Links to Every Section of This Study

The following works like a table of contents to this blog. You can always start from here and work your way through the entire presentation. Welcome!

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Welcome!

10 Apr 2006

On Monday, April 10, 2006, I delivered a paper detailing my research into "The Emergent Church" for a local Pastor's Fellowship. The meeting was attended by many different folks, some involved in the emergent movement and others just ...

Introduction

10 Apr 2006

“Have you heard of this ‘emergent church?’” “Do you have any idea what it is all about?” “What is a ‘missional?’” “What about this McLaren fellow, have you read his books?” These kinds of questions have been asked of me (and perhaps of ...

Defining the Indefinable?

10 Apr 2006

What is Emergent? Nailing Jell-o to a wall. Stapling wet noodles to the ceiling. You will have about as much success attempting these things as you will at defining Emergent.[1] To begin with, you have to decide what to classify it as; ...

Persons, Churches and Organizations Strongly Associated with ...

12 Apr 2006

Since EC is a movement among many individuals that crosses virtually every denominational boundary, it would perhaps be helpful to identify some of the more prominent individuals. Most folks by now have heard of Brian McLaren. ...

Where Emergent is Good

13 Apr 2006

Diagnosis of One Particular Form of Evangelicalism One of the skills of an excellent physician is the ability to quickly and accurately diagnose the illness. EC certainly has some good diagnostic skill.

Where Emergent Goes Bad (1) - Over-generalization

14 Apr 2006

The Steady EC Diet – Over-generalization and Guilt-by-Association Brian McLaren paints with extremely wide brushes. He categorizes people and movements with the accuracy of one of those extra-wide rollers you can buy at Home Depot! ...

Where Emergent Goes Bad (2) - What Defines a "Christian?"

16 Apr 2006

... and repenting of them is overly simplistic and I propose accomplishes no actual good. Holding them up as proof that we Christians continually get things wrong and need to be always re-inventing, or emerging is plainly misleading. ...

Where Emergent Goes Bad (3) - Historical Revisionism

19 Apr 2006

Historical Inaccuracy – Purposeful Revision? This leads us to another habit which is commonplace in EC. My own opinion is that the majority of EC authors are given to purposeful revision of historical matters to suit their own ends. ...

Where Emergent Goes Bad (4) - Some (like McLaren) Open the Door to ...

20 Apr 2006

I am not aware if McLaren has actually denied being a Universalist. He certainly never comes out and states that he does believe every person will eventually go to heaven, but I will offer a few extended quotes to demonstrate why so ...

Where Emergent Goes Bad (5) - Confusion Over Homosexuality and Post ...

22 Apr 2006

The first part of the issue is summarized in this posting by Driscoll on the Leadership Journal’s “Out of Ur” blog: Well, it seems that Brian McLaren and the Emergent crowd are emerging into homo-evangelicals. ...

Where Emergent Goes Bad (6) - Should Belonging Precede Believing?

24 Apr 2006

Some have argued that EC is fundamentally an off-shoot of the seeker-sensitive movement so popular in the last decade.[1] This is no where more clear than in the EC desire to allow people “in” before they “believe. ...

Where Emergent Goes Bad (7) - Turtling

25 Apr 2006

Warning: for non-Canadians this illustration may not make sense. In the code of honour in hockey, it is the duty of Player B to stand up and fight when challenged by Player A. Player B may not be a fighter, and may even be injured in a ...

Where Emergent Goes Bad (8) - Too Many Words

29 Apr 2006

Some of these words aren’t even real words (“missional,” “emergent,” and “liminal” all come to mind), just made up phrases and verbal adjectives that make the outsider wonder if EC isn’t just really a collection of angry artists and ...

Where Emergent Goes Bad (9) - "Me" the Final Authority

1 May 2006

Finally, I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that for McLaren and many other EC folks, the final source of authority for their opinions are... themselves. McLaren’s Generous Orthodoxy is proof in the pudding. ...

Why Such Momentum and Where is it Leading?

2 May 2006

Before I attempt an evaluation of EC, one question begs to be answered: Why is EC so popular? All these blogs and websites give the impression that EC is taking over the world. Okay, that is alarmist, but it is clear that the movement ...

The First Step Toward a Solution

3 May 2006

This paper is already very long and I am fearful that rushing to a solution will not do justice to a topic that needs much more consideration. Just coming to an understanding of what EC is and where it is going is difficult enough ...

Appendix One: Does Emergent/US Embrace Practicing Jews as Fellow ...

6 May 2006

Emergent-US leaders Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones were full participants in a Jewish Emergent Dialogue called Synagogue 3000. From the website: S3K – Synagogue 3000 is a catalyst for excellence, empowering congregations and communities to ...

Appendix Two: Was Jesus Purposefully Confusing In Order to Lure ...

11 May 2006

Much of McLaren’s “Secret Message” is based upon the idea that Jesus told obscure parables in order to lure people into following Him. From this premise, he goes on to suggest that we ought to do the exact same thing. ...

Appendix Three: Names, Groups and Events Associated with Emergent

13 May 2006

He is the coauthor (with Eddie Gibbs) of Emerging Churches: Creating Christian ... He is also the president of Emerging Leadership Initiative (ELI), a non-profit ... Tony Jones is the national coordinator of Emergent US, a growing, ...

