When newspapers pick up on a religion story, there's a good chance it's old hat to insiders. So now that the Denver Post and the Press-Enterprise of inland Southern California have written stories on emergent churches, are they really still emerging?

First, in case you don't know, "Emergent is first and foremost a friendship, a network of warm and mutually encouraging relationships," according to the official Emergent website. The idea is that Christianity, as we often see it, is outmoded. Postmodernity has taken hold in our culture and the church needs to adapt or die.

In a sense, emergent churches are to Gen-Xers what mega churches are to Baby Boomers. The Denver Postexplains: "Throughout its history, evangelical Christianity has shown it can change with the times, altering methods but not the message. The emerging church has its roots in the mid-1990s, when young evangelical pastors noticed large churches brimming with boomers were lacking 18- to 30-year-olds."

So, Xers began their own ...