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Name: Casey
Country: United States
Metro: New Orleans
Birthday: 9/17/1978
Gender: Male
Interests: I enjoy loving, being loved by, serving, and honoring my wife. I also enjoy loving, being loved by, serving, and honoring my God
Expertise: picking a wife
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Member Since:
10/25/2004
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So I finished up the book today while my students were finishing up a quiz. The negative tone faded towards the end of the book as the authors began to point out some areas of traditional church that the Emergent crowd rightly points out need to be addressed. One point was that Christians need to demonstrate love to others more than they do. A church body that is introverted and argues over secondary issues bears no more fruit than an emergent church who may be too liberal in their theology for some tastes. Both may bear fruit, but perhaps not fruit that remains. Perhaps they plant seed that will spring up and be scorched and wither in the sun, or weeds will choke it out, or it will fall on rocky soil and not take root.
Many, perhaps most, of the complaints the Emergent church lodges in the direction of north american christianity are warranted, the pendulum seems to have swung too far in the opposite direction, which is equally dangerous and unbiblical. The authors used the illustration of the letters to the 7 churches of revelation to depict that churches have a variety of problems and strengths. In the end, it is as silly for non emergent thinkers to cast aside all contributions of the emergent church despite differences we have as it is for Emergents to dismiss core traditions and theologies of the orthodox faith because of shortcomings of the North American Church.
All in all, I would recommend this book to those who are leery of the emergent movement but cannot articulate why. With that said, that is also a reason why you and I should read some literature from Emergent leaders to have a balanced perspective. I am going to begin with Shane Claiborne and "The Irresistible Revolution."
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| I thoroughly enjoy google news and google reader and google calender through my gmail account.
Here are some more aspects of gmail that I just learned about.
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| I have long heard of stumbleupon, so tonight, I finally stumbled on stumbleupon
Just in case you don't already waste an exorbitant amount of time online, this might help you along that path.
Thank God for spell check, because I spelled exorbitant wrong, but because of spell check you will never know.
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Chapter Ten speaks to the issue of community. Again, the negative that has crept into the second half of this book is once again present, making me wonder if the authors are being "objective" about critiquing the Emergent Church's ability to be "objective."
Two decent points were made worth noting. One, the means by which the Emergent Church shape their theology, doctrine, and practical living is disturbing. Orthodox evangelicals are infuriated that Emergents seem to chape their worldview by Scripture + 1. But it seems worse than that. It seems experience and philosophy drive most of it and the Biblical Scripture is an add on when it is convenient. The authors also rightly point out that the type of moralism that seems to be personified by the Emergent Church is a new type of legalism in many ways. Obviously they do not feel this movement resembles a new reformation in any way, and even if it is, it is not a sustainable one.
Second, I will quote Scot McKnight who is one of a few prominent theologians who identify themselves with the Emergent Church. He critiques his own movement by saying, "The Emerging ambivalence about who is in and who is out creates a serious problem for evangelism. The Emerging Movement is not known for it, but I wish it were. Unless you proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ, there is no Good News at all. And if there is no Good News, then there is no Christianity, Emerging or Evangelical."
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