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Things are moving along swimmingly at Smyth & Helwys. The official title of our book is: “Baptimergent: Baptist Stories from the Emergent Frontier.”
The similarities in title to Tony Jones’ book “The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier,” are intentional. These are tradition-specific dispatches if you will. Stories that are a smattering of a larger multitude of creative, imaginative voices out there among Baptists today.
The irony in the title is that the publisher and I joked about the word “baptimergent” being cumbersome and downright ugly. The fact that it made the title is a lesson of its own. This is a cumbersome and ugly plight — this thing we call emergence. Then again, so is any birthing process.
The book is set for publication in March 2010. I am in the process of getting endorsements, and Tim Conder is wrapping up the Afterward. Tony Jones has already gotten his endorsement in. I hope the book will get yours once it hits the shelves. I’ll have more updates coming soon.
Teaser: Tripp Fuller and I also have some plans underway to do a podcast series with all the chapter writers on Homebrewed Christianity. I’ll be sharing those names and bios later on once the content gets finalized for publication.
Stay tuned!
At least on my end…for now.
This Baptimergent book project, tentatively entitled, “Baptist Stories of Emergence,” began back in 2008 when I convinced Keith Gammons, Vice President of Production for Smyth & Helwys, of the idea. Keith and I began talking about a book dealing with emergence among Baptists while at the 2008 True Survivors Conference hosted by CBF (Cooperative Baptist Fellowship) and held at FBC Asheville, NC. Tony Jones was the presenter for that conference, discussing his recent book The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier.
It has been a long journey to get to this point. We’ve got a little further to go. It will be several months before the book goes into production. As I suspected, the project evolved into something a bit different from what I had planned. My purpose from the start was to introduce some new Baptist voices into the greater discourse on church, spirituality, theology, and practice. That is the one thing that didn’t change, and I feel good about how we accomplished it.
I will keep you posted on the rest of the process. There will also be a number of promotional projects underway soon. More details about content and writers will be forthcoming as well.
Stay tuned.
We’ve had this little virtual network going for a little over a month now. It has been fun watching the Facebook group grow. Last I checked we were at the 212 mark. What’s more, we have friends logging in from all over the world. Below are some simple stats about our network.
Nationalities Represented: Romania, China, Canada, South Africa, Norway, Dominican Republic, Zimbabwe, Australia, Japan, United States
U.S. States Represented: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington D.C., Washington
So far, one can find Baptimergents in 10 countries, and in 25 states in the U.S. I look forward to seeing what new nationalities and states get added to our network of friends. Let me know if I missed anyone!
I had a Presbyterian friend ask me if, “emergent baptist,” is an oxymoron like, “upbeat presbyterian.” I told him that I like to call it a paradox since that sort of thing is all the rage these days.
I have had several conversations with folks in other traditions who carry a healthy skepticism about Baptists being able to emerge from much of anything. They have good reasons for thinking so, and we know those reasons and many more as insiders.
I am glad their skepticism is largely unfounded. There are many of us “Baptimergents” out there, and we are gradually finding one another via blog, Facebook, and Emergent gatherings.
Here’s something I’d like to know. How did your emergence begin? Was it a book your read? Was it a nagging feeling inside? Was it a relationship? Was it a theological breakthrough? Was it all of the above? Click the “comment” button and let us know.
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