From Walk in the Word with Dr. James MacDonald:
Let me begin with a word of personal appreciation for the current leaders of the emerging church movement. I am deeply grateful for your courage in standing against the many shortcomings of the modern western church. Thanks for insisting that authenticity in relationship is the foundation of genuine Christian community. Thanks for standing against the formulaic/instant Gospel which fills our churches with tares and insulates the human heart from a genuine transformational encounter with the living Christ. Thanks also for daring to believe that failure is not final and that Christ yet longs for His bride to function with the health and wholeness He created it to enjoy.
In case you are wondering why my gratitude for the leaders of the emerging church does not translate into enthusiasm for their current emphasis and direction let me take a few words to explain why I am not emerging....
Thanks to Dan B. for sending me the article.
Wow. Where are these guys getting there ideas of what the emerging church is and then deciding whether they are or are not. We have got to stop trying to come up with one set of defining values for the emerging church.
We are on the brink of loosing this great move down the flusher if we do not walk carefully and continue to shed negative light on this movement.
What is this entity called the emerging church? It is a question that is trying to be answered by thousands of people around the world. Those that think they can defined it are the ones that you can be certain do not know. They have put their claim in for what they wished it was, but missed the point entirely. The exciting thing about the emerging church is that it is hundreds of thousands of people "the church" all seeking to find relevant ways to reach the world with the gospel.
It is what makes it difficult when you have a few that are saying they are speaking for the whole, which in my opinion is very selfish statements. To say your speaking for the emerging church only seeks to promote a person's agenda and elevates theirself.
We are on the verge of something great, if we can keep it in the creative and not have to set it down. As Roger von Oech "A Whack on the Side of the Head" says, "Each of you has an 'artist' an a 'judge' within you. The open-minded attitude of the artist typifies the kind of thinking you use in the imaginative phase where you're generating ideas. The evaluative outlook of the judge represents the kind of thinking you use in the practical phase when you're preparing ideas for execution. I recommend you avoid bringing in your judge before your artist had a chance to do her job. PREMATURE EVALUATION CAN PREVENT CONCEPTION."
Those that say exactly what the church is going to emerge to is not allowing their artist to work but controlling others to move along what they have created. Instead they should be very open to allowing everyone's artist create and keep creating.
The emerging church to each individual can only be what each thinks it to be. For me the emerging church is a HOPE. A hope for the younger generations to again, or for the first time find an environment of Christians that they can relate to and want to enter into discipleship and community.
Please begin to find unity. See The Charge of Unity
Emerge
Coffee For One
Intricately Woven
J. Mac. says:
> Because the answer is Jesus, not cultural analysis.
But it is the cultural analysis that gets one to Jesus. Simple analysis shows that the current model of church only reaches one sixth of the culture. Use the tools, don't throw them away. (And don't worship the tools, either.)
Any one model of the emergent church isn't going to reach the remaining five-sixths, nor is it even likely to reach an additional sixth. But take the eighth, or twelfth that the tools present to you, and go with it in glory.
I think a better title might have been "Why I Have Decided to be Stuck in my Old Ways and Believe I Am Right All The Time"...
This is not helpful.
Does he not realize I could write an article with the same headings about the "Harvest franchise"?
Is he not observing the bad to prove he is "good"?
Is he not "sincere" about his fallible interpretations of revealed truth?
Does he not have his own "style" at Harvest that he thinks promotes "substance"?
Cultural analysis? Is not Harvest a "picture" of suburbia?
Respectability? Is the western church ready to "be" Jesus" or just "sell" him to "hurting people in painful experiences"??
I could even write a sweet little paragraph at the start about how much I "appreciate" him....
Wow Tim,
I can't interact with your opinion because I can't hardly get past your self-defeating attitude. Regardless of the issues at hand, why can't you extend the writer (your brother if you're a believer) the same courtesy you want for yourself?
Are you not observing his "observing the bad to prove he is 'good'" to prove you are better?
Are you not "sincere" about your fallible intepretation of his "fallible interpretations of revealed truth"?
And so on...
I'm not trying to offer a "sweet little paragraph" of appreciation, honest, just a loving question. Why do you seem so defensive? If his post is not helpful why is yours?
exactly.
When people start this kind of "mud-slinging", it's hard to see the point. Is my post helpful? No. That's the point. I would love to read a new article called "Why I feel I need to write an article about why I'm not emerging"...
I like James - but why be so negative? Why be so nasty? Why try to be so "know-it-all"? If he feels the emergers are being too harsh, why be harsh back? See my point? The "self-defeatist" attitude is there to prove the point...all his arguments do is start an argument...and he'll say "they started it" and they'll say....
Why must people define themselves by "what they aren't"?
Thanks for your thoughts, though- I see your point. I am young and immature. I just get so sick of all the "why I'll never be stupid like you" articles...
Cool, I agree with everything he says. Maybe sometimes he's over the top but the more I listen to him on the radio I think he'll use hyperbole like Jesus did to highlight important points.