Last night Alex invited me to go with him to a forum on the Emergent Church @ Rancho Community Church. I was initially hesitant about going to this forum because I thought it would be very one sided and that it would just be an emergent church bashing. To my surprise it was very informative and respectfully done.
The first part of the forum was a powerpoint presentation on the basic beliefs of the “Emergent Conversation”. It listed the good things that they do as well as the dangers that present themselves. I felt that the time frame given to study the Emergent Conversation wasn’t given justice. To wrap up a synopsis of the movement in about 20 min can be dangerous. I understand the time constraints but still. I felt that with every arguement of what was dangerous, it was always compared to truth. Well what truth are specifically talking about? It was kind of lazy. Not everything that the emerging churches do or believe or are seeking is an attack on truth. For the second part of the forum it was open to questions and discussions. I didn’t feel like there were any profound questions, just reservations about if their church was headed that way. Given the people that were there are predominantly uber conservative, there was still a large sense of ignorance. But I walked away with a tremendous respect for the leadership at Rancho. Although I did not completely agree with everything that was said, generalities being presented but all in all it was well rounded.
My fear (not spurred from this forum) that as we seek to inform ourselves of other practices of Christianity, we will only use such information to load our arsenal and point out why everyone else is wrong. Where’s the love?
Feel free to comment on your thoughts of the emergent church.
Great comments Peter…I appreciate your willingness to try and objectively look at what RCC was presenting.
I’ve done a TON of reading on the Emerging Church, attended conferences, blog reading, etc. I don’t pretend to be an expert or anything, but I’d like to think that I know something about what Emergent is about.
I agree with RCC assessment that there are good things about the Emergent Church movement, but some dangers as well. There are a few in my town (Doug Pagitt, Tony Jones ) that are walking that “danger line” pretty close in my opinion. The best thing about the Emerging Church movement is that it gives people who ordinarily wouldn’t have anything to do with the church, a group to relate to.
Since so much of what the Emergent Church is about is finding new (ancient) expressions of faith, and intersecting our lives with culture, people on the outside of the church can connect.
Anyway, I don’t mean to blog on your blog, but I’m glad that you’re willing to enter into (sometimes) controversial waters.
Just read 2 Corinthians 11. It will explain the emergent church very clearly.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. – Hebrews 13:8
kseiber, thanks for the comment. I am not so quick to lump the whole Emergent Church into 2 Corinthians 11. It is an important reference to understand when living in the society we do. But not everything the Emergent church is about is deceitful. They are doing some really great things for the Kingdom. Yet I do know they are pushing some theology that does not correlate with the Bible (and to be honest that happens in most churches today besides the Emergent Movement). Many of them are people who are frustrated with modern church, even the post-modern church and are trying to find a place to dwell.