Covering Emergent
December 5, 2007 at 11:51 am | In culture, emergent | 2 CommentsTags: emergent church, emerging church, Leo Sandon, tallahassee democrat, Tom Brokaw, web 2.0
The emergent/emerging church is notoriously difficult to cover, especially for those explaining it to the general public.
Leo Sandon, FSU professor emeritus and member of my home church does a much better job than Tom Brokaw.
Dr. Sandon’s article in my much loved and derided local paper is here. And was just picked up by Emergent village here. Sandon clearly understands the tricky nature of emergent journalism writing,
While there is no “typical” Emergent worship service (ministries are shaped in accordance with a specific local situation), there are broad emphases in the movement — which were exemplified at Jacob’s Well. The movement seeks ways of doing church that resonate with contemporary postmodern culture. Worship is characteristically eclectic (including pre-modern, modern and postmodern elements), experiential and sensory (sometimes candles, incense, etc.).
Compare Sandon’s quality coverage to NBC Nightly News’ coverage in this video.
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Brokaw seems to equate young evangelicals to emergent and leave it at that. His political slant to the coverage is a nice try, but it sells short the breadth and depth of the conversation–exactly what our news media does best.
This dichotomy between Sandon’s and Brokaw’s coverage is exactly where the web can come in and facilitate a meaningful conversation. Ten years ago, Sandon’s piece likely would not have been picked up beyond Tallahassee, and Brokaw’s misleading broad strokes would carry the day. Not so in our Web 2.0 world. Here and elsewhere, the conversation can take us beyond NBC black and white to new shades of gray to which many can add their perspective.
The subsequent Emergent Village discussion is here.
Update: Mr. pomomusings gives a fuller critique of Brokaw’s coverage here.
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Dude – you beat me to this post. My post will be live tomorrow. You can find it here.
Comment by Adam W.C. — December 6, 2007 #
yeah, that’s something people don’t often talk about. You’re listening to Brokaw on a subject you know about. And you see what pitiful coverage it is and how inaccurate. Now imagine that this is true of virtually everything they do. Experts are groaning with every story.
And that was all we had?
Comment by real live preacher — December 6, 2007 #