Signs of Emergence.

Book Review

Brewing, Kester. Signs Of Emergence. A vision for church that is organic /networked , decentralized / bottom-up / communal / flexible (always evolving).
Baker Books, 2004,U.K. 2007, U.S.
K.B.- a teacher of math and religious studies in a London high school. Involved in the origin of the alternate worship group Vaux. He has worked in an advisory role at Fuller, helping them to think about new ways of training emergent leaders.

Comment. Henry.
The summary statement from the ‘endorsements’ expresses Kester’s thesis clearly, “Embracing an evolutionary approach to change” at the church level. On the pendulum of emergents Kester is quite extreme. The terms evolution and evolutionary are used constantly to describe the kind of change (emergence) he believes needs to take place in our churches Furthermore, there is nothing, nobody that is exempt from change, i.e. God and Christ experience emergence. I found it difficult not to react to much of what I was reading.

Kester subscribes to six different stages of beliefs that we (and our churches) experience. Moving from stage to stage is part of emergence. James Fowler describes such a church as a “conjunctive church”. The route for such change will be uncertain and uncharted.



Meaningful change (growth) will be preceded by a period of waiting and/or rest. The change will be evolutionary. Revolution produces rapid change. Turning from Malachi to Matthew must be done with the realization that there was a lengthy wait representing this transition. Even in our culture of speed you cannot speed up a pregnancy. Waiting is a mystery- “a combination of catharsis and contemplation, of clearing the decks for the new, while being content to exist in unknowing”. (49) Positive newness comes out of sincere grieving, e.g. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. It is possible that even God leaves that which he has established when it no longer serves effectively, e.g. a church.

The incarnation is described as “this reborn God”. (63) “God has been evolving, adapting, and decentralizing since space/time began.” (64) Reference is made to God’s “dedication to change by evolution”. (66) Resisting the changes implied is to be stuck in a stage of change. “We are to become wombs of the Devine.” (68) (Not sure of the meaning of this analogy!) Emergence is explained in terms of a complex evolutionary process that is experienced more than it is explained.

“If churches are going to be reborn, to emerge and evolve as self-organizing systems, then they are going to do so as organisms adapted to their unique environment.” (97) The characteristics of an emergent church are “openness, adaptability, learning, and distributed knowledge”. (97-109)



It is suggested that we live in cities but still have a “rural (pastoral) theology”. (122) Cain is credited with founding urbanization as a defense against the curse of God upon him. Gen.4:17. He would be a wanderer living off of the cursed ground. Centuries later Babel would be built by similar motives. Cities are “humanity’s attempts to build Utopias east of Eden”. (126) In spite of such a reputation of cities, God has declared his love for the city, i.e. the New Jerusalem. We don’t need to leave the city to find God. It is here that the church is called to do its work.

“A conjunctive approach to faith must re-evaluate the church’s modes of exchange, and that central to our critique of consumerism must be the rediscovery of the transaction of gift.” (146) There is a significant difference between “market exchange and gift exchange”. (147) Gift giving that is truly a part of us is what we need to learn. Alternative worship presents an opportunity to practice such giving. “True loving relationships are a gift.” (160) We learn from the parable of the talents that a gift that is used is not lost and a gift that is not used is lost.

“Dirt boundaries” (168) reveal our social and spiritual cultures. Christ’s miracles and exhortations were often focused on cleansing, dealing with dirt. He didn’t avoid dirt, he dealt with it. The church must follow his example. Kester talks about “playing trickster with a powerful and conservative church (so that) people can come and do their ‘dirt work’ without feeling condemned”. (180)



In closing the author presents a discussion of “the emergence of Christ”. (187) Central to this discussion is the drama that played itself out between Judas and Christ in the closing hours of Christ’s life having to do with what Christ came to accomplish on earth. Judas had it all wrong.

The author invites responses and discussion from readers through his website: http://kester.typepad.com/signs