READ THIS FIRST:
Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith
Monergism.com subsection on the Emerging Church:
Monergism.com – Emerging Church
I particularly like this quote on the site …
“Emerging Churches are those (1.) who take the life of Jesus as a model way to live, and
(2.) who transform the secular realm, (3.) as they live highly communal lives.
Because of these three activities, emerging churches
(4.) welcome those who are outside, (5.) share generously, (6.) participate, (7.) create, (8.) lead without control, and (9.) function together in spiritual activities.
Boiling it down to one sentence: Emerging Churches are …
communities who practice the way of Jesus within postmodern cultures.
But critics often find the following characteristics of emergents: no place for formal convention; indifferent to biblical truth, Spiritual but not confessional; a strong distaste for definitions, sound doctrine or confessional Christianity; constant state of rebellion; often argumentative and often finding things to disagree with other believers rather than looking for the good. Rarely genuinely repenting or saying sorry for their offending with those who differ but expect it and accuse their opponents of being unloving. Amazing that those who thrive in lacking certainty themselves are so certain about their uncertainty and judge harshly those who claim that God has actually revealed something we can apprehend. How is it that they claim to have such a birds’ eye view that all the rest of us are all so wrong when they already deny having this kind of authoritative knowledge. Many emergents are making authoritative announcements that there is no authority. These firm assertions themselves must derive their source and dogma from some authority. In other words, the movement is hopelessly self-contradictory, doing the very things it despises in its opponents. A blow that is certainly fatal.”
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I just thought this was funny, I know it’s a caricture, but it’s still funny, though not really beneficial as an argument against the movement …
Another good entry by Phil Johnson on the hopeless contradiction of the movement …
Excellent audio interview with Pastor Ron Gleason and Chris Pajack speaking on the Emergent church … EXCELLENT
The Emergent Church (Windows Media)
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Okay. So I’ve given several articles and discussions as an argument against the Emerging Church and their principles of adopting the culture in order to win the culture, bringing post-modern thinking into a divine, eternal, absolute context. So how exactly are we to preach the Gospel to the post-modern thinker? I believe this sums it up:
Keller on Preaching in a Post-Modern City – Tim Keller
