Issue #8: Particularism

One of the most exciting issues is also a potential problem; I have heard many speak of the “particularism” of the Emergent movement and by that mean that the gospel will manifest itself differently in each location – and I couldn’t agree more with Andrew Jones knowing that the Emergent movement in UK will look different than the one in Southern California or up in Minneapolis where Doug Pagitt is — and that the goal is to let the gospel do its work in each setting and let’s just see what happens. I happen to think this is laudable, but potentially simplistic: each gospel work will be singular but it will not be unique since its Spirit is the same, since the gospel is about Jesus Christ, and … well, there will be some commonalities.