Friday
Jan212005
Fellowship Baptists and the emerging storm
Friday, January 21, 2005 at 8:33PM
As Stephen Shields and others have noted, 2005 is the year that the emerging church will get a lot of attention and criticism. This is going to hit in a lot of places - one of them being my denomination. If the Fellowship has a patron saint, it would be D.A. Carson. He was one of us; he is my alma mater's most famous graduate. Every time he speaks at one of our meetings, he packs the place out. His book, Becoming Conversant with Emergent, is coming out next month, and it's going to get a lot of buzz. Carla Rolfe is another Fellowship Baptist. She's been busy setting up a website devoted to critiquing (or criticizing) the emerging church. I have an article coming out in the next issue of our denominational magazine called Evaluating the Emerging Church. There will be a discussion board on our denomination's website following the article. The one a few months back on missional churches got interesting. I'm starting to wonder what I've got myself into. It's going to be an interesting couple of months in the Fellowship.
Reader Comments (5)
Great stuff Darryl, I'm looking forward to the discussion. I like what Carla has to say. I think all the emerging types that read this post should check out her website there, it should be challenging to them. We'll see if they are up to the challenge without getting mean-spirited.
George, I agree that the emerging types can benefit from the upcoming discussion. We have lots to learn from each other. I think Carla is off base with a lot of what she says. One reaction is found here: http://billarnold.typepad.com/poet_in_motion/2005/01/emergent_v_bibl.html" rel="nofollow">http://billarnold.typepad.com/poet_in_motion/2005/01/emergent_v_bibl.html I'm sure we'll learn lots in this coming days.
Darryl, why have you chosen the emerging church to pour your energy into defending, championing its cause and attaching your name to? Why sink time and energy into this? Personally, I'm all for re-evaluating our methods and they we do church for the purpose of reaching more people. The problem I have with the emerging church it that it comes with its own theology, which I have found to be very problematic.
Jacob, I guess the main reason is that I've benefited from some of the discussion. I don't agree with everything in the emerging church, but I think some of the issues they're discussing are ones that I think are important to think about. It is a mixed bag. There is a lot of emerging theology that I am concerned about. There are also a lot of good, solid emerging types who are very theologically sound. In the end, the issue isn't defending the emerging church but trying to learn what we can to live faithfully in today's context. That's a whole lot more important.
In the spirit of discussion with brothers and sisters in Christ, I checked out Carla Rolfe's website link. I am afraid that she has just set up a 'straw man' to criticise. If Carla reads this she should revist her comparison chart which compares Emergent to Biblical. 3 comments 1. I believe that all emergent churches would hold on to the same scriptures vigourously. 2. 'traditional' church does not stand up to the same test and should be put on the chart! Hypocrisy and worldliness are nothing new to the 'church' 3. The use of the King James text seems completely out of step with the language of the culture and completely in step with the language of the club. We are to communicate the God news to all peoples -- missionaries do this, why wouldn't we?