Closing Thoughts: Timeless Words on Emergent from CH Spurgeon

19 May 2006

Excerpts from “The Need of Decision for the Truth” A College Address, by CH Spurgeon From the March 1874 Sword and Trowel Magazine We have a faith to preach, my brethren, and we are sent forth with a message from God. ...

Closing Thoughts: Timeless Words on Emergent from C.H. Spurgeon

Excerpts from “The Need of Decision for the Truth”

A College Address, by C. H. Spurgeon

From the March 1874 Sword and Trowel Magazine

We have a faith to preach, my brethren, and we are sent forth with a message from God. We are not left to fabricate the message as we go along. We are not sent forth by our Master with this kind of general commission—" As you shall think in your heart and invent in your head as you march on, so preach. Keep abreast of the times. Whatever the people want to hear, tell them that, and they shall be saved." Verily, we read not so. There is something definite in the Bible.

We ought to preach the gospel, not as our views at all, but as the mind of God—the testimony of Jehovah concerning his own Son, and in reference to salvation for lost men. If we had been entrusted with the making of the gospel, we might have altered it to suit the taste of this modest century, but never having been employed to originate the good news, but merely to repeat it, we dare not stir beyond the record. What we have been taught of God we teach. If we do not do this, we are not fit for our position.

Brother, if the truth be in thee it will flow out of thine entire being as the perfume streams from every bough of the sandal-wood tree; it will drive thee onward as the trade-wind speeds the ships, filling all their sails; it will consume thy whole nature with its energy as the forest fire burns up all the trees of the wood. Truth has not fully given thee her friendship till all thy doings are marked with her seal.

Above all we must show our zeal for the truth by continually, in season and out of season, endeavoring to maintain it in the tenderest and most loving manner, but still very earnestly and firmly. We must not talk to our congregations as if we were half asleep. Our preaching must not be articulate snoring. There must be power, life, energy, vigor. We must throw our whole selves into it, and show that the zeal of God's house has eaten us up.

Mere skimmers of the word, who, like swallows, touch the water with their wings, are the first to fly from one land to another as personal considerations guide them. They believe this, and then believe that, for, in truth, they believe nothing intensely.

And now, lastly, why should we at this particular age be decided and bold? We should be so because this age is a doubting age. It swarms with doubters as Egypt of old with frogs. You rub against them everywhere. Everybody is doubting everything, not merely in religion but in politics and in social economics, in everything indeed. It is the era of progress, and I suppose it must be the age, therefore, of unloosening, in order that the whole body politic may move on a little further. Well, brethren, as the age is doubting, it is wise for us to put our foot down and stand still where we are sure we have truth beneath us.

The truth is that a few, a very few, thoughtful men, whose thinking consists in negation from first to last, and whose minds are tortured with a chronic twist or curve, which turns them into intellectual notes of interrogation, have laid the basis of this system; these few honest doubters have been joined by a larger band who are simply restless; and these again by men who are inimical to the spirit and the truths of Scripture, and together they have formed a coterie, and called themselves the leaders of the thought of the age. They have a following, it is true; but of whom does it consist?

People who never heard of Strauss, of Bauer, or of Tubingen, are quite prepared to say that our Savior was but a well-meaning man, who had a great many faults, and made a great many mistakes; that his miracles, as recorded in the New Testament, were in part imaginary, and in part accountable by natural theories; that the raising of Lazarus never occurred, since the Gospel of John is a forgery from first to last; that the atonement is a doctrine to be scouted as bloody and unrighteous; that Paul was a fanatic who wrote unthinkingly, and that much of what bears his name was never written by him at all. Thus is the Bible rubbed through the tribulum of criticism from Genesis to Revelation, until, in the faith of the age in which we live, as represented by its so-called leaders, there are but a few inspired fragments here and there remaining."

When a prophet comes forward he must speak as from the Lord, and if he cannot do that, let him go back to his bed. It is quite certain, dear friends, that now or never we must be decided, because the age is manifestly drifting. You cannot watch for twelve months without seeing how it is going down the tide; the anchors are pulled up, and the vessel is floating to destruction. It is drifting now, as near as I can tell you, south-east, and is nearing Cape Vatican, and if it drives much further in that direction it will be on the rocks of the Roman reef. We must get aboard her, and connect her with the glorious steam-tug of gospel truth, and drag her back. I should be glad if I could take her round by Cape Calvin, right up into the Bay of Calvary, and anchor her in the fair haven which is close over by the cross. God grant us grace to do it. We must have a strong hand, and have our steam well up, and defy the current; and so by God's grace we shall both save this age and the generations yet to come.

Appendix Three: Names, Groups and Events Associated with Emergent

Names Closely Associated with EC

Ryan Bolger is assistant professor of church in contemporary culture in the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary. He is the coauthor (with Eddie Gibbs) of Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Communities in Postmodern Cultures.

John Burke is pastor of Gateway Community Church in Austin, Texas. He is also the president of Emerging Leadership Initiative (ELI), a non-profit organization founded to help establish a multiplying network of missiological churches that envision, equip, and empower young emerging leaders to plant innovative churches. John is the author of No Perfect People Allowed.

Tony Jones is the national coordinator of Emergent U.S., a growing, generative network of missional Christian leaders. Tony is also a doctoral fellow and senior research fellow at Princeton Theological Seminary and the author of five books, including Postmodern Youth Ministry and The Sacred Way.

