With Rob Bell touring the country telling everyone that God isn’t mad at them seemingly admitting that he believes Buddhists go to heaven and Brian McLaren releasing his book it seems fit for me to pose a question to you. How influential is the Emerging/Emergent Church right now? Has it cooled down? Is it on the rise? Leave a comment and let us know what you think.
I know! I’ll admit it was an obvious “filler post!” Maybe I should just delete it!
However the question might be too broad but it might also show that people don’t really know a whole lot about emerging church so maybe its good that we are planning some posts on the issue.
Ok now I have something to say. Anything before would have been speculation. I was at a Bible study tonight and a friend there had a book. Undone Faith by Roger Oakland which addresses the impact of the Emergent Church. She said it is really good and she wants to give it to everyone but she’s only read a few pages. Mostly it seems to be an anthology of quotes from Emergents. So if such and such a preacher or author sounds good you can look him up and see what else he said and how it sometimes conflicts with Scripture. We both agree that at this point the Emergent doctrine has semi-infiltrated Christian circles and churches so we hear hints of their philosophy in other books church “programs,” and conferences. It’s harder to catch and be careful about unless you know what to look for because they’re accepted as just another denomination that basically teaches the same central things. Except uh they don’t.
I’m looking forward to the series. Hope my anecdote helps. To God be all glory,Lisa of Longbourn
Lisa thanks for your anecdote. I just started writing my first post about the EC tonight after watching Man vs. Wild. :)
One point that I’d like people to think about is the so-called need for distinction between the emerging folks and the emergent folks. Playing with words has been a fun English thing for a few hundred years at least. I would like to contend that if emerging is okay and emergent is not then emerging is simply evangelical not forgetting about the need for real discipleship and missions both here and across the globe and emergent is heresy. In other words one is simply evangelicals wishing to preach the gospel to the nations like they should and the other are outside Christian historical orthodoxy. There might be a little overlap with both but if the emerging folks are actually within Christian orthodoxy then how exactly are they actually emerging? Should there really be a distinction between the terms?
I was reading Future Justification by John Piper and he wrote something about NT Wright that reminded me of George MacDonald so I googled the last two men together and theofframp org came up also including articles by McLaren. Thought it was an interesting connection. But I didn’t look around much.
I’m thinking the emergent church at least in our generation has been somewhat influential. On the grand scale of history. I’m thinking it will look more like a blip. In fact much of what they are teaching are not new ideas. They are old ideas (and bad ones at that) dressed in a new wardrobe. They’ve offered some fresh perspectives on SOME issues that has been helpful but the majority is stuff we can leave out at the curb with the rest of the trash.
There are tons of young people (and old people for that matter) that are burnt out on the idea of the church; whether that is due to church abuse legalism or bad theology…that’s for a survey to decide I guess. Nonetheless the emergent church is gunning for that crowd and has been somewhat successful in gaining a readership and a following within that group. Many of their authors and pundits are intelligent-sounding quick-witted charming persons.
But it would seem that as far as theology is concerned and as far as holiness is concerned…they have not offered much. Their theology (which is a HUGE blanket statement as much of them disagree with each other) is flimsy. It sounds flattering and it sounds smart but it reeks of empty philosophy. And the age-old gospel has gone by the wayside for many of them; there is little to no desire to defend it or proclaim it.
But the influence is there. And regardless of numbers if one soul is influenced…that is weighty enough for me to consider it serious.
I said that a friend on Friday had a book about Emergent theology. We were at a Calvary Chapel Bible study. But now the author of the book was taken off the Calvary Chapel radio. I don’t know how much to read into it but I thought maybe this link might help to answer how influential the emergent theology is in churches today.
Followed a couple links and found myself here. Thanks Lisaoflongbourn for the link. I wrote that article you linked to.
Unfortunately there are many mainline denominations and even CC pastor’s who have found themselves going down the path of the emergent church. As I stated in my post its not so much the methodology that bothers me (though I think they do get off in that respect) but the most alarming thing is the soteriology. What did Paul say in Galatians? If anyone preaches another gospel than that which I have preached let him be accursed. The emergent church (or at least some of the innovators and leaders of it) have found a new gospel which is not another.
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Related article:
http://electexiles.wordpress.com/2007/11/15/how-influential-is-the-emergent-church/
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