen who might have some good things to say to barrage of disconnected enemies on the attack.

They walked away from us then acted like they wanted to be our "big" brother.

Sigh.

XtnYoda, shalomed