OurColony.net

A Good Primer to the Diversity of the Emerging Church

Customer Rating:
Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches lays out the theological foundations for five different "emerging churches." The book features five Emerging pastors explaining some of the core beliefs of their congregations. Mark Driscoll, John Burke, Dan Kimball, Doug Pagitt, and Karen Ward each contribute a chapter and responses to the other chapters.

Mark Driscoll goes first. His chapter is a no-holds-barred "This is what the Bible says and that's what we believe" statement of faith. He focuses on three areas: Scripture, the Trinity, and the penal-substitutionary view of the atonement. He ends with a call for the emerging church to maintain belief in the traditional understanding of hell. Mark challenges the idea that theology must be changeable in order to reach a postmodern generation.

John Burke goes next. His chapter is a call to Christians to be involved in "messy ministry." We are called to welcome people into our fellowship and lead them out of their brokenness. He, like Driscoll, believes Scripture is the foundation of all we do.

Dan Kimball also affirms Scripture as the ultimate authority for Christians, though he places more emphasis on the Nicene Creed than the others do. Where Kimball differs from Driscoll and Burke is in his call to humility and the embrace of "the mysterious." He believes that the afterlife is mysterious, the ways God work are mysterious, and that we should not try to be people who have all the answers.

Doug Pagitt's chapter focuses on "embodied theology" and epitomizes the current movement towards an "everchanging" theology that is never permanent. Within a few pages of space, he criticizes the Reformation, Augustine and the idea of Scripture as ultimate authority. He also leaves as an open-ended question the issue of sexual behaviors expressly condemned in Scripture.

Karen Ward goes last. Her chapter is the most creative, as it incorporates blog posts from people in her congregation. Of most interest in her chapter is her failure to mention "sin" as our biggest problem and her downplaying of the significance of preaching and the cross of Christ. Still, she has some good ideas to offer, such as seeing the idea of discipleship as a life-transforming apprenticeship.

I appreciate Robert Webber's oversight of the book. He was right to choose pastors as contributors. I would've liked to see Erwin McManus and Rob Bell included, but I suppose there wasn't enough room for everyone.

Theologically, I am closest to Mark Driscoll, (though with a somewhat different tone). Throughout the book, Driscoll sticks out like a sore thumb, but I'm not sure that's necessarily a bad thing. I was surprised Mark would still fit the "emerging" category, but I guess it is difficult to ignore his incredible ministry to postmodern Seattle.

After reading Pagitt's and Ward's chapters, I was left scratching my head and wondering, "Why did Jesus have to die? And why is Christianity any better an option than the other religions out there?"

I predict that many of the more vocal and prominent Emerging churches and pastors will continue heading down the path of last century's liberalism and that the Emerging pastors who hold to traditional theology will continue to distance themselves from the label. This is already happening in some circles. "Missional" is now a term for many who like the incarnational aspect of "emerging" but don't want to be associated with all the sloppy theology.

Anyone who wants to know more about the Emerging Church should read this book. The debates are civil, and the conversations are enlightening. At the end, though, one sets down the book, puzzling over the profound diversity within this movement and wondering how long such diversity can be sustained.

Insight into Nothing

Customer Rating:
Webber's book borrows a helpful and increasingly popular format for this work: five essays by different authors, which responses to each essay by the other four. It's interesting to see a brief window into the minds of a few names that are floating around in the Christian conference circles, but ultimately you're not likely to learn anything about theology by reading the book.

Driscoll rehashes the old evangelical conservativism. Everything is a quote from the Bible, and women aren't allowed to be Pastors. Kimball and Burke represent a sensitive kind of conservativism that is more willing to talk with people of different beliefs without jumping to correct or scold. However, knowing something of their beliefs, there is the same militant fundamentalism underneath. They've just updated their worship services with powerpoint and candles, and in fairness to them, they really care about evangelism. Pagitt and Ward are deconstructionists. They prefer casting doubt on any kind of definitive beliefs to taking stands. Ward pastors a church of only about 80 people in a densely populated city and is living out the same fate of most liberal, mainline churches. Pagitt wanders aimlessly from vague affirmations of pantheism, relativism, Pelagianism, and process theology. He talks about it all as if it were revolutionary, instead of just rehashing the liberal meanderings of the last fifty years.

One wonders about the arrogance of those who have nothing new to say but claim the name of "movement" for themselves. None of them really says anything of theological import. The only merit of the book is that it is what the title says, so if you really want to know what they think, this is the kind of book you'd want. The problem is that it's not clear why we should want to know what they think.

Outstanding read!

Customer Rating:
Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches - Five Perspectives is a book edited by Robert Webber that contains theological essays by five leaders of the emerging church. Those of you who have any familiarity with the emerging church know how difficult it is to pin down anything, so this book provides a little glimpse into the theology of a few successful emerging churches.

There are five essays, each followed by responses by the other four authors. The overwhelming tone of this book is one of friendship and respect. Even when there are radically different views the responses provide a glimpse of how I believe God intended us to work through these things. There is no shouting, no condemning, there is love and respect. It is wonderful to behold.

There were a few quotes from Dan Kimball that I thought were worth sharing about the beliefs of the emerging church:

----

If we are only trying to be "relevant" (a word churches love to use), by adding candles and coffee, using art in worship, and playing hip music, this is not good. Those are only surface fixes. If we merely tweak the surface level of things, we are missing the whole point of cultural change and what the emerging church is about. That is only a re-fluffing of the pillows. I believe true emerging churches must go deep within, and from the inside out, rethink, reshape, and revalue how we go about everything as culture changes. We must rethink leadership, church structure, the role of a pastor, spiritual formation, how community is lived out, how evangelism is done, how we express our worship etc.

