Membership
While practices and even core doctrine vary within the emerging church "conversation," most emergents tend to exhibit the following characteristics:

Values and Characteristics
The emerging church movement arose as a response to the perceived influence of modernism in Western Christianity. As sociologists noted a cultural shift to postmodern ways of perceiving reality in the late 20th century some Christians began to advocate changes within the church that corresponded to these cultural shifts. These critics began to assert that the church was culturally bound to modernism and began to challenge the church regarding its use of institutional structures, systematic theology, propositional teaching methods, buildings, attractional understanding of mission (trying to bring people into the church rather than improving their world), official clergy, worship lacking in premodern practices such as incense and candles that evoke sacred feelings, and the role conservatives often played in Evangelical politics. Postmodern epistemology is fundamental to emerging church movement beliefs and emergents have labored to construct a postfoundational theology which rejects certainty in favor of a view they describe as more humble in which emergents see their voice as just one among many legitimate, non-dogmatic religious voices that engage in peer-to-peer dialog or "conversation." Emergents believe it is necessary to deconstruct and reconstruct (redefine and reshape) Christianity in order to engage post-Christian Western culture in this two-way conversation rather than proclaim a message that is alien to and unpopular with that culture.

Postmodern worldview
Narrative explorations of faith, Scripture, and history are emphasized in emerging churches over exegetical and doctrinal approaches (such as that found in systematic theology and systematic exegesis), which are often viewed as reductionist. Systematic study is seen as a relic of modernism born out of the view that cross-cultural absolutes could be found. Emergents embrace the postmodern concept that we can only relate the narratives that cause a person or group to believe in the values they do.

Narrative theology
The movement publicly advocates ecumenism though they admit to being intolerant of theological conservatives who view the authorial intent in Scripture as having absolute authority for doctrine and practice. Emergents espouse an open, flexible, and subjective view of doctrine in which they embrace a continual reexamination of theology which causes them to see faith as a journey rather than a destination. This is a natural consequence of their rejection of certainty in faith. Some emerging leaders claim to "hold in tension" even radical differences in doctrines and morals. This openness leads many of them to extend an invitation to "open minded" people of all religions and social backgrounds to contribute to the dialog or conversation. Some emergents see theology as merely an icon pointing to God rather than as a definition of God that has a 1 to 1 correspondence to "what is." For most emergents this means they do not see any doctrinal expositions as definitive.

Generous orthodoxy
Postmodern literary theory rejects the referential theory of language. For them, the text takes on a personal meaning as they experience it, but it has no authoritative meaning such as authorial intent to distinguish a right from wrong interpretation. Likewise, emergents allow for a plurality of Scriptural interpretations. Emergent leader Tony Jones says "We must stop looking for some objective Truth that is available when we delve into the text of the Bible." Emergents exhibit a particular concern for the effect of the modern reader's cultural context on the act of interpretation in contrast to the emphasis of historical orthodoxy on the primacy of the author's intent and cultural context. The influence of postmodern thinkers such as Jacques Derrida and Stanley Fish is evident in the emerging church movement's approach to interpreting Scripture.

Postmodern Hermeneutics
Emergents favor the sharing of experiences and interactions such as testimonies, prayer, group recitation, sharing meals and other communal practices, which they believe are personal and sincere over propositional, evangelistic preaching and exegetical bible teaching, since these involve claims of clear knowledge regarding absolute truth. Emerging church participants are thus true to the social constructs of their local narratives rather than to any absolute, ahistorical, cross-cultural authority.

Authenticity
The movement's participants claim they are creating a safe environment for those with opinions ordinarily rejected within historic orthodoxy. Non-critical, interfaith dialog is favored over evangelism in the movement. Emergents do not engage in apologetics or confrontational evangelism.

Conversation/dialog
Participants in this movement assert that the incarnation of Christ informs their theology, believing that as God entered the world in human form, adherents enter (individually and communally) into the context around them, aiming to transform that culture through local involvement in it. This holistic involvement may take many forms, including social activism, hospitality, and acts of kindness. Emergents call this beneficent involvement in culture "missional living." Missional living is thought to make emergents part of the culture rather than outsiders who call people to come out from among the culture; and this approach leads emergents to their focus on temporal and social issues, as opposed to the Evangelical emphasis on eternal salvation. The hope of the emerging church movement's "gospel" is to enhance the lives of others regardless of their lifestyles or beliefs. Therefore, social action, community involvement, and sacrificial hospitality are more emphasized in the movement than preaching and teaching.

