Why the Emerging Church Movement Failed

During these years, much of the energy associated with the emerging church conversation was taking place on social media rather than in church pews. So much so, that, in retrospect, I would argue that the emerging church movement eventually became a social media phenomenon. To be sure, an influential and impactful social media phenomenon, but a social media phenomenon nonetheless. For the first time in human history, people could connect and talk to each other about theological ideas online. This allowed Christians with minority viewpoints within their churches and faith traditions to find each other. That experience was thrilling. People were “connecting” online, and all that “connecting” was experienced as a movement. Especially when all these people would gather together under the same roof for a conference. But at the end of the day, those few hundred people at the conference, when they went back to their churches, remained in the minority. In short, while many people felt “seen” by the emerging church conversation, theological misfits finding an online community, the movement never captured entire churches at scale. In short, one of the reasons the emerging church failed was ecclesiological: the movement became overly dependent upon social media, books, conferences, and festivals.