...

But nevertheless, the emerging church needs to revere, teach, respect, discuss, and study the Bible. I think all the more in our emerging culture, do we need to create a culture of hungering for the Scriptures.

----

I really like what Dan Kimball had to say. I think he "nailed it" with regards to some of the common misconceptions about the emerging church (e.g. it's all about worship style). I also found this line from Webber's conclusion very intriguing:

----

First, these leaders remind us that we live in a new world. This assertion doesn't mean that emergents feel the old modern world is completely gone. They acknowledge we live in two worlds-the modern and postmodern. What they ask of us is to get ready for the new world, to recognize that we live in a time of transition, where the old Christendom is dying and the new postmodern world is emerging...the church is in a new missional setting.

----

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in understanding the theology of the emerging church. Although I certainly disagree with some of the points these guys make (as do the other authors in the book), I found the overall tone and "feel" of this book to be very Christ-like and inspiring. God is doing great things with the emerging church. We need to praise Him for raising up leaders like the five essayists in this book and pray for more like them to lead the next generation of the church.

Joel

a conversation between four persons with an interlocutor

Customer Rating:
This book is simply not a conversation (at least not for one of the participants). Further, Mark Driscoll doesn't seem to be listening to any of the other people who contribute to this book.

Driscoll's chapter seems to be a recycled piece of propaganda. His positions are "backed" by scripture references over 200 for his 15 pages. He advocates a "Biblicist" tradition that reads as a very reformed position (with the possible exception of a modified Arminianism or Wesleyanism). Driscoll's responses to the other person's chapters are especially revealing as he labels the other person's positions and then rejects them. For example he dismisses Karen Ward as the pastor of an "average" church and then even questions here leadership because of her gender. He mentions Dan Kimball's cool hair. I found Driscoll's "contribution" to the book to be of very little value. Further, he doesn't seem to be engaged in the emergent conversation unless you count the fact that he recommends Leslie Newbigin and Gruder's books on his website.

John Burke's chapter speaks of the messiness of ministry. He advocates a place where people are accepted and engaged by persons who attempt to incarnate Jesus.

Dan Kimball moves to explain how he moved from being Dispensationalist position to a missional theology. This missional theology is much more mysterious and adventurous than a mathematical puzzle.

Doug Pagitt seeks a theology which is embodied. This theology must be contextual and he argues for thinking in relational terms. I suppose that this chapter aligns most closely with what I think of when it comes to the emergent church.

Karen Ward takes the local theology of the "apostles" of the "Church of the Apostles" located in Seattle. She advocates a communal listening to the Scriptures from the Revised Common Lectionary. Her chapter is an ad hoc correlation of comments from the theological soup of her congregation.

The Theologianhood Of The Believer...

Customer Rating:
...is what emerging churches are about, at least according to this book (with the exception of Mark Driscoll's contributions). I say "contributions" because each of the five contributors not only writes a chapter of his/her own, but responds to each of the chapters by the other contributors. So by the time you've finished the parts written by the contributors, you have a pretty good idea of what the contributors are thinking about things.

In addition, this book contains some context for the conversations of the contributors, provided at the beginning and end by evangelical theologian Robert Webber. He contends American evangelical Christianity is at the beginning of the fourth of four roughly twenty-year cycles, seeking how to interact with a post-Christian, neo-pagan culture, finding that the questions to which they have answers aren't being asked anymore.

The placement of the names on the cover is a pretty accurate reflection of where the contributors are theologically. The only change I would make is swapping Karen Ward and Doug Pagitt.

Each of the five contributors have different diagnoses of the problems with American evangelical Christianity in the early 21st century:

Mark Driscoll says the problem is watering down the truth of Scripture, giving Jesus a makeover to make him more attractive to our culture. His prescription is to unapologetically present the message of Jesus as told by an authoritative Scripture. As I read his words, I remembered Bible teacher J. Vernon McGee saying "The chief sin of the church is ignorance of the word of God."

John Burke says the problem is that American Christians are both hypocritical, unchanged in their character and behavior, and judgemental, believing they have a monopoly on truth. His prescription is to invite people to come as they are, recognizing it might take a while for changes in people to take place.

Dan Kimball says the problem is that we're still stuck with those dispensational end-time charts, and scared that someone is going to ask a question to which we don't know the answer. His prescription is to create a worshipping community of missional theologians, people who are well-versed in the study of the nature of God, and inquiring into religious questions.

Doug Pagitt says the problem is any number of assumptions about the way we do theology, an unwillingness to address new questions raised by scientific advances, and an unwillingness to think about the increasing rate of cultural change. His prescription is to challenge these assumptions and address new cultural realities.

Karen Ward says the problem is the modern pastor-as-CEO model. Her prescription is an apprentice model of discipleship, distributing as much of the mentoring as possible. Her prescription also involves a metaphor of theology as the cooking of tasty, nutritious food, as opposed to the metaphor of theology as architecture.

Robert Webber provides a helpful summary of the contributions in his conclusion section. In my opinion, Webber's Appendix 2, "What is the Ancient-Future Vision?" and Appendix 3, "A Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future" should have been placed immediately after the conclusion section, because Webber just wasn't finished commenting. It is unfortunate that some readers of this book won't read these parts because of where they are placed.

I considered my complaints about the placement of names on the cover, and the placements of the appendices to be insufficient to take the fifth star away from a revealing book about American evangelical Christians in the early 21st century.

Full Disclosure: I attend Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Doug Pagitt, one of the contributors, is my pastor.