Dan Kimball is the pastor of Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, California. He is the author of The Emerging Church and Emerging Worship. His forthcoming book is titled They Like Jesus but Not the Church.

Scot McKnight is the Karl A. Olsson professor in religious studies at North Park University. He has lectured at various universities and is the author or editor of more than ten books, including his book on spiritual formation, The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others.

Doug Pagitt is pastor of Solomon's Porch, a holistic, missional, Christian community in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is also a part of the leadership of Emergent and is the author of Preaching Re-Imagined and Church Re-Imagined.

LeRon Shults is a professor of theology at Bethel Theological Seminary and is an author of several books, textbooks, and articles. His most recent book is Reforming the Doctrine of God.

Chris Seay is a leader in the emerging church discussion and highly regarded for his innovative thinking. He was the founding pastor of University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, one of the earliest examples of generational church planting. He pastors Ecclesia of Houston, Texas, and is the author of The Gospel According to Tony Soprano, Faith of My Fathers, and The Gospel Reloaded.

Shane Claiborne is one of the founding members of The Simple Way, a radical faith community that lives among and serves the homeless in North Philadelphia. Serving on the board of directors for the Christian Community Development Association, Shane also writes and travels extensively, speaking about peacemaking, social justice, and Jesus. He is the author of The Irresistible Revolution.

Tony Campolo is professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. The author of thirty-two books, his most recent titles are Speaking My Mind, Which Jesus, The Church Enslaved (coauthored by Michael Battle), and The Survival Guide for Christians on Campus (coauthored by Will Willimon).

Donald Miller is the author of Blue Like Jazz as well as many other books. He is a frequent speaker at colleges and conferences across the country, addressing the relevancy of Christian spirituality to explain and heal the dynamics of the human heart.

Most of the above list is from a promotional piece for a workshop entitled The Emerging Church: Theology and Practice, Multiple Perspectives on the Issues held at the National Pastor’s Conference in February, 2006. http://www.nationalpastorsconvention.com/content.aspx?sp=home

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From http://www.amahoro.info/links/

Jason Clark (England)

Matthew Glock (France)

Sivin Kit (Malaysia)

Claude Nikondeha (Africa)

Tomas Yaccino (Latin America)

Don Crawford (Canada)

Resonate (Canada)

Gary Dickenson (Latvia)

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Rob Bell - Mars Hill's teaching pastor, Rob Bell, hair tousled and reddish brown, hops on stage in the center of what must have been the mall's anchor store. The huge space has been redecorated in utilitarian gray; a wooden cross reaches from floor to ceiling. Communion elements—the broken crackers and grape juice that are standard issue at Bible churches of every generation—are set at its base.

Bell is almost certainly the only pastor to have begun a megachurch-planting career with a sermon series from the book of Leviticus. Today Bell's text—the story of Jesus rebuking Peter for drawing his sword in the Garden of Gethsemane—is more conventional. Bell has the comic timing, the charisma, and the confidence you'd expect from someone who speaks to thousands every week. And he has a gift for the preacher's memorable phrase. "Swords appear strong," Bell says, "but they're actually quite weak. Jesus appears weak, but he's actually quite strong." Inviting his congregation to embrace weakness, referring to Paul's words about his own infirmity in 2 Corinthians, Bell takes up a refrain: "Weak is the new strong."

It's a pithy way of describing Jesus' upside-down kingdom, and it's a striking way of introducing a Communion service at the foot of a large cross. But "Weak is the new strong" is also an allusion to fashion-industry dictates like "Gray is the new black." Bell is both echoing and subverting a fashion-driven culture of cool. You could say that he puts the hip in discipleship.

Clearly cultural relevance was part of the reason for planting a church whose worship team requires a bass player who can play "in the style of Jimmy Eat World and Coldplay." No generation has ever been more alert to such nuances than the media-fed children of the 1980s and '90s, who can sense uncoolness at a thousand paces. As Rob Bell's wife, Kristen, tells CT in a joint interview after the service, "It's a cultural jump for our friends to come to church. It's a cultural jump for us, and we grew up in the church."

But it quickly becomes clear that these Wheaton College sweethearts have more on their minds than just cultural adaptation. "This is not just the same old message with new methods," Rob says. "We're rediscovering Christianity as an Eastern religion, as a way of life. Legal metaphors for faith don't deliver a way of life. We grew up in churches where people knew the nine verses why we don't speak in tongues, but had never experienced the overwhelming presence of God."

In fact, as the Bells describe it, after launching Mars Hill in 1999, they found themselves increasingly uncomfortable with church. "Life in the church had become so small," Kristen says. "It had worked for me for a long time. Then it stopped working." The Bells started questioning their assumptions about the Bible itself—"discovering the Bible as a human product," as Rob puts it, rather than the product of divine fiat. "The Bible is still in the center for us," Rob says, "but it's a different kind of center. We want to embrace mystery, rather than conquer it."

"I grew up thinking that we've figured out the Bible," Kristen says, "that we knew what it means. Now I have no idea what most of it means. And yet I feel like life is big again—like life used to be black and white, and now it's in color."

The more I talk with the Bells, the more aware I am that they are telling me a conversion narrative—not a story of salvation in the strict sense, but of having been delivered from a small life into a big life. The Bells, who flourished at evangelical institutions from Wheaton to Fuller Theological Seminary to Grand Rapids's Calvary Church before starting Mars Hill, were by their own account happy and successful young evangelicals. Yet that very world, as the Bells tell it, became constricting—in Kristen's phrase, "black and white."

