In Baptists and the Emerging Church Movement, David Rathel examines the major ecclesiological proposals of the emerging church movement. Though many theologians argue that the emerging church movement emphasizes epistemology, Rathel contends that its primary concern is ecclesiology. Emerging church leaders offer a number of important ecclesiological proposals, including restructuring traditional church leadership models to accommodate the rise of postmodernity, changing the mission of the church so that the church may strike a more "missional" tone in contemporary culture, removing the categories of "in" or "out" within the church body, and adopting the multi-site church model. In assessing these proposals, Rathel draws upon historic Baptist convictions about the nature of the church, using Baptists' ecclesiological distinctives and long history of ecclesiological thought as a helpful reference point. This book will not only serve as a guide for those who wish to learn of emerging church ecclesiology, it will also be an aid to Baptists who wish to evaluate recent trends in ecclesiology in light of their denominational distinctives.

David Mark Rathel received the Master of Divinity and Master of Theology degrees from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. After completing some doctoral work at Southeastern Seminary, he transitioned to St. Mary's Divinity School at the University of St Andrews in order to complete a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Steve Holmes. He presently live in St Andrews with his wife, and is currently writing his PhD thesis. David served as a Baptist minister in the United States for a total of nine years before moving to Scotland. Since arriving Scotland, he has served various churches by providing pulpit supply and short-term pastoral care.