Missional living
Emergents communicate and interact through fluid and open networks because the movement is decentralized with little institutional coordination. Participants avoid assumptions about the role and nature of the church, attempting to gather in ways specific to their local context. In this way emergents share with the house church movements a willingness to challenge traditional church structures/organizations though they also respect the different expressions of traditional Christian denominations.

Unstructured ecclesiology
This can involve everything from expressive, neocharismatic style of worship and the use of contemporary music and films to more ancient liturgical customs and eclectic expressions of spirituality, with the goal of making the church gathering genuinely reflective of the local community's tastes.

Creative spirituality
In a strict theological sense the term legalism pertains to the idea of justification by works. Legalism in a popular/colloquial, Evangelical sense is a pejorative describing an improper fixation on law or codes of conduct, or legal ideas, usually implying an allegation of misguided rigor, pride, superficiality, the neglect of mercy, and ignorance of the grace of God. Emergents tend to see any exhortation to moral conduct other than social causes to be "legalistic." Many emergents participate in activities such as drinking and watching movies with explicit sexual content that most Evangelicals disapprove of. Those who identify with the emerging church movement are not likely to be dogmatic about private, moral behaviors which do not hurt others or the environment. Homosexuality is held as an open question by most emergents. Brian McLaren, for example, says "Frankly many of us don't know what we should think about homosexuality."."

"Non-Legalistic" conduct
Emergents use the Internet as a central medium to facilitate global friendship and to converse about theology, philosophy, art, culture, politics, social justice, etc. through various blogs, websites, and online videos.

Use of new technologies
The movement's members make liberal use of jargon originally coopted from more popular usage by related schools of thought such as the narrative theology movement. Once emergents have made them their own, terms such as "generous," "missional," "authentic," "narrative," and "conversation" serve as "flags" by which emergents are able to quickly recognize each other across denominational lines.

Postmodern terminology
Emergents express concern for what they consider to be the practical manifestation of God's kingdom on earth, by which they mean social justice. This concern manifests itself in a variety of ways depending on the local community and in ways they believe defy "modernist" labels of "conservative" and "liberal." This concern for justice is expressed in such things as feeding the poor, visiting the sick and prisoners, stopping contemporary slavery and working for environmental causes.

Justice
Although some emergent thinkers such as Brian McLaren and many Evangelical scholars such as D. A. Carson use "emerging" and "emergent" as synonyms, a large number of participants in the emerging church movement maintain a distinction between them. "Emergent" is sometimes more closely associated with Emergent Village. Those participants in the movement who assert this distinction believe "emergents" and "emergent village" to be a part of the emerging church movement but prefer to use the term "emerging church" to refer to the movement as a whole while using the term "emergent" in a more limited way, referring to Brian McLaren and emergentvillage. Many of those within the emerging church movement who do not closely identify with emergentvillage tend to avoid that organization's interest in radical theological reformulation and focus more on new ways of "doing church" and expressing their spirituality. Mark Driscoll, an early leader associated with the emerging church conversation, now distances himself from the "emergent thread." In a short video clip, he summarizes some of his concerns. Some observers consider the "emergent stream" to be one major part within the larger emerging church movement. This may be attributed to the stronger voice of the 'emergent' stream found in the US which contrasts the more subtle and diverse development of the movement in the UK, Australia and New Zealand over a longer period of time. As a result of the above factors, the use of correct vocabulary to describe a given participant in this movement can occasionally be awkward, confusing, or controversial.
In the mid-1990s I was part of what is now known as the Emerging Church and spent some time traveling the country to speak on the emerging church in the emerging culture on a team put together by Leadership Network called the Young Leader Network. But, I eventually had to distance myself from the Emergent stream of the network because friends like Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt began pushing a theological agenda that greatly troubled me. Examples include referring to God as a chick, questioning God's sovereignty over and knowledge of the future, denial of the substitutionary atonement at the cross, a low view of Scripture, and denial of hell which is one hell of a mistake. -- Mark Driscoll

"Emerging" versus "Emergent"
It is sometimes useful to compare the emerging church movement with other Christian movements, which emphasize a similar approach to Christianity and inner experience.
The Taizé Community in France parallels the emergent experience in many ways. Traditional symbols in this community such as candles and crosses have intensified importance in creating subjective feelings. Taizé places a greater emphasis on meditation and the experiences derived from the monastic life than they do upon Scripture. They also embrace a religious pluralism that discards notions of eternal judgment. Within the wider Emerging Church there is a growing exploration of a similar kind of monasticism, known as new-monasticism. Communities such as "Moot"

Comparisons to other movements
Many Evangelical leaders have criticized elements of the emerging church movement[2]. In spite of the movement's diversity there are several common emergent characteristics about which many Evangelicals have expressed concern:

Criticisms
Some Evangelicals such as D. A. Carson have characterized the emerging church movement as primarily a movement of protest in which participants are reacting against their more conservative heritage. These same Evangelicals generally claim that emergent books and blogs are more preoccupied with this protest than they are with any genuinely constructive agenda. Critics thus maintain that emergents frequently fail to live up to their own rhetoric regarding missional living.