An earlier generation of evangelicals, forged in battles with 20th-century liberalism, prided themselves on avoiding theological shades of gray, but their children see black, white, and gray as all equally unlifelike. They are looking for a faith that is colorful enough for their culturally savvy friends, deep enough for mystery, big enough for their own doubts. To get there, they are willing to abandon some long-defended battle lines.

"Weak is the new strong," it turns out, is not just Rob Bell's knowing reference to the world of fashion, nor just his clever reframing of Paul's message of Christlike life. It's a roadmap for a new way of doing church, even a big church.

And how did the Bells find their way out of the black-and-white world where they had been so successful and so dissatisfied? "Our lifeboat," Kristen says, "was A New Kind of Christian."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/011/12.36.html Accessed on April 4, 2006.

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Spencer Burke - During the past 22 years of ministry, Spencer has explored his passion for arts, technology and the Church. As an accomplished photographer he has exhibited his work at galleries and taught at the University level. Humorous, inspirational and surprising are words people use to describe his story-telling speaking style. Read more about Spencers story.

He is a sucker for the latest gadget and if money wasn’t an object, he would have the newest, fastest and best in technology at his fingertips.

Spencer now serves at both THEOOZE and at his church, ROCKharbor, in Costa Mesa, California. As creator and sustainer of THEOOZE, Spencer has the opportunity to merge all of his passions together into one organization as he strives to understand what being a real and authentic follower of Jesus means in our world. ROCKharbor gives him the privilege to serve on the elder board, the speaking team, and as strategic planner, facilitator and counselor to the staff.

THEOOZE is a metaphor for Spencer’s ministry—on the move, unpredictable, non-linear, journey- rather than destination-oriented. THEOOZE creates environments where church leaders (traditional teachers/theologians as well as emerging storytellers/artists) can converse about and collaborate on resources and training for the broader faith community. This is done by providing places for people to gather and communicate both online and offline about how to bring the story of Christ to our emerging culture.

Spencer and his five-year-old boy Alden, one-year-old baby girl Grace, and lovely wife of 17 years, Lisa, reside in their turn of the century beach shack in Southern California.

http://cavepainter.typepad.com/about.html accessed on April 4, 2006.

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Tim Keel - stats: 36 years old: married to mimi: father of three great kids: mabry, annie, and blaise: we live in kansas city, mo: pastor of jacob's well church: our community is about six years old: the church is in midtown: we are a group of people seeking to become an authentic, biblical community: we want to experience and express the reality of God's love as followers of Jesus: part of emergent.: glad you're here:. http://jacobswellchurch.org/tim/ accessed on April 4, 2006.

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Churches Closely Associated with EC

^· Jacob's Well - Kansas City , MO

^· Three Nails - Pittsburgh , PA

^· Solomon's Porch - Minneapolis , MN

^· Cedar Ridge Community Church - Spencerville, MD

^· Church of the Apostles - Seattle , WA

^· Ecclesia - Houston , TX

^· Bluer - Minneapolis , MN

^· Vintage Faith - Santa Cruz , CA

Appendix Two: Was Jesus Purposefully Confusing In Order to Lure Others Into Following Him?

Much of McLaren’s “Secret Message” is based upon the idea that Jesus told obscure parables in order to lure people into following Him. From this premise, he goes on to suggest that we ought to do the exact same thing. Meaning, we ought to learn to speak in parable and create intrigue both by our words and in our actions. It sounds like we are to become something like Eastern Guru’s... creating a group of followers who very slowly begin to understand us (and one presumes, Jesus). To illustrate this I offer the following extended quote:

Maybe then, we have some beginning of an answer to the disciples’ question, and ours. Why did Jesus speak in parables? Why was he subtle, indirect, and secretive? Because his message wasn’t merely aimed at conveying information. It sought to precipitate something more important: the spiritual transformation of the hearers. The form of a parable helps to shape a heart that is willing to enter an ongoing, interactive, persistent relationship of trust in the teacher. It beckons the hearer to explore new territory. It helps form a heart that is humble enough to admit it doesn’t already understand and is thirsty enough to ask questions. In other words, a parable renders its hearers not as experts, not as know-it-alls, not as scholars... but as children.

Now do some of the most famous sayings of Jesus begin to make more sense—about the kingdom of God belonging to chil­dren, about needing to become like a little child to enter the kingdom, about needing to be born again? Children are depen­dent, not independent. They can’t learn unless they ask ques­tions of people they trust. Their thirst for knowledge expresses itself in an unquenchable curiosity, a passionate inquisitiveness.

This, by the way, is what the problematic word repentance is all about. The word means to rethink—to reconsider your direc­tion and consider a new one, to admit that you might be wrong, to give your life a second thought, to think about your thinking. It means, just as Jesus said to Nicodemus that night, that you have to begin again, become like a child again, be born again. So if the problem is that too many of us are too independent, too self-centered, too set on stubbornly sticking to our own self-determined path . . . if the problem is that too many of us are arrogant know-it-alls, closed-minded adults, overconfident non-thinkers, and altogether too grown up—then the parable renders us into exactly what we need to be: teachable children. No won­der Jesus decides to make his message a secret! No wonder he hides it in metaphor and story!

