Emergent Churches…. not emerging anymore?

How long have we been hearing the term emergent/emerging? I am a younger student, so I have not really been following the line of thought from the get-go, but I’ve been hearing it for about two years. I would guess the movement could trace its beginnings to about ten years ago in the late 90s. There have always been those who disagree, of course, but from my point of view emerging churches seemed pretty popular, Brian McLaren and his cohorts especially. Now all of a sudden I keep hearing really negative things about it. Now the “cool” thing to do is to not be emergent. I’m so confused! Has our postmodern society become so distractable that the most any movement can last is ten years? Or was it the emergent/emerging church itself that was the problem, that its particular characteristics are what marked its imminent demise?

Here’s a few links. Hopefully I’ll follow up with more precise comments.

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2008/09/rip_emerging_ch.html

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/september/39.62.html?start=1