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• The emerging-church endeavors in which the interviewees are involved focus heavily on participation, integration, collaboration, networks, relationships, and mutuality — a product of a postmodern mood and Internet culture. Kester Brewin connects this also with complexity theory and self-organizing systems that "don't need top-down hierarchies to evolve."

Clearly the megatrend "from hierarchies to networking" John Naisbitt flagged 25 years ago is in full bloom. The key is to operate non-hierarchically within the essentially hierarchical system of traditional churches. Relationships can be more open and personally transforming when not based upon one's status within the hierarchy, interviewees say.

• The focus of the interviewees is more on the worship service (and therefore worship space and buildings) than on other aspects of Christian life, reflecting the liturgical context of most of the contributors. Insights abound on developing worship that resonates with "emerging" trends, yet is tied to a sense of history. Since the book is about "Rethinking Church," I expected a broader discussion of community structures, discipleship, and forms of witness and cultural engagement (other than through the worship service). These are not totally absent, but they are not given equal weight.

Much that is said here under the label "emergent" has been attempted in the past under different labels. The criticisms of traditional Christianity and proposals for new forms of the church echo, in different accents, voices from the 1960s and 1970s. Many of the proposed solutions are similar.

However, both the stirrings and the critique are deeper, as several factors converge: the ferment of postmodernism, new discussions of the mission of God (missio Dei) and the Trinity, denominational decline in both liberal and conservative churches, the increasing importance of youth culture, the rise of the Internet and other new communication technology, and intensified globalization.

This book shows that deep social and spiritual currents are stirring. Many evangelical churches look more and more like mainline churches, and many mainline churches may be at the tip of renewal.

Howard A. Snyder is the chair of Wesley studies at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto and a contributing editor at Christianity Today.

Copyright © 2007 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Rising from the Ashes: Rethinking Church is available from Amazon.com and other retailers.

An excerpt from the book, about technology and the gospel, is also on our site today.

Scot McKnight profiled the "5 Streams of the Emerging Church."

More articles on the emergent church and modern media are available on our website.

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January (Web-only) 2008, Vol. 52