But not all of us are willing to be so rendered. Some of us want fast, painless, effortless information and not slow, energetic, engag­ing transformation, thank you very much. What happens then to those who say, “I don’t have time for childish stories about seeds and yeast and sheep. I’m an important person. I have advanced degrees! I’m very knowledgeable!”? Simply put, the parable excludes them. In fact, the parable exposes them. In that sense, while parables bring some to childlike, humble rethinking, they bring out the arrogance, anger, impatience, and ugliness of others.

When I first began to understand that this was part of what was going on in Matthew 13, I felt bad. I didn’t want anyone to be left out. I didn’t want anyone to be exposed. Couldn’t Jesus’ parables be 100 percent effective? Couldn’t there be a happy ending for everybody? Couldn’t they get through to everybody? (More on this in chapter 18.)

In Jesus’ story, the answer was either no or not yet, because many, many people didn’t respond as the disciples did to Jesus’ parables. They didn’t ask questions, they didn’t soften their hearts in a childlike way, and they didn’t seek “the secrets of the kingdom.” Others did get the message, but it didn’t win their hearts₁ it made them angry! Once, for example, Jesus told a detailed parable about some people who resorted to horrific vio­lence to maintain control over their little turf. The religious lead­ers who felt their turf being threatened by Jesus got the meaning and hated it because, according to Luke, “they knew he had spo­ken this parable against them” (20: 19). Their response was to become more dedicated to their own hostile schemes.

We might wish Jesus’ parables could have won over even the Pharisees. (A few, by the way, were won over—including Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea, and later, a Pharisee named Saul, better known to us as Paul, who became a leading apostle in the early Christian movement) But, if it’s the heart that counts, then hearts can’t be coerced; nobody can be forced. They can be invited, attracted, intrigued, enticed, and chal­lenged—but not forced. And that, perhaps, is the greatest genius of a parable: it doesn’t grab you by the lapels and scream in your face, “Repent, you vile sinner! Turn or burn!” Rather, it works gently, subtly, indirectly. It respects your dignity. It doesn’t batter you into submission but leaves you free to discover and choose for yourself.

There is much that could be said in response to this, but I will limit myself to four things.

1. The parables of Jesus cannot all be lumped into one category. Some parables were told to rebuke Pharisees. Some were told to instruct disciples and hide Kingdom truth from unbelievers. Other parables were told to be perfectly clear to their intended audience – hostile or accepting. To suggest otherwise is simply to not read the text.

Most often the reason for the parable is given in the text of the Gospel. For example: “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector...” (Luke 18:9-10).

2. In many cases, Jesus told parables to complement the Father’s active work of blinding eyes; that is, of hiding spiritual truth from all but those for whom it was intended. This type of thing happened to more than just non-believers, thus demonstrating God’s absolute sovereignty over all things.

Luke 8:9-10 “And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that “seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.”’ Much could be written on this, but it is clear that at least in some instances it was the Lord’s purpose to hide Truth (not just make it illusive, like a riddle) from people and thus He spoke in parables.

A similar type of action was taking place with the Disciples: Luke 18:31-34 “And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”

3. Paul was not saved by hearing the parables of Jesus. He was blinded on a road, heard the voice of Jesus from heaven and was instantly converted. The parables came later when he (we presume) gladly read the Gospels. To intimate, as McLaren does, that Paul was converted through the parabolic ministry of Christ is yet again misleading.

4. Although Jesus spoke in parables, His apostles did not. There are no examples of the 11 or Paul speaking and teaching in this way. McLaren suggests that Paul did not write this way since he was “himself a kind of parable.” This is so stretching that it is pure invention.

The teaching of the followers of Jesus was marked by bold and clear proclamations of Jesus’ death and resurrection. In fact, this preaching is often characterized in the short form as “they preached Jesus.” Consider Paul’s words to King Agrippa as one example: “Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance. For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass: that the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles” (Acts 26:19-23).

Appendix One: Does Emergent/US Embrace Practicing Jews as Fellow Believers in the One True God?

An unsettling event took place this past month in New York City. Emergent-US leaders Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones were full participants in a Jewish Emergent Dialogue called Synagogue 3000.

From the website:

S3K – Synagogue 3000 is a catalyst for excellence, empowering congregations and communities to create synagogues that are sacred and vital centers of Jewish life.[1]

Promotional materials for the event copied off of the Emergent-US website read as follows:

S3K Senior Fellow Lawrence A. Hoffman... said... “It offers us an opportunity unique to all of human history: a chance for Jews and Christians to do God's work together, not just locally, but nationally, community by community, in shared witness to our two respective faiths."

According to Emergent-U.S. National Coordinator Tony Jones, this meeting has historic possibilities. "As emerging Christian leaders have been pushing through the polarities of left and right in an effort to find a new, third way, we've been desperate to find partners for that quest," he said. "It's with great joy and promise that we partner with the leaders of S3K to talk about the future and God's Kingdom."

