Finding Out More

I took some time today to browse through Pastor Sivin Kit’s blog and Brian McLaren’s website to look for more articles and information on the emergent. I got to read a few good articles in ‘Christianity Today’ and some responses to them. I also found out that there is actually an emergent Malaysia yahoo group! While reading some of the posts, I came across this interesting quote:

D. L. Moody's reply to one who was criticizing his preaching and evangelism methods in the late 1800s, