The essential problem with the Emerging (i.e., Postmodern) church is that is not a cohesive movement or structure.
When people attempt to place the Emerging church, they try to compare it to other things. They try to pin it down as a denomination, or a heresy, or a trend.
However, properly stated, there are Emerging members in ever denomination or sect of Christianity at this time. Most of them, much like Calvin, Luther, and others before them, have no actual wish to splinter the church further, but rather wish to get back to the heart of what really matters as a body.
In one of his earlier books, Emergent Church author Brian McLaren wrote that the Emerging Church is like the reeds growing under a pond, that in spring finally emerge and are seen by all for what they are...they don't move from the pond to show their true colors.
However, the Emerging Church has also, increasingly, become a hotbed for proponents of Universalism, Christian Liberalism, and various heresies of a more or less serious nature. Those with an eye to the historic nature of the church will note that this is hardly uncommon, but as today's church will react badly and violently to anything that seems risky, the Emerging Church is thus constantly under attack.
Significant issues that the Emerging Church disagrees with the Fundamentalist Church on:
- The Inerrancy of Scripture, or Sola Scriptura,
- Salvation as being about more than just not going to hell,
- Mankinds responsibility, both in light of Agape and the Stewardship mandate from Genesis, to take care of both the earth and society, rather than being selfish and despoiling it,
- Social Justice,
- Relevancy/Authenticity,
- The meaning and legitimacy of Church Tradition, both practiced and forgotten,
- The role of conversation and relationship in the Christian life and in humanity,
- The Christian response to violence and vengeance,
- Community (See The New Monasticism),
- The difference between God actively sending people to hell, and people choosing not to be with God.
The list continues, but these are merely some of the brighter, hotter spots.
The majority of contrary opinion from the Fundamentalist camp (John Piper, John MacArthur, James Dobson...yes, who is actually a Fundamentalist is entirely a perspective of where you are standing, strangely enough) comes down to Emerging Christians wanting to water down the gospel, not respecting Scripture or Tradition, denying the Lordship of Christ, removing Salvation from prime importance, denying hell, denying heaven, Cult of Personality, Liberalism, Polytheism, Universalism, Heresy, and various other friendly titles.
Good books to read if you're looking to learn about the Emerging Church, by people who often would never identify themselves as Emerging, and as a result epitomize it:
Initially, the Emerging Church was refered to by those who had self-identified themselves as part of it as the Post-Modern church, but that descriptor holds so much negative hype within the church that they switched to a different title.
Brian McLaren, one of the most controversial speakers for the Emerging Movement (part of the flagship Emergent Church movement) states that like any movement, the Emerging Church has only really been around for 20 or 30 years, so we won't really know the full effects of it for a century or so. Positive thinking on his part.