Not only are many Jewish religious communities looking to the experiences of Christian innovators, especially in the context of worship that engages the unaffiliated, but they are seeing a similar paradigm shift from the Baby Boomer individualistic seeker mode to an emergent Generation X/post-GenX search for spirituality in community. S3K Director of Research Shawn Landres, himself a GenXer active in an emergent Jewish congregation, said, "We hope to learn from their experience and also to build bridges by engaging and challenging one another."[2]

The organization of this event was prompted by conversations initiated by Brian McLaren:

Prominent Emergent Christian theologian Brian McLaren (_A New Kind of Christian_) has met with Synagogue 3000's leadership three times in recent months to discuss shared concerns, particularly surrounding attempts by younger Christians and Jews to express their spiritual commitments through social justice. "We have so much common ground on so many levels," he notes. "We face similar problems in the present, we have common hopes for the future, and we draw from shared resources in our heritage. I'm thrilled with the possibility of developing friendship and collaboration in ways that help God's dreams come true for our synagogues, churches, and world."[3]

Reports by the 20-30 participants[4] in this event were, not surprisingly, quite positive.

From the Synagogue 3000 folks:

The Conversation Begins...

In January 2006, Synagogue 3000 first convened the S3K Working Group on Emergent Sacred Communities, a group of visionary Jewish leaders unbound by conventional expectations about what a synagogue is supposed to be. To enrich the conversation, S3K invited members of the Working Group to exchange ideas with leaders from Emergent-US (a network of forward-thinking Christian innovators), as well as three leading scholars of American religious life, Wade Clark Roof, Steven M. Cohen and Ryan Bolger.

This meeting of the Working Group on Emergent Sacred Communities also marked the first time ever that Emergent/U.S. had met with any religious group outside the Christian faith. It was exciting and inspiring, even historic. In addition, the members of the S3K Working Group on Spiritual Leadership - some of the most accomplished and creative Jewish rabbis, cantors, and artists in the country - were also in attendance.

What was learned during all this? A few things.

Not only are many Jewish religious communities looking to the experiences of Christian innovators, especially in the context of worship that engages the unaffiliated, but they are seeing a similar paradigm shift from an individual-oriented seeker mode to a relational conversation aimed at spirituality in intentional community.

The nebula of emergent Jewish communities is beginning to define itself and work out what kind of network they'll form. In many ways they are where the Emergent Christian group was in 1996-97, as it formed within The Leadership Network. The journey of Emergent-US up to this point in its existence was instructive and illuminating to the emergent Jewish leaders: time has helped the emerging Christian community become a relatively more tight-knit and well-defined group.

The conversation across traditions allows us to understand more clearly what the "Emergent" phenomenon is. Within each tradition, there are two broad streams: a congregational stream based in communities of practice, and an encounter-based stream based in individual spiritual expression.

The priorities of American spiritual communities are changing as Generation X comes of age and takes over leadership positions. The work of Wade Clark Roof, Steven M. Cohen and Ryan Bolger all points in a similar direction: younger people crave spirituality but they aren't interested in either rote rules or in lightweight, "easy" worship.

Instead, they are interested in a devotional experience that moves beyond congregational walls and buildings, that builds community and, perhaps most of all, gives them what they call an authentic connection to their traditions and to God. The emerging leaders at this conference, both Jewish and Christian, are actively attending to that desire.[5]

From an Emergent participant:

...with emergent synagogues and emerging churches moving to less institutional and more organic forms, new space is created for renewed dialogue. Our American form of faith community has largely been determined by modern culture with little critique from the respective traditions. Emerging synagogues and churches have deconstructed these forms, creating simple spiritual communities formed around texts (texts that share a good deal of common ground). Because of these similarities from one to another, I believe we will see much fruitful interaction between the two communities in the years to come.[6]

What is to be made of this?

If nothing else, it is clear that EC sees little difference between themselves and practicing Jews. Even if this is merely an effort to cooperate on social issues (what McKnight at least pleads for) then one has to seriously question the common sense of these men. Getting together to worship God with those who deny Jesus is God and do not look to Him for their salvation is foolish and misleading to those who follow you.

For example, look at how one EC observer runs with this:

What is Mitziut? Something positive and incredible is happening in East Rogers Park. Mitziut is a non-denominational Jewish spiritual community creating an amazing Jewish spiritual experience.

Pronounced "mit-see-oot," the name Mitziut comes from the Hebrew word for "reality." Comprised not only of people from the neighborhood, participants come from Evanston, Skokie, Wilmette, Oak Park, Lakeview, Edgewater, Ravenswood, Albany Park, and the Gold Coast as well as Hyde Park, Indiana and Dekalb. People from all Jewish backgrounds and friends from different spiritual paths are coming and finding a welcoming, participatory community.

The non-denominational services are inclusive, participatory, joyous, relaxed and feature wonderful music, sacred Hebrew chant, prayerful experience, meaningful Torah teachings and are infused with traditional kavanah ("intention") and ancient spirituality. Various activities such as a meditation drop-in group and a Jewish drum circle allow individuals to deepen their individual Jewish spiritual explorations within a group experience.[7]

Did Pagitt and all look around the room and weep at those who were lost without Christ? That is certainly not the impression one gets from reading the reports and looking at the pictures. Maybe he and his friends need to carefully read the New Testament book of Romans once more and remember what God says about those who trust in their own righteous deeds and not in Jesus Christ.

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[1] http://www.synagogue3000.org/index.html accessed on April 1, 2006. S3K as it is called is kind of like “Rick Warren for Jews.” That is not meant to be offensive... Warren’ Saddleback Church and the Emergent/US website are the only two “evangelical” websites linked to.

[2] http://emergent-us.typepad.com/emergentus/2005/12/emergent_christ.html accessed on April 1, 2006.

