lifeasmission
exploring the mystery of life and mission as one and the same
What is the Emergent Church?
Last night Amy and I joined a friend for a presentation at Harvest Bible Chapel on the topic of, “What is the Emergent Church?”1 as part of an ongoing apologetics series they are doing.
As someone who gets to teach the course, The Emerging Church in the 21st Century, once a year, I was looking forward to attending and seeing what was said and discussed; especially considering the speaker for the evening was Dr. David Finkbeiner, a professor at Moody Bible Institute.I mean, if you want to get a balanced understanding of what the “Emergent Church” is all about, who better to ask than a professor of systematic theology at a school that officially, “does not endorse the emerging/emergent church” right?!
Harvest would have done well (though from what I could tell – would never so much as have considered it) to have invited at least one person who could have spoken as an insider to the EC discussion.
It was clear from the get-go that the tenor of the evening was going to be critical, bordering on condemnatory. And this, even after Dr. Finkbeiner admitted that there is no simple way to define the EC as a whole.
Dr. Finkbeiner’s focus for the evening was theological method. His premise was that what undergirds the “Emergent Church” movement is a post-conservative theological method. His aim was to critique this theological method overagainst a more traditional conservative evangelical one.
Essentially, here’s what that meant…
1) Post-Conservatives err in their non-foundationalist approach to epistemoplogy which takes things like history, context, and culture seriously, where as conservatives rightfully embrace Scripture as the objective and sole foundation to all knowledge.
2) Post-Conservatives err in asserting that absolute truth, while real, may often times be beyond our ability to fully grasp. Conservatives rightfully assert not only the reality of absolute truth, but affirm our ability to, “with a little hard work,” objectively know it.
3) Post-conservatives err in not championing the inerrancy of Scripture. Conservatives rightly hinge all their hopes on Scripture having been verbally and inerrantly inspired.
So, here we have a guy who is doing a masterful job of towing the line of modern conservative evangelicalism, lambasting those who dare to think, “There might be some stuff we’re missing here.”
As I listened to him describe some of the perspectives and viewpoints of post-conservative evangelicals I found it hard to believe that he wasn’t converting himself!
He quickly and coyly dismissed a broad range of the most helpful aspects of post-conservative theology…
– The idea that we need one another in the pursuit of truth because all of our perspectives are bound by a host of factors
– The notion that theology loses its character when not born out of an embodied witness
– The view that the authority of Scripture lies not primarily in its abstract character, but in its function in the life of the Church
– The insight that biblical propositional truth derives its meaning and significance from the narratives in which they’re embedded
– That post-conservative theology is, at its core, a prophetic call to revisit some of our modernistic assumptions
In each and every instance, the speaker noted that these are the hallmarks of post-conservative theology and then attempted to show why they ought to be rejected.
OK, so that was the presentation and as enlightening as it was, the Q & A time was even better. I quote.
“Is Willowcreek an Emergent Church? I heard they sell Brian McLaren books.”2
“Is the Emergent Church a cult?”
“I’ve heard that Urbana and InterVarsity are becoming more Emergent. Should I keep my kids away from those groups?”
I actually had the opportunity to ask the last question of the evening…
With a little trepidation, but in the spirit of full disclosure, I teach a course on the Emerging Church at the seminary level and I need to say that I think there have been some pretty unfair characterizations of the movement here tonight. I was hoping that before we go you might offer a positive comment about the role the EC has had in the recovery of the importance of the Missio Dei or incarnational approaches to ecclesiology.
Dr. Finkbeiner commented that, “Yes, there has been some focus in those areas, but they still are wrong in how they do theology.” So, no, he didn’t have one positive thing to say the entire evening about the EC.
Left completely aside from the discussion of the evening was the historical evolution of the EC movement, its place in the scope of the collapse of Christendom, and the most relevant bit of information given the scope of the talk, namely, that theological method simply isn’t at the center for 90% of the people who are in any way affiliated with the movement. For the vast majority, what is central is joining God in his mission in the world and finding ways to make the church, not culturally relevant (as too many assume), but incarnationally faithful in the pattern of Jesus.
Between the tenor of the presentation and the questions and comments of the audience, it’s little wonder that conservative evangelicals are so often characterized by fear and close-mindedness. There any in the EC community who are trying to carve out a way of being the church and doing theology that doesn’t fell prey to these charges. I was really hoping to come away pleasantly surprised by the event. Sadly, I didn’t.
- There is no such thing as the Emergent Church. This is a classic conflation of the terms Emergent Village and Emerging Church offered by those who aren’t all that familiar with the topic [↩]
- Someone from Harvest was quick to announce that Harvest doesn’t! [↩]
Sweater Deal
It’s not often I post about stuff like this — even less often that I am inclined to even think much of it, but I got a killer deal on a couple of sweaters that I really like yesterday.
And truth be told, the real credit goes to Amy and her twin attributes of 1) an ability to spot a deal and 2) simply being in the right place at the right time.
So, we’re walking into the store and knowing my wife’s insatiable desire to check EVERYTHING out, I cover her eyes with my hands and lead her, undistracted, through the store so that we can accomplish our one and only task, return an item.
What I didn’t count on was that with her eyes covered, her superhuman powers were redirected to her ears and she made out an announcement over the PA about a free giveaway going on upstairs. This announcement was barely audible to the human ear and nearly unintelligable on top of that. How she noticed and discerned the message is beyond me.
