Twice a year the emersion publishing committee meets to discuss the details of the emersion book line. This past meeting consisted of three Emergent Village representatives (Doug Pagitt, Carla Barnhill, and Tim Condor) and three from the Baker Books team (Chad Allen, BJ Heyboer, and Lauren Forsythe). We met in Durham, NC for three days in early March to discuss emersion. Here are some more thoughts from this collaboration:
Tim Conder: founding pastor of Emmaus Way in Durham, NC. He also serves as a leader in Emergent Village, a member of the Board of Directors of Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle, WA, and is the author of The Church in Transition: The Journey of Existing Churches into the Emerging Culture
It was truly fantastic to host the past emersion board here Durham, NC at Emmaus Way’s loft just off of Duke’s East Campus. The board arrived early and was able to worship with our community, Emmaus Way Doug Pagitt and I lead a dialogue on gospel, missionality, and status quo structures). We also were able spend some time with the Raleigh-Durham Emergent Village Cohort at a pub down the street. Thankfully (at least from the perspective of this Minneapolis-and Grand Rapids-laden board), I stopped short of force-feeding them Carolina BBQ and demanding a choice in our Duke-Carolina basketball rivalry. The two days of work in this new line were extremely fruitful. I received my first copy of An Emergent Manifesto of Hope, our first book in the line. This treatise is consistently excellent—in its content, diversity, trajectory of hope, and in the aesthetics of cover and presentation. I’ve heard the criticism for years that Emergent or Emergent Village desperately needs to offer bold words on its mission, intentions, and hopes. This book truly accomplishes this goal without succumbing to the temptation to diminish our diversity into labels, generalized doctrinal assertions, or homogeneous voices. Doug and Tony have done a fantastic job editing this work. Participating in this book was an honor and a privilege. Of all our work, I most enjoyed a long session where we envisioned future works. Envisioning arenas of conversation and matching them to voices (especially new authors) that can inspire us to join with thought, passion, and dialogue in this arenas is a privilege. As our “publishing board” of anticipated books begins to fill up for the next three years, I have the highest expectations of this line’s impact.
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BJ Heyboer: Baker Books Senior Director of Marketing
As a marketing director for Baker Books, I enjoy engaging in conversation with both writers and their readers. One cool thing about our recent emersion meeting in Durham was that—as we began to look at what authors and topics we should pursue next in our line of books—we first went to the emersion blog and checked the opinion poll to find out what people were asking for. We took time to brainstorm and consider the different suggestions, and we incorporated them into our future plans. It’s energizing to offer readers what they have specifically requested, and to continue the emerging conversation.
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