[3] http://emergent-us.typepad.com/emergentus/2005/12/emergent_christ.html Accessed on April 3, 2006.

[4] From pictures accessed Ryan Bolger’s blog on http://thebolgblog.typepad.com/thebolgblog/2006/01/s3k_emergent_fi.html it doesn’t appear that there were more than 30 people at this event. Doug Pagitt, Tony Jones and Ryan Bolger were there. I could not determine from my research if McLaren was present. I note the numbers, because it demonstrates how misleading the internet can be. By reading the press reports and blog posts, you would easily gain the impression there were hundreds and hundreds in attendance.

[5] http://www.synagogue3000.org/emergentweb/ accessed on April 2, 2006.

[6] http://thebolgblog.typepad.com/thebolgblog/2006/01/s3k_emergent_fi.html accessed on April 3, 2006. What is rather surprising is the lack of much else on the web by way of reporting. A few brief searches yielded only Bolger’s comments. It could be that I just missed the reports, but I did scan the blogs of the rest of the major EC players and found nothing. Seeing that Bolger claims to not be EC, one wonders if there was a concerted effort to quiet down this event? That is pure speculation though. Scot McKnight sure seemed to be working hard to make little of the conference. See his blog posting here http://www.jesuscreed.org/?p=610.

[7] http://www.wickerparkgrace.net/tiki-view_blog.php?blogId=1&currentblogs=3 Accessed on April 3, 2006.

The First Step Toward a Solution

This paper is already very long and I am fearful that rushing to a solution will not do justice to a topic that needs much more consideration. Just coming to an understanding of what EC is and where it is going is difficult enough without heaping on a bunch of proposed solutions. Perhaps time and circumstance will avail themselves for more to be written on this in the future. For now, I would like to propose one simple solution.

Carla Rolfe recently posted a simple question on the emergentNo blog:

Is the written word of God, for you, in your life as a believer, the final authority in all matters of your faith, and practice? This is a straightforward question that simply requires a yes or no answer. You may feel free however to expound on your answer, if you like.

One sample answer she received read like this:

I'll take a shot at that Carla. God is the final authority in my life. I can't confine to the bible because he clearly is so much bigger than the bible itself and of course he is God and can really do as he pleases. The bible is not the beginning and end of God.

To which Carla responded:

So then your answer to this question: “Is the written word of God, for you, in your life as a believer, the final authority in all matters of your faith, and practice?” would be NO, correct? Just trying to establish some basics here.

The reply:

I suppose it would. The bible is not the final authority in my life God is. Do you believe that God can only do what is mentioned in the bible?[1]

I am neither qualified nor do I particularly desire to get into a debate of epistemology, but this little exchange seems to typify what is the essential flaw I observe in EC. After reading all the blogs and talking with relatives and friends embracing EC at various levels, I am often left with the impression that the Bible, although given a respectful nod, just doesn’t really matter that much anymore (at least in practice). The EC Christian wants his Bible – but tradition, listening to others, expressing himself in art, feeding the poor, and having conversations about what he thinks about God, are just as important to him, if not more so. In fact, this freedom from an authoritative text is really the best thing that has ever happened to him![2]

Thus, Sola Scriptura, the way it is portrayed in EC circles, is a hated enemy; the kind of club that power hungry despots use to stay in command.[3] Much like their Open Theist cousins, their view of God is too flexible to allow for Him to be “bound” by His own revelation. Of course I do not believe this is an accurate portrayal of the doctrine of Scripture Alone – just as inaccurate as most EC portrayals of reformed theology, conservative church life, true preaching, social conservatism and a bundle of other things! But with this pre-supposition firmly in place, along with all the “outs” used to avoid real conversation, I wonder if we will ever convince an EC Christian otherwise?

To be blunt, I think that I am pastoring a church that is, in many respects, what EC wants: relevant. I do not see taking place in my fellowship the kind of critiques and generalizations that are most often levelled by EC at conservative, reformed evangelicals. We began with a Bible study of 6 Christians and now find well over 100 in attendance. We started meeting in homes and now meet (quite contentedly and purposefully!) in a gymnasium. I preach for over 50 minutes twice a Sunday and people keep asking for more. We have seen people saved by God! We have baptized them. Some have moved on from us – most under good circumstances. Some have been disciplined and restored to full fellowship.

Our men meet together and talk openly concerning their battles with sin and who they want to be in the Lord. The ladies do the same. Our kids love to come to church on Sundays and Wednesdays. The stinking teenagers sit in the front row and are usually the last to leave – so many good questions! Some of our strongest leaders are “college and career” aged young men. We sing old hymns, and new songs with a 5 piece band. We recite ancient creeds and study church history. We write new songs. We pray every week, joyfully, together for nearly an hour (of prayer, not Bible study!). Members show up early and pray on Sundays for the Lord’s blessing on our services.

We evangelize our families and friends and strangers and some of the millions of people from all over the world that the Lord has brought to our city. We actually tell them they are lost and must repent and believe on Jesus. We have three men in seminary training to be pastors. We are trying to plant another church downtown Toronto by 2009. The Lord has given us more money than we need. We are growing slowly and steadily, month by month, in a cultural context that is antagonistic, at best, to the Gospel. And we have all kinds of problems and shortcomings and faults and sins that need to be fixed and Lord willing, one day, will be. And I am telling you all of this to say that not once, for one second, would we in any fashion consider ourselves to be emerging out of anything! If you pinned us down we would say we are trying to be submergent – into the Truth of the Bible.