She left me to the return and as she sauntered away, shouted back over her shoulder, “Hey, you should check out those sweaters over there.” I swear we walked by them when she had her eyes covered. I hadn’t even seen the sweaters. I finished quick and she was still upstairs, so I walked over to look at the sweaters. $55 bucks! “Yeah right,” I thought. But then I looked closer. They were marked down to $10 – more than 80% off.
Now listen, I’m not one of those who’s fooled into believing that I could get a sweater that is really worth $55 for $10. But $10 still seemed like a pretty good deal for how well the sweater fit and looked. So I got 2! But the story’s not over, oh no!
We get to the register to check out and they have an offer for a Sears card where you can get $15 off your purchase. So, between the 80% off sale, the small credit from the return, and the Sears card offer, I walked out of the store with 2 “$55″ sweaters for under 2 bucks. Oh, and besides the sweaters, Amy came home with a couple kitchen tools that she got for free just for walking upstairs. I think I’m gonna like shopping with Amy!
A Life Narrated by Love
The life I live is one narrated by Love.
The other day I was looking for something and when I couldn’t find it where it should have been, I was forced to consult “the box.”You know “the box” right? It’s where you have stashed your odds and ends for years upon years. You have no real idea what all is in there, but you also know equally well that there is no chance you would ever throw that box away!
As I worked through the contents of the box, I was moved to tears. I found collections of letters, notes, cards, and pictures that I had all but forgotten.
A soccer ball that all my players signed for me when I coached.
A scrap of paper with simple words of encouragement that a good friend tucked in my bag right before I boarded a plane to embark on one of the hardest journeys of my life.
Letters from students with words of love and affirmation from my days as a student pastor.
Today is my 31st birthday – the first that I celebrate with the woman who vowed to love me for the rest of my life. And if the last 8 months are any kind of gauge, the rest of my life is looking pretty great!
As I stop to think about how I have been loved for the last 30 years, how I am loved now, and how I may yet be loved in the future by people (and, Lord willing, children) that I don’t even know yet, I am overwhelmed with inexpressible joy and gratitude.
May I have the courage to love others as I have been loved – to help narrate the lives of others with the sort of Love that has characterized mine.
God is as God Acts
I once heard a story of a man who was speaking with Dallas Willard. In the course of conversation, the man divulged a sin, but commented that it was, “completely out of character” for him. To which Dallas replied, “No it wasn’t. If you did it, that IS your character.”
I listened to that and thought to myself,
This expresses well why I love God so much. Because God is as God acts.
God doesn’t get to be called “loving” if God doesn’t love. Nor does God get to be named “just” if God doesn’t act justly. We are as we act and God is as God acts.
Instead of taking this in my own personal direction, I was wondering how others might respond to the idea that “God IS as God ACTS.” What are your thoughts? What does it mean for how you live your life and interpret your reality?
Tending to Eden: An Interview with Author, Scott Sabin
About a month ago I offered a book review of Tending to Eden: Environmental Stewardship for God’s People by Scott Sabin. Scott is the Executive director of Plant with Purpose.
Plant With Purpose is an international environmental organization that transforms lives in rural areas where poverty is caused by deforestation. For over 25 years, Plant With Purpose has provided lasting solutions to heal the relationship between people and their environment by planting trees, revitalizing farms, and offering loans to create economic opportunity.
Yesterday, I had the chance to actually interview Scott and ask him a few questions about the book. Besides providing an overview of Plant with Purpose and the book, Tending to Eden, we spend some talking about the devastation in Haiti, one of the places where they serve, the vicious cycle of poverty and environmental degradation, and the relationship between creation care and the gospel. The whole interview (~ 22 mins.) is worth the selection of the book that Scott reads toward the end.
If you’re reading this in a feed reader and don’t see the audio player, click through to see it.
Use THIS LINK to see others who wil be participating in the blog tour today, to find out more about Plant with Purpose, and to purchase the book. If you buy the book through the Amazon link on this page, a portion of the proceeds will directly benefit the rural poor.
Tweet Old Post Wordpress Plugin
Here’s the thing I hate most about blogging – it’s all about the now. Doesn’t matter how much time you invested or how much thought you put into that post or series birthed by your creative genius – your precious content is forgotten and buried faster than Superman tweeting on speed!
Enter Tweet Old Post.
I stumbled upon this brilliant wordpress plugin recently that resurrects that old content and brings it into the land of the living.
You select an interval (I’ve chosen twice a day), and BOOM – your old content, selected at random based on the criteria you choose, is tweeted. It even comes packaged with the ability to choose a link shortening service.
One downside – as I have figured out since beginning to use this plugin. If your readers/followers don’t pay attention, they will think that you’re posting new content and ask you if you’re alright after your car wreck (that happened 4 years ago!).
So, my fellow bloggers, hop on over to here and tell Ajay thanks for writing a plugin that helps us repopulate the interwebs with the precious fruit of our labors.
Hi There…
Hey, I'm JR - welcome to the blog.
I'm just an average guy trying to shape his identity around God's dream for the world and his place in it. This blog is a place for me (and you!) to reflect on and discuss all that might mean. Looking for a bit more on me? Check out the about me. Peace.
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