Non-constructive focus on protest
Evangelical Christians generally do not find emergent blogs to be a "safe place" for them to visit. Critics claim emergent bloggers spend much of their time ridiculing Evangelical Christians and that Evangelical efforts to engage in the dialog on these blogs brings out hostility toward them from the emergents.

Intolerance toward Evangelicals
Many Evangelical scholars criticize the movement for maintaining that certainty in faith is not achievable and for rejecting the view of historical orthodoxy regarding the perspicuity of Scripture. Brian McLaren admits to not knowing why Jesus died on the cross, and he maintains that even Jesus did not know the reason for this sacrifice. . Evangelicals complain that when these factors are combined with the postmodern tendency to deconstruct traditional terms and biblical texts, the result is the emerging church movement's toleration of doctrinal and moral positions that most Evangelicals consider non-negotiable.

Denial of certitude of faith
Critics of the movement often assert that emergents frequently indulge in logical fallacies, especially the false antithesis or false dilemma and they respond that Evangelicalism has never embraced modernism in its entirety in spite of its acceptance of the correspondence theory of truth and semantic externalism. They maintain that only classical, liberal theologians have completely accommodated modernism and many of these same scholars fear that the emerging church movement's accommodation to postmodernism has the same practical effects as liberal accommodation to modernism. Evangelicals also reject emergent accusations that Evangelicals are belligerent toward non-Christians, and they are puzzled by emergent rhetoric that caricatures Evangelicals as unconcerned and uninvolved in benevolence and sincere Christian living.

Use of false dilemma and straw man fallacies
While many Evangelicals have been open to some of the criticisms that the emerging church movement has offered, most seem to have rejected the emerging church movement's views of several key theological themes within their soteriology and eschatology as well as the openness of some in the emerging church movement to alternative lifestyles. Many of these critics seem especially concerned about unorthodox views in the emerging church movement on doctrines such as blood atonement, salvation by faith, hell, and the sovereignty of God.

Unorthodox theology
Conservative Evangelicals have also contested the emergent view of evangelism. They believe the emergent view of God's kingdom is too narrowly limited to improving social conditions while ignoring eternal matters causes Evangelicals to believe this is a timeless practice which is needed for hearers to understand the gospel and believe it.

Propositionless "evangelism"
Some Evangelicals also express concern that the postmodern spirituality embraced by many emergents is more syncretistic than scriptural. These Christians have questioned a variety of mystical techniques found in the emerging church movement such as contemplative prayer (although this term is used with various meanings) and labyrinths; and they express concern regarding the premodern (as exhibited in the medieval mystics) and Eastern approach to "spirituality" found in the movement.

Syncretistic spirituality
Several critiques of this movement have been written recently by leading Evangelical scholars such as D. A. Carson and Millard Erickson. In September of 2006 an open conversation was held in Perth between D. A. Carson and two Australian emerging church leaders, Andrew Hamilton and Geoff Westlake.