So, even though there might be a lot of overlap in appearance between EC and us in how we “do” church, there remains this one great difference: what we do and how we do it is determined by the Word of God, the Bible. The EC leaders I have read cannot say the same thing. It is “the Word and...” That means the final authority in determining what is good and what is bad is intuition, not revelation.[4] The Bible is not what directs, forms and shapes EC. And without this anchor, that ship will float wherever the prevailing winds of the day choose to blow.

But the Bible is enough. The Bible is more than enough!

For the Bible tells us to pray and preach and study and evangelize and talk to children and love teenagers and give our money away and plant churches and teach one another and hold each other accountable and fellowship with each other and love each other and deal with sin. And even though there remains so much more to do, my land, just to do these things reasonably well is something quite commendable![5] And when I look around at sister churches here in Canada I see churches that are different in a thousand ways from us and yet foundationally the same; that one common denominator being a firm commitment to the Word of God as a final authority in all matters of doctrine and practice.

It is not very fancy or novel or cutting edge. It doesn’t require the creation of new words or new forms or new ways. It is all rather humbling... and absolutely relevant. We pray; preach, worship, love and let God decide if it will be blessing or trials. As much as EC may want to set up a relevant, failsafe method of reaching this culture, I am happy to put my trust in a relevant, failsafe God. He will do as He pleases and it will be both right and good.

The truth is that a few, a very few, thoughtful men, whose thinking consists in negation from first to last, and whose minds are tortured with a chronic twist or curve, which turns them into intellectual notes of interrogation, have laid the basis of this system; these few honest doubters have been joined by a larger band who are simply restless; and these again by men who are inimical to the spirit and the truths of Scripture, and together they have formed a coterie, and called themselves the leaders of the thought of the age. They have a following, it is true; but of whom does it consist?

When a prophet comes forward he must speak as from the Lord, and if he cannot do that, let him go back to his bed. It is quite certain, dear friends, that now or never we must be decided, because the age is manifestly drifting. You cannot watch for twelve months without seeing how it is going down the tide; the anchors are pulled up, and the vessel is floating to destruction. It is drifting now, as near as I can tell you, south-east, and is nearing Cape Vatican, and if it drives much further in that direction it will be on the rocks of the Roman reef. We must get aboard her, and connect her with the glorious steam-tug of gospel truth, and drag her back. I should be glad if I could take her round by Cape Calvin, right up into the Bay of Calvary, and anchor her in the fair haven which is close over by the cross. God grant us grace to do it. We must have a strong hand, and have our steam well up, and defy the current; and so by God's grace we shall both save this age and the generations yet to come.[6]

“You may spoil the gospel by substitution. You have only to withdraw from the eyes of the sinner the grand object which the Bible proposes to faith--Jesus Christ--and to substitute another object in His place… and the mischief is done.

“You may spoil the gospel by addition. You have only to add to Christ, the grand object of faith, some other objects as equally worthy of honor, and the mischief is done.

“You may spoil the gospel by disproportion. You have only to attach an exaggerated importance to the secondary things of Christianity, and a diminished importance to the first things, and the mischief is done.

“Lastly, but not least, you may completely spoil the gospel by confused and contradictory directions… Confused and disorderly statements about Christianity are almost as bad as no statement at all. Religion of this sort is not evangelical.”[7]

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[1] The whole exchange can be found here http://emergentno.blogspot.com/2006/04/sola-scriptura-and-ecm-where-do-you.html. Emphasis original.

[2] Note these comments by Rob Bell and his wife from a recent Christianity Today interview: “The Bells started questioning their assumptions about the Bible itself—‘discovering the Bible as a human product,’ as Rob puts it, rather than the product of divine fiat. ‘The Bible is still in the center for us,’ Rob says, ‘but it's a different kind of center. We want to embrace mystery, rather than conquer it.’

‘I grew up thinking that we've figured out the Bible," Kristen says, "that we knew what it means. Now I have no idea what most of it means. And yet I feel like life is big again—like life used to be black and white, and now it's in color.’ For more of this see Appendix Four or http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/011/12.36.html Accessed on April 4, 2006.

[3] “In the recent past we generally began our apologetic by arguing for the Bible’s authority, then used the Bible to prove our other points. In the future we’ll present the Bible less like evidence in a court case and more like works of art in an art gallery. The Bible will become valuable not for what it proves, but for what it reveals.” Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo, Adventures in Missing the Point: How the Culture-Controlled Church Neutered the Gospel (Grand Rapids, Michigan: YS/Zondervan, 2003) 101. This quote is of McLaren.

[4] ...intuition that is often cloaked in spiritual language. Regardless of the vocabulary, it is still intuition – listening to the gut to affirm what is true and what ought to be done.

[5] It also warns us not to do a lot of things!

[6] Excerpts taken from “The Need of Decision for the Truth.” A College Address, by C. H. Spurgeon first published in the March 1874 Sword and Trowel Magazine and available online at http://www.spurgeon.org/s_and_t/truth.htm. Also, see more quotes from this timely sermon in Appendix 3.

[7] J. C. Ryle as quoted by C. J. Mahaney on April 7, 2006 at http://blog.togetherforthegospel.org/gospel/index.html.