Why would professing christians want to help any other religion, i.e. any religion that fails to see Christ as the one and only sufficient savior, become better at reaching others?

"Why would professing christians want to help any other religion, i.e. any religion that fails to see Christ as the one and only sufficient savior, become better at reaching others?"

You can't reach others unless you're willing to address their needs as human beings. Granted, there is a fine line to cross, but considering that Jesus helped the Romans, despite them being polytheists, indicates to me, at the least, that there is nothing wrong to reaching out across the aisle to lend a hand.
Besides, for many Jews, coming into close proximity to...heh..."Jesus freaks" is tantamount to handling pork, so perhaps some bridges will be built.
Care, though, must be observed. Orthodox Jew's will bolt for the doors at the first sign of evangelicism...you can almost see he walls build right before your very eyes, I know this from first hand experience.
You have to earn the right to talk "religion" with them, and this is one way...takes time, but worth it.

The Emergent movement is definitely on the something. Not only is it growing among Christians, but now it is developing in Judaism. I think it is still too early to tell what will result from these conversations and partnerships, but it is certainly interesting to watch.

1. Yes.
Yes.
Adopt the emergent mindset.
2. That epistemology is as important as theology.
No, or else they would drop the Christian label all together.
3. Fundamental difference between the Jewish institution and the Christian institution.
Yes, but the institutional churches don't seem to really want that relationship.

3. My guess is that there are seeds of discontent with many involved in Emergent among those who come from conservative (or reformed) backgrounds with strong emphasis on orthodoxy and right belief. These environments can in some senses stifle the iconoclastic questioner's spirit that runs through Emergent (in my vision of it, anyway) and perhaps alienate those within. My guess is that there are far fewer leaving from "Mainline" backgrounds simply because these traditions have always been fairly open to questioning (at least as far as I can see it in my naive view). I think McLaren implored readers in the opening of Generous Orthodoxy to forgive him for the strength of his criticism toward conservative (even fundamentalist) movements and his much more easygoing attitude towards those of other traditions that he was not raised in, sort of like how we can so easily fight with our families but get on perfectly well with our friends for the most part. Anyway, I never really had the sense that we were supposed to leave the churches we were raised in, but some find it difficult to have a good fit with the more conservative traditions (and I suspect on my part there goes along with this more than a little bitterness and uncharitable reaction) and will buck these for a time in order to explore the greater Christendom (or as some will say leave church to save faith).

Without a temple, Judaism has always been a "portable" religion - first, the tabernacle; next, in exile; and since 70 AD, in a very decentralized manner, in synagogues and homes - and in far more desperate, oppressive places, like concentration camps. The Jewish emergent movement is growing out of this long, rich tradition of adaptation in order to survive in exile.

You'd asked if Jewish emergents can operate within the institution, why can't Christian emergents? There is no singular, monolithic institution in Judaism. Though some would argue that the fragmented, denominationlized Protestant world is anything but monolithic, there is a completely different institutional personality, as well as an organic calling and destiny, to the church.

"Why would professing christians want to help any other religion, i.e. any religion that fails to see Christ as the one and only sufficient savior, become better at reaching others?"

BINGO, Chris. Well said. That'd be like Pepsi advising the Coke people on how to sell more product.

Maybe our emerging leaders were advising them on how to remove that veil that blinds them so they can see Jesus as their Messiah.

I doubt it.

The video indicates they were "celebrating" their differences.

I'm glad that wasn't Paul's approach. In the book of Acts, his preaching caused the Jews to stone him and leave him for dead. So much for building that bridge of conciliation.

Our publishing and discussion around Jewish Emergent goes back at least to 2006, and much of it is online.

See, for example, Shawn Landres, “The Emerging Spiritual Paradigm” (Sh’ma, June 2006); J. Shawn Landres & Ryan K. Bolger, “Emerging Patterns of Interreligious Conversations: A Christian-Jewish Experiment” (The Annals of the AAPSS, July 2007); Landres, “Breaking the Code of Ritual Observance” (The Forward, December 2007); Landres, “Recentering the Kehilah: Gender and Sexual Identity in Jewish Emergent Communities” (Sh’ma, January 2008); and Joshua Avedon & Shawn Landres, “The Urge to Emerge: New Communities Blossom” (PresenTense, Issue 4 2008).

Also check out Synablog's emergent-related posts as well as the collection of posts around the S3K/Mechon Hadar study of Jewish emergent communities.

I was in a class taught by Ryan Bolger a couple of years back. He mentioned this event and went on to say that there is also an emergent movement among American Muslims as well.

First off, I don't see how these Jewish emergents are operating any more or less independently than emergent Christians. These Jews seek to "move worship beyond the synagogue. So, they are meeting in homes, bars, and coffee houses, among other places."

Secondly, I think calling the Christian Emergent movement an "anti-institutional rebellion" is too uncharitable. Many emergent leaders make great pains to dialog with the larger American church, to partner with them. This is not always true, unfortunately, but it is unfair to listen only to the most shrill voices. I don't think emergents as a whole partner more with other religious groups than they do with Christian churches. Certainly, I view the Acts 29 network as part of the emerging church, and they are explicitly "Reformed" in their theology.

Finally, I think trying to characterize the Emergent movement theologically is problematic, because emergent churches have more in common in their ecclesiology (how they DO church) than in their theology. That sounds a lot like what these Jewish Emergents are doing as well.

Question/Comment #2 (that emergents are more concerned with the "emergent label" than with Christianity) seems a bit unfair. In my experience, people associated with emergent village are eager to converse and meet with anyone, especially other Christians. More often it seems to be other Christians who are wary of associating with or conversing with emergents.

I also don't think too much should be read into this meeting. Christians and Jews have been meeting together, discussing similarities and differences, and learning from each other for years. The "Coke and Pepsi" comment (Kip Keith) is not appropriate - a better comparison would be one hospital meeting with another hospital talking about how they can better work together to help people heal and recover.

". . . a better comparison would be one hospital meeting with another hospital talking about how they can better work together to help people heal and recover."

Beautiful sentiment, Jesse A. - touching, actually - except that only one hospital is capable of providing what people really need. Jesus said that no one comes to the Father but through Him, and the Jewish faith doesn't accept that.

This truth caused Paul much angst - to the point that he would wish himself accursed from Christ for their sake, if that were possible.

But it doesn't cause us angst. We want to "dialogue" with them, and "celebrate our differences."

The Jewish people are a wonderful people who deserve to be told the truth - even if they choose to reject it.

1. Well, it would seem that there is an overly naive impression that this is a serious movement within Judaism, it isn’t. If you want to take note of something, check out the neo-Orthodox movement, or the JewSchool phenomena. To be honest Judaism was emerging in the 60s... It’s ability to survive is more-rooted in its sense of Orthodoxy not its ability to adapt. Sorry to burst the bubble.
2. This is nothing new for reformed Judaism, or other very liberal branches of the Jewish faith, I honestly wouldn’t get too excited.
3. Again, there is a very naive assumption here. Jewish Emergents are about as kosher as a ham-sandwich. It isn’t fair to comment on a culture and faith that you are only viewing through biased lenses of your own movement.