Listening to the Beliefs of the Emerging Church - a quick review
So I just finished reading ” Listening to the Beliefs of the Emerging Church”. I am still digesting what I have just read so a complete review is not in order. However, this is one of the few books I have read that has deeply troubled me and more accurately burdened me upon finishing. As I wrapped the book up I was reminded of Amos 8:11 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD,
“when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the LORD.
I am thankful for guys like Mark Driscoll, John Burke, and Dan Kimball who hold to an authority of Scripture. While some stronger than others I see an honesty to wrestle with truth and doctrine. The desire to submit too and regard scripture as authoritative is evident in their chapters and responses.
Pagitt and Ward… not so much. While I applaud any effort to start a church and rejoice as Paul wrote that “wither true or false Christ is preached”. These guys are too for out in left field for my current level of understanding. The concept of life experience and spirit leading superseding scripture leads to a subjective, superficial Christianity based on feeling with nothing to base truth on.
I was also reminded of the passage in 2 Timothy 4:2-4 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. It even solidified my personal calling to ministry to preach/teach/exalt the truth of the Word of God in a day when it is being disregarded by pastors and churches for “myths” and speculation. The Word of God is being sacrificed at the alter of “creativity” or “cool, hip, and trendy”. What happens when the creativity runs dry and the technology doesn’t work? Can the Word of God still be proclaimed with power or is “cool, hip, and trendy” a crutch? How far is the church willing to neuter the gospel? At some point it ceases to be the gospel.
Processing…
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When the show ends on Sunday morning, what inward turning occurs the following week?
They shall know us by our ‘broadway production value’ … ?
The predominant teaching of today’s culture is ’self’. Arriving in a worship service, within the church shopping network, the common demand is ‘what can this place do for me … what does it have to offer me?’ Being single, I hear: they don’t have a good childrens’ program or I can’t find any singles group here or the youth group is so small.
Excuse me if my response is callused. I thought we were to worship Him, which happens to be ‘giving’ TO Him, and not a demand of ‘hey, I’m here … serve me.’ Unfortunate.
How does my demand to be served, show my love for/to Him? If His command is to love the soul in front of me, at every moment … I don’t have time to worry about what I need. HE will fulfill me, teach me, and draw me closer in the process. And I become less and less turned off by people who are different, difficult, or frustratingly unlikeable. I learn to love with His perspective: this soul in front of me will be spending eternity somewhere.