Rachel Boehm Van Harmelen
January 2007
This is the second time Rev. David Den Haan has taken part in a peer group funded by the Sustaining Pastoral Excellence project. There’s a good reason for that. Den Haan says his first peer group experience was so worthwhile, he and other group members wanted a second chance to study and learn together.
After studying leadership last time, the group decided to use their most recent peer group grant to study “The Emerging Church.” “The topic came out of our discussions on leadership last time,” Den Haan says. “Some of the most intriguing leadership models we studied came out of the Emerging Church movement. We wanted to go more in depth.”
They named their new group Nailing Down Jello. “The Emerging Church has so many manifestations, it’s really hard to nail it down,” explains Den Haan. “It’s where post-modernism has found expression within the Christian movement.”
The Emerging Church has particular relevance for members of this peer group, who live in close proximity to the fastest growing Emerging Church in the United States, one which many of their own parishioners find appealing.
“We're next door neighbours to a very large Emerging Church and our people are very enamoured with it,” says Den Haan. “We want see what is helpful and what is not so helpful.”
“We see in the Emerging Church many things we love,” says Den Haan, pointing out the movement’s strong emphasis on social justice and social action. “We also really resonate with the Emerging Church’s love for using visuals in worship.” Den Haan says he and his peers also can relate to the strong call to Christian discipleship.
Still, Den Haan and his peers have questions about the place of Scripture in a movement where doctrine is less well defined than in the Reformed tradition. “These are the questions we're asking now,” says Den Haan.
Den Haan notes that he’s already learned many things that he can apply to his ministry. “In terms of preaching, the one thing the Emerging Church is teaching us is the value of story and narrative,” he says.
Den Haan and his peers are reading several books A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McClaren, Velvet Elvis by Emerging Church pastor Rob Bell and Donald Karsten’s Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church. Den Haan’s group is also planning a retreat for the spring. In January, Calvin Theological Seminary Professor Darwin Glassford will share his knowledge of the Emerging Church with the group.
Peer group learning is even better the second time around, says Den Haan.“We know each other so well, so our prayer and sharing times are so much richer,” says Den Haan.
