Dissatisfied With Dissatisfaction: What Should Emergents Do?

There have always been those in the Church of Christ that have been searching for something more, something exciting and better. Since the time of the Reformation, there have always been those who were dissatisfied with the simplicity of biblical Christianity: Trinitarian God; salvation through Christ alone; a Bible as our guide; Simplicity of worship; Living out the great commandment while doing the great commission.

People want more- they are dissatisfied. How can Christ be enough? How can worship and witness be enough? How can a relationship with God that spills over into our relationship with others be enough. Dissatisfied.

During the Reformation we had anabaptists. They sought something more and something outside of Scripture.

Over the past 50 years we have seen a section of the Church move from Fundamentalism to Evangelicalism to Seeker-Friendly-ism to Emergent Church. Dissatisfied with being dissatisfied, one branch of Christ's Church leaves their father's church to seek a new way, a new beginning, a new start... a New Kind of Christianity. But things rarely last forever. The dissatisfied are again dissatisfied. The Emergent Church has become another example of this ongoing problem in the Church of Christ. What is next? What is the newest craze? Only the next 5 years will tell.

So what was a reaction to Modernism will remain as Fundamentalism.

What was a reaction to Fundamentalism will remain as Evangelicalism.

What was a reaction to much of Evangelicalism will remain Seeker Friendly.

And what was a reaction to much of the Seeker Friendly will remain Emergent.

Dissatisfied with dissatisfaction. The Emergent Church is locked in as just another reactionary movement, thus making it dead.

What do these wandering Former-Fundamentalist-evangelical-seeker-friendly-emergents do? Well, they have been seeking genuine community. They have been seeking a genuine faith. They have been seeking a genuine experience with Jesus.

The Reformed faith remains here. You are all welcome to stop reaction and stop being dissatisfied with being dissatisfied. You are welcome to come and to look at the Reformation and what it sought to accomplish. Community. Christ. Biblical simplicity.

Friends, another movement has died. Call them back to what remains: authentic Christianity.

Original Article: http://online.worldmag.com/2010/04/14/farewell-emerging-church-1989-2010/

Everything Must Change?

A few weeks ago I was given a personal invitation to meet Brian McLaren at Baker Book House. He will be in the Grand Rapids' store on Saturday, August 16. I have read some of Brian's works and enjoy some of it and am really bothered by much of it. What bothers me the most is that a Christian leader that many-many-many generation Xers look up to has no real answers- only questions. I guess that is part of the joys of postmodernity. Quite sad really. Jesus Christ had answers, gave answers, and charged the Apostles (the ministers of the Word of the day) to have answers.

We (read: this present generation) need some answers.

Today I was in Baker Book House picking up some books. There was a giant poster of Brian meeting me at the door. The profound 'catch em' quote was this:

I've always had a propensity to think a few degrees askew from most people, especially about religion. And not only am I often unsatisfied with conventional answers, but even worse, I've consistently been unsatisfied with conventional questions.

The quote is taken from his latest-and-greatest-rock'em-sock'em-best-seller called, Everything Must Change.

Sad really. We serve a consistent God that changes not. We have a timeless and biblical religion that transcends ages. Does everything have to change?

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Here is Tim Challies review.

A little taste:
It seems increasingly clear that the new kind of Christian McLaren seeks is no kind of Christian at all. The church on the other side of his reinvention is a church devoid of the glorious gospel of Christ’s atoning death. It is a church utterly stripped of its power because it is a church stripped of the gospel message. McLaren’s new gospel is a social gospel, a liberal gospel and, in fact, no gospel at all.

Wow!

The Reformed Can Jump Too!

In 2005 when Rob Bell wrote Velvet Elvis he talked about how he just wants to 'jump' and how so much of Christianity (read: Grand Rapids Reformed Christians) are not able to 'jump' but instead live in what he called 'Brick-ianity'.

When I read that 3 years ago, I thought to myself, many Reformed Christians I know enjoy a good jump. We enjoy fellowship of the saints and enjoy God and enjoy life in the Spirit. We are not all controlled by the bricks.

Today (3 years too late) I caught the perfect image of the Reformed 'loving the joys of the jump'. My children were playing on a trampoline in the front yard of Dr. Joel Beeke. They were jumping and enjoying life. They were enjoying the jump while people around enjoyed the joys of Christian community. I cannot think of anything that would better symbolize Grand Rapids Reformation Christianity than Dr. Beeke's home (and the seminary next door)! And in his front yard the future men and women of the Reformed faith are enjoying the jump!

Enjoy the jumping brothers!

Q: Should I be Emergent? A: I Don't Think Its For Me.

My good friend, Jason Kuiper, gave me a book on the Lord's Day. It is one that I have been intending to read, but have not found the time due to life's demands and other readings that are required and/or exegetical in nature.

I have been meaning to read it because I like to interact with the Emergent Church movement. I have many friends, even godly friends, who are a part of the 'conversation' and I do what I can to be a part of it as well (even though I am an uncool confessional-dogmatic-Calvinistic-systematic theology loving-modernist). But let's face it- emergent I am not, even though there are some aspects of the movement that are very biblical and useful.

Today at work I took the book along in case I had some down time to read. I did; and I began reading it with much interest. I also read a lot of it this evening (some reading is like watching TV... it is just too fun to stop even though there are other things that could be accomplished.)

The book is Why We're Not Emergent (by two guys who should be). It co-written by the Pastor of Lansing, Michigan's University Reformed Church and some ESPN sports writer. So far it is quite good.

In their discussion of God's knowability, here is their critique of the Emergent Church:

We may all be, by nature, like blind men touching the elephant without knowing what we are feeling is a trunk, tail, or ear. But what if the elephant spoke and said, "Quit calling me a crocodile, or a peacock, or a paradox. I'm an elephant for crying out loud! That long thing is my trunk. That little frayed thing is my tail. That big floppy thing is my ear." And what if the elephant gave us ears to hear his voice and a mind to understand his message (cf. I Cor. 2.14-15)? Would our professed ignorance about the elephant and our unwillingness to make any confident assertions about his nature mean we were especially humble, or just deaf?

Because of the emerging church's implied doctrine of God's unknowability, the word mystery, a perfectly good word in its own right, has become downright annoying. Let me be very clear: I don't understand everything about God or the Bible. I don't fully understand how God can be three in one. I don't completely grasp how divine sovereignty works alongside human responsibility. The Christian faith is mysterious. But when we talk about Christianity, we don't start with mystery. It's some combination of pious confusion and intellectual laziness to claim that living in mystery is at the heart of Christianity.

If you are emergent, pick it up and read it. If you are not emergent: it gives a balanced approach to why you shouldn't be- all with humor, grace, and respect for the brethren in this movement.