Emerging
catches into one term the global reshaping of how to "do church" in
postmodern culture. While there are good as well as naughty or bad consequences
of opting for a postmodern stance (and not all in the emerging movement are as
careful as they should be), as Christians we can rightfully embrace
certain elements of postmodernity.
Some view
the emerging church as they live with, work with, and converse with
postmoderns, accepting their postmodernity as a fact of life in their world.
Such Christians view postmodernity as a present condition into which we are
called to proclaim and live out the gospel. Many would adapt to this view of
not denying the truth, they don't deny that Jesus Christ is truth, and they don't
deny the Bible is truth.
On the
other hand are some of emerging postmodernity attracts all the attention. Some
have chosen to minister as postmoderns. That is, they embrace the idea that we
cannot know absolute truth, or, at least, that we cannot know truth absolutely.
They speak of the end of metanarratives and the importance of social location
in shaping one's view of truth. They frequently express nervousness about
propositional truth.
What does an emerging church really mean especially in our
post modern culture?
Emerging churches are
communities that practice the way of Jesus within postmodern cultures. This
definition encompasses nine practices. Emerging churches (1) identify with the
life of Jesus, (2) transform the secular realm, and (3) live highly communal
lives. Because of these three activities, they (4) welcome the stranger, (5)
serve with generosity, (6) participate as producers, (7) create as created
beings, (8) lead as a body, and (9) take part in spiritual activities.
The best I
would describe it as is that our church today need to be relevant to our
culture and way of doing things. We need to be conservative in knowing
what we believe but as to the balance of "Form & Function",
sometimes we ought to be liberal. Of course being careful not to step out
of what the word of God says.
Theophiloas Daniel
The Emerging Church...so much emphasis on the way men "do church" and more and more inclination towards the culture of the world. Yes, the danger of conforming to the patterns of the world. Great dependence on methods and creativity. I wonder where is the dependence on the Holy Spirit? Coming back to Acts 1:8 it is the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon the church that makes the church Christ's witnesses near and far. And remembering Jesus, his apostles and disciples, they don't follow the trend of culture. In fact, the gospel has always been counter-culture. In Acts 14,17,18 Paul never compromised in the preaching of the gospel. Just a thought on perspectives. It is good to have creative ways and methods in evangelism or missions, but the church should always depend on "Holy Spirit's way" rather than the ways of men or the culture of the city.
ReplyDeleteThank you for blogging about "Emerging Church". I think you may have to define what is "Postmodernism", which can be a broad topic (even Millard Erickson spares one chapter in his "Christian Theology" on this word). It will be great if you can also suggest a few books on "Emerging Church" to your reader.
ReplyDeleteBased on the nine practices of "doing church the 'Emerging' way", I find it very biblical. In fact, it seems to me that these practices were the social ethos of the early Church. Take for example, in the life of Paul, we can see that he practiced these nine practices in his ministry. He championed 'community living' in the churches he started. He proclaimed that there is neither Jews nor Greeks. The Gospel that he proclaimed in based on the life of Jesus. He reached out to those in the cities (or market place if you prefer). He raised up leaders and created ministry opportunity. He was a pioneer and he died as a martyr (according to tradition). I don't see why Evangelicals pastors disagree with the "Emerging Church".
Perhaps can you point out to me why conservative pastors are so against the Emergent movement? Why are they against a movement, which is so biblical? What "sacred cow" has the Emergent movement tried to abolish?
This is a good topic for you to reflect further. It may be the key to solve all, if not some of the conflicts between the old and new generation Christians. Don't just provide descriptions, go deeper to find your answers. Your research experience will not be meaningful unless you go deep enough till you find answers to your questions.
Keep blogging okay! Shalom.
there's an interesting dialogue going on about the emergent church over at Tabitha's blog. u should take a read. i'm lazy to summarise it here.
ReplyDeletehttp://speakingtheologically.blogspot.com/2012/09/what-is-church.html
Yap =) Am following the discussion on tabs blog. But like pastor victor, "I don't see why Evangelicals pastors disagree with the "Emerging Church"?
DeleteIs the emergent church really that "relativistic" as we make them out to be? Looking at Dan Kimball's Vintage Faith Church website, the whole idea of "Vintage" is to show they are rooted in the "scriptural truths and doctrines that have been held throughout the 2,000 year history of the church which we as Vintage Faith Church believe are central to the Christian faith."
In addition to that, if I remember correctly, there was a lecturer that mentioned the doctrine of trinity is still in development and to think our generation is the "one" to finally figure it out would be arrogance. So, here we see that even core doctrines are brought into question in the academics. That being said, should we then strictly penalize the Emergent Church over their humble theology approach whereby "we approach the Scriptures recognizing our inadequacies as human beings to determine with 100% certainty every single thing in the Bible."
Part of the problem I see is the Emergent Church is that the movement is so diverse its hard to pinpoint or defend the allegations. Perhaps taking a case study, say Kimball's Church, will help us along in regards to discussion. Then we can really have something concrete to work on.
Yes umeng, I find Dan Kimball's church very biblical, going back to the roots in early Christianity, with their strong belief in the Nicene Creed, they are holistic in their ministries and is most important a missional church. They are doing church in the modern way.
DeleteI guess how Emerging churches conduct themselves, is bit different from what the normal church would do, but it does not mean they are not biblically based. They don't do things traditional churches do, like Eva pointed to Acts. One of them is, membership is not compulsory. Well, you are welcome to my church and we can bury you if your church doesn't :)Ok, this is not funny.
ReplyDeleteIt is still not a perfect church, and the biggest loophole I find is sin can easily seeps in...I recalled reading the first gay church in Malaysia few years back. But in the interview, the pastor seems to be vague about his stand: He accepts the gays, but what about the wrongs? While I'm into 'championing the community living', these Emergents have to be extremely careful. False prophets would come, heresies would influence members, etc. I hope they will be more firm in their stand. They look bit wishy-washy.
After all, human is still human...and we shouldn't be too comfortable.
In Jim Belcher's 'Deep Church', he fell back in the traditional church after a short period with Emergent movement, because there is a structure, and structure is security.
Kevin DeYoung wrote, suddenly God's words being examined not thoroughly, but propositionally.
I'm still chewing this out, and part of my struggle is that while I love community-based church, do we want to follow the Emergent's way, or Jesus way? Jesus, doesn't have a church during His time, but effectively drawing a large pool of Christians, till today. :)
The church has evolved over time and pastors are taking on new roles and creating many more opportunities for members to serve God. The needs of members today differs from those of old but yet the one need that still remains is the need of God's intervention and His touch upon their lives. There is a desire to see God being true to His Word and for His presence to be felt in their lives. There are many ways of conducting the affairs of church in our times but the question remains "Where is God in all that happens?" Is God silent to his "flock" ? The emergent church takes place but will people still worship God even if it inconvenient to go to church? Will there be a surety that people will enjoy God once a church has been tailored to meet with the demands of the times? Such questions are still unanswered and it is unreasonable to expect a satisfactory answer to these questions but I place them here so that we can ponder about these questions and others in the face of the emergent church. I believe the good old saying "change the methods but not the content of the message" carries much weight in the face of this new trend of doing Church.
Delete