Reflections on The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill

When I was in college in the mid-2000s, I devoured books by pastors and writers who were labeled "Emergent." Coming out of my Southern Baptist upbringing, I was drawn to expressions of Christianity that seemed to engage culture not as an enemy, but as an opportunity for greater contextualization of the gospel. It seemed that much of the kinetic energy behind this Emergent movement was coming out of the Pacific Northwest. Donald Miller, who lived in Portland, Ore., wrote his book Blue Like Jazz. I was so captured by his frank and honest reflections on faith that I jumped at the opportunity after my freshman year of college to do an internship in Portland with a fledgling ministry organization.