GentileRevelations

Yesterday ended a weekend that both shook me and taught me to lean more on God.

On Saturday I was drawn into a few conversations with people who were experiencing trial and suffering in life. One of these conversations had a deep impact on me. While in work I got into a conversation with an elderly couple who were having trouble getting their shopping back to their house because they could not drive any longer. The man told me how his wife had to go for dialysis in Antrim, three times a week. He told me about how some taxis drivers would charge them £8 while some would charge this elderly couple £12. And it suddenly hit me. I am so blessed and sooo well off! Some people have life so difficult but I am so blessed.

Recently I have prayed the line from the song Hosanna, “break my heart for what breaks Yours!”. This is what we’re talking about. Listening to this couple really broke my heart. I really wanted to pray with them but being in work I didn’t. Maybe I should have prayed with them but it’s done now. Thinking about this couple really broke my heart on Saturday night.

BUT this is who I want to be! I want to have a heart for the oppressed, the sick and the elderly. I want the same compassion as Jesus exercised in Matt 20:34. I want to do everything to help these people and make their life easier.

Sunday night showed me that there is an answer! Last night I saw people throw away their walking sticks and a woman get out of her wheelchair and take a few steps. I myself was even healed from the pain in my feet. We have an awesome God who is the answer to all the problems in life.

While writing this I feel myself fighting tears but my prayer is this:

Jesus: Continue to break my heart for what breaks Yours! Make me that passionate guy, to win souls for You.

So it has been a while since I last posted my crazy rant on the emerging church but I have been push into writing by a quote I read today. I have been reading a book called “crazy love” by a guy called Francis Chan. It challenges us to love our God more intimately.In one of the chapters he quotes from John Piper (God is the gospel) saying:

“The critical question for our generation—and for every generation— 
is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the 
friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and 
all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties 
you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no 
human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with 
heaven, if Christ were not there? “ 

I mean like WAOW? How hard does that hit you? Well it hit me hard.

I think I better go talk to God, tell Him where I am and ask him where He wants me to be. I thank Him that its not my love for Him that counts but His deep, relentless, overwhelming love for me :).

In this second part I am going to write about the stream of the emerging church called the “emergent liberals”, or more commonly the “emergent church”. Recently this stream has come under harsh criticism…. a lot of unfounded criticism.

What is the “emergent church”?

An emergent church is one that aligns itself with an organization called the “emergent village”. This organization was started in the late 1990s by a group of pastors. Most recognizable are Brian McLaren and Doug Paggit.

The definition the emergent village gives to itself is:

“Emergent Village began as a group of friends who gathered under the auspices and generosity of Leadership Network in the late 1990s. We began meeting because many of us were disillusioned and disenfranchised by the conventional ecclesial institutions of the late 20th century. The more we met, the more we discovered that we held many of the same dreams for our lives, and for how our lives intersected with our growing understandings of the Kingdom of God.”

Something that may be worrying to discover is that the emergent village has no statement of faith. This means that on one Sunday you could go to two different “emergent” churches and hear different doctrine preached. This is why it is very dangerous to label the whole emergent church as “heresy” or “wrong”.

The emergent church has been given a lot of criticism because it is very liberal with some of its doctrine. The emergent church would be keen to re-evaluate scripture to see what it has to say to our postmodern world. Some questions pastors have brought up are (NOTE not all pastors of emergent churches ask these questions):

1) Was Jesus fully God? Not new thinking as a group of people called the Donatists that were about in Pauls day believed Jesus was not God when he died on the cross.

2) Did Jesus die to take away our sins? (deny Penal Substitution)

3) Is Hell real?

4) Is homosexuality a sin?

While some of these questions may sound worrying, I must stress not all pastors ask these questions.

Because the emergent church is a stream of the emerging church, it shares the same ethos of the emerging church in how it re-evaluates what it is doing to reach people. It is interesting to discover that some emergent churches do not have church buildings but met in places like coffee shops, bars or even nightclubs.

In conclusion I think we should be slow to criticize the emergent church. Too often we criticize things based on the bad we heard from other people. I encourage everyone reading this to check out some of the pastors of the emergent church. My personal favorite is Rob Bell who preaches at Mars Hill church, Michigan.

We also have to remember to test all we hear with scripture. This even includes what we hear from our own pastor!

I would also like to hit out against those who say the emergent church is “heresy” and shouldn’t be called a church. I say “wise up”. Any church that preaches that Christ was truly the one true God and though his death and resurrection we are saved by grace, should be classed as a church.

I would also like to say that all this tagging hurts the unity of the church. Maybe soon the church will stand in unity all over the world to proclaim the good news all over the world.

I don’t confess to know everything about today’s church, but I have been asked to write on what I do know about the emerging church by a few guys. So I am going to write on the differences between the “emerging” church and the “emergent” church. Much confusion has been caused so much, so that the terms have been used interchangeably, which cannot be done when you know the differences.

So yea in this blog post I am going to explain the “emerging” church.

What is the emerging church?

The emerging church is an umbrella term used to describe churches being planted across the globe today but especially in the world centre of culture, America. There are four prominent streams of the emerging church which are The emerging evangelists, The house church evangelists, The emerging reformers and emergent liberals.

You may not have heard of some of these streams although you may have heard of some of the pastors who pastor these types of churches. For example a personal favorite of mine, Mark Driscoll, pastors a church called Mars Hill which is an emerging reformation church. You may also have heard of Rob Bell and Brain McLaren who are part of the emergent liberal stream, which usually goes under the term “emergent” church.

An example of a church closer to home that has the same style as an emerging evangelistic church is the church I belong to, Green Pastures. The church holds Scripture in high authority but is not afraid to use different modern methods of reaching out into the community.

Basically most emerging churches have the same beliefs that:

1)The world is changed: This is true as the world has changed drastically in the last 20 years in regards to advancements in science and technology. It has also seen the rise of the Internet which has changed how people communicate and conduct business. The world will continue to develop and the emerging church is making the point that the church needs to continue to advance. This means the church can stay relevant in a world where the church has been seen as ill-relevant.

2)Older methods don’t work- This is true, as gone are the days that everyone when to church out of duty. The church needs to attract new members using different methods that were used in the past. Again it goes back to the church being relevant to today’s culture, which is soo clearly is.

3)Church needs to assume a missionary pattern- Common church practice has usually been to place emphasis on sending missionaries to foreign countries but less emphasis on missionaries to the surrounding communities. This is good but the emerging church has looked at the model we see in Acts 1:8 and has been focusing on the surrounding communities THEN foreign countries.

Differences between an emerging church and a traditional (fundamental) church is the use of modern technology, modern buildings, use of media, different worship styles and use of art as well as many more differences.

So whats the problem? The emerging church has been criticized by many who see the emergent liberal stream of the emerging church as a pattern followed by all the other streams. This criticism is untrue and is not based on fact. I will go into the emergent liberal stream in my next blog.

David