Gospel Witness on the Emerging Church

The Gospel Witness, publication of historic Jarvis Street Baptist Church in Toronto, has published an article on the Emerging Church by the senior pastor, Glendon Thompson. The article is not as negative as I would have predicted.

News of the emerging church may not be welcomed among evangelicals, tired of the endless stream of suspicious theological and ecclesiastical movements. But there are at least two reasons that advocates of the emerging church deserve a hearing: (1) they are anxious for a reformation of the church, a strong desire shared by many well-meaning Christians; (2) they have managed to return an all-important question to the forefront of the church’s agenda: how should the church respond to our postmodern culture?

Thompson critiques the emerging church along three lines: it is driven by cultural relevancy; it overemphasizes conversation and de-emphasizes objective truth; and emphasizes experience and emotionalism. The article concludes with a call to relevancy (“Let’s make every effort to translate biblical truth into the language of the day”) and authentic Christian living. Not a bad little piece in all. It’s another example of the appreciative but somewhat wary stance toward the emerging church taken by some in Reformed circles.