This is Part 1 of “A Brief History of Presbymergent.” You can find Part 2 here and Part 3 here.

Earlier this week Mike Clawson posted a 50-page final paper he wrote for his studies at Austin Theological Seminary entitled “Loyal Radicals: The Intersection of Mainline Denominations and Emerging Christianity” (you can download a PDF of it here). I knew about this because Mike had interviewed many of us closely connected to Presbymergent and done a lot of online research as well. This is probably the first research paper on Presbymergent, and I found it to be a very interesting experience to read an academic paper written about a community that I helped to co-found. If you have some time, I’d highly encourage you to read Mike’s paper because it provides a very interesting look at Presbymergent’s history and possible future viability (but would also be of interest to those who are part of other hyphenated groups like Baptimergents, Anglimergents, Methomergents, etc.).

Reading through it, however, made me realize that I don’t write much anymore about Presbymergent here on Pomomusings – and I thought I’d offer “A Brief History of Presbymergent” for those who are interested in such things.

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