No, I'm not talking about reading, writing and arithmatic. I'm talking about the three R's of the "emerging church." Ed Stetzer wrote a great article about this here. There are a lot of people who have mis-labled the emerging church or "post-moderns." This article is the best I have seen in SBC life concerning the emerging church. His 3 R's are as following: Relevants. Yes, I made up the word. Sorry about the grammar. However, it expresses an important idea. There are a good number of young (and not so young) leaders who some classify as "emerging" that really are just trying to make their worship, music and outreach more contextual to emerging culture. Ironically, while some may consider them liberal, they are often deeply committed to biblical preaching, male pastoral leadership and other values common in conservative evangelical churches.They are simply trying to explain the message of Christ in a way their generation can understand. The contemporary churches of the 1980s and 90s did the same thing (and some are still upset at them for doing so). However, if we find biblical preaching and God-centered worship in a more culturally relevant setting, I rejoice just as I would for international missionaries using tribal cultural forms in Africa.The churches of the "relevants" are not filled with the angry white children of evangelical megachurches. They are, instead, intentionally reaching into their communities (which are different than where most Southern Baptists live) and proclaiming a faithful biblically-centered Gospel there. I know some of their churches -- they are doctrinally sound, growing and impacting lostness.-- Reconstructionists.The reconstructionists think that the current form of church is frequently irrelevant and the structure is unhelpful. Yet, they typically hold to a more orthodox view of the Gospel and Scripture. Therefore, we see an increase in models of church that reject certain organizational models, embracing what are often called "incarnational" or "house" models. They are responding to the fact that after decades of trying fresh ideas in innovative churches, North America is less churched, and those that are churched are less committed. Yet, God's plan is deeply connected with the church (see Ephesians 3:10). God's Word prescribes much about what a church is. So, if emerging leaders want to think in new ways about the forms (the construct) of church, that's fine -- but any form needs to be reset as a biblical form, not just a rejection of the old form. Don't want a building, a budget and a program? OK. Don't want the Bible, scriptural leadership, covenant community? Not OK. (For an excellent summary, see NAMB's document by Stan Norman called "Ecclesiological Guidelines to Inform Southern Baptist Church Planters.") Also, we must not forget, if reconstructionists simply rearrange dissatisfied Christians and do not impact lostness, it is hardly a better situation than the current one. Revisionists. Much of the concern has been addressed at those I call revisionists. Right now, many of those who are revisionists are being read by younger leaders and perceived as evangelicals. They are not -- at least according to our evangelical understanding of Scripture. We significantly differ from them regarding what the Bible is, what it teaches and how we should live it in our churches. I don't hate them, question their motives and I won't try to mischaracterize their beliefs. But, I won't agree with them.Revisionists are questioning (and in some cases denying) issues like the nature of the substitutionary atonement, the reality of hell, the complementarian nature of gender, and the nature of the Gospel itself. This is not new -- some mainline theologians quietly abandoned these doctrines a generation ago. The revisionist emerging church leaders should be treated, appreciated and read as we read mainline theologians -- they often have good descriptions, but their prescriptions fail to take into account the full teaching of the Word of God. I think I would fall in the Relevant's camp. There are many leaders who are scared of the emerging church and criticize it because they don't understand it. I desire to be Biblically sound and Relevant! I am not angry! Thanks Ed for defining what I have been trying to define for myself!