Journalist and USC professor Diane Winston attended the Emergent-S3K gathering. In Sunday’s Los Angeles Times, her bi-weekly column considers “Religious progressives, the next generation”:

…Most interesting to me was a Gen-X conference for Jews and evangelical Christians to discuss different models for tikkun olam, the Jewish notion of men and women working with God to repair a broken world. Gathered at a retreat center in Simi Valley last month, the two dozen participants eyed each other with cautious curiosity. Synagogue 3000, an organization devoted to revitalizing synagogue life, convened the meeting of “emergents,” GenX evangelicals exploring new ways to follow Jesus in today’s world, and Jews seeking new models for religious life.

…Sociologist Steven M. Cohen told conference participants that their generation is marked by dysfunctional families, distrust of institutions and a greater affinity for images than print. Gen-Xers understand truth as “less stable and more pluralistic” than their parents do, he said, which perhaps explains why they’re more experimental about religion.

They’re also more confrontational. “This is not your father’s church,” Gen-X emergents tell their friends, irking baby-boomer elders.

Emergent Christians describe themselves as “relational” (an emphasis on personal commitments), “traditional” (a rigorous understanding of religious life) and “missional” (doing God’s work 24/7 in the world).

Think of their Christianity as anti-mega church: no marketing, head-counting or high-power programming.

The same could be said of the Jewish Emergents, too.

Diane goes on to consider Emergent communities like Dwight Friesen’s Quest: a Christ commons and Tim Keel’s Jacob’s Well as possible heirs to the legacy of the late Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King, Jr.

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