Criticisms persist despite diversity in the movement

Further reading

Gibbs, Eddie and Bolger, Ryan Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Communities in Postmodern Cultures SPCK Publishing, 2006.
Viola, Frank. God's Ultimate Passion: Unveiling the Purpose Behind Everything, Present Testimony Ministry, 2006.
Brewin, Kester The Complex Christ: Signs of Emergence in the Urban Church SPCK Publishing, 2004.
Rollins, Peter. How (Not) to Speak of God SPCK Publishing, 2006
Mobsby, Ian. Emerging & Fresh Expressions of Church Moot Community Publishing, 2007
Frost, M and Hirsch, A The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church Hendrickson Publishers Inc.,U.S. 2003
Newbigin, Lesslie. The Gospel in a Pluralist Society Ethics & Public Policy Center, 1990
Bosch, David J Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission Orbis Books (USA) 1992
Chalke, Steve. The Lost Message of Jesus. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003.
Grenz, Stanley J. and John R. Franke, Beyond Foundationalism: Shaping Theology in a Postmodern Context. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001.
Jones, Tony. Postmodern Youth Ministry. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004.
Kimball, Dan. The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations. Grand Rapids: Zondervan 2003.
McLaren, Brian D. A Generous Orthodoxy. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing, 2004.
McLaren, Brian D. The Secret Message of Jesus: Uncovering the Truth that Could Change Everything. Nashville: Thomas Nelson's W Publishing Group, 2006.
Sweet, Leonard. Soul Tsunami. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999.
__________; editor: The Church in Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives published by Zondervan, 2003.
_________; e-book Quantum Spirituality link
Cole, Neil; Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens Jossey Bass Wiley, 2005
Murray, Stuart Post-Christendom: Church and Mission in a Strange New World Authentic Media, 2004
Taylor, Steve The Out of Bounds Church?: Learning to Create a Community of Faith in a Culture of Change Zondervan Publishing House 2005
Morisy, Ann Journeying Out Harrisburg: Morehouse, 2004
Frost, Michael. Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture Hendrickson Publishers Inc., U.S. 2006
Bell, Rob. Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith Zondervan Publishing House, 2005
Vincent, Richard Integral Christianity Bimillenial Press, 2007 link
Hirsch, Alan The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church Brazos US, Strand Aus 2006 Favorable books

Five Streams of the Emerging Church by Scot McKnight
Please Don't Stereotype The Emerging Church by Dan Kimball
My prosaic jesus, Or Brown like Shit by David Sherwood
Will the Emerging Church Fully Emerge? by Frank Viola
"The Next Questians" by Bill Dahl
Earl Creps Emerging Culture / Emerging Church Resources
The Emerging Church, Part One July 8, 2005, PBS Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly. Retrieved July 29 2005.
The Emerging Church, Part Two July 15, 2005, PBS Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly. Retrieved July 29 2005.
The Emergent Mystique - Christianity Today feature by Andy Crouch
Kingdom Leadership in the Postmodern Era by Leonard Hjalmarson
Brian McLaren on the Homosexual Question: Finding a Pastoral Response by Brian McLaren
"Maybe it's Time to Stop Bullshitting God" by Christine Goertzen
"Faith Based Math" by John O'Keefe
What is the Emerging Church? (Fall Contemporary Issues Conference, Westminster Theological Seminary) by Scot McKnight
Emerging Church for an Emerging Culture by Ian Mobsby
Is there a distinctive approach to theologising in the Emerging Church by Ian Mobsby
Emerging Faith:construction, deconstruction & reconstruction in emergingchurch.info portal Critical books

The Emerging Church Part 1 by Gary Gilley
The Emerging Church Part 2 by Gary Gilley
The Emerging Church Part 3 by Gary Gilley
The Emerging Church by D. A. Carson
The Dangers and Delights of Postmodernism by D. A. Carson
Pilgrims, Settlers & Wanderers by Michael Horton
"Truth, Contemporary Philosophy and the Postmodern Turn", JETS, March, 2005, 48:1. by J. P. Moreland
"A Generous Orthodoxy" -- Is it Orthodox? by Albert Mohler
What Should We Think of the Emerging Church? Part One - Christian Post column by Albert Mohler
What Should We Think of the Emerging Church? Part Two - Christian Post column by Albert Mohler
"Eros Spirituality vs. Agape Faith" by David Wells
The Dangers of the Emerging Church by Take Back Canada
Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, and the 'Emergent Church' movementby Dennis McCallum
Absolutely Not! Exposing the postmodern errors of the emerging church by Phil Johnson, from the 2006 Shepherds' Conference at Grace Community Church
Postmodernism and the Emerging Church Movement by David Kowalski
Surrender is not an Option: An Evaluation of Emergent Epistemology by David Kowalski
Articles by various authors posted on monergism.com
Some Observations on A New Kind of Christian by Thomas Howe
Some Observations on A Generous Orthodoxy by Thomas Howe
Emerging Confusion by Charles Colson
Experiencing Emergent by Shane Rosenthal
A Review of The Secret Message of Jesus by Gary Gilley
Leadership Network Launched the Emerging Church by editors at Lighthouse Trails. (Also see [3])
Brian McLaren and the Emerging Church by Ken Silva
Brian McLaren and Evangelical Panentheism by Ken Silva
Series of Audio Messages in The Masters Seminary Journal by various professors at the seminary.
"Joy in the Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World" by John Piper.
"Seeking the Face of God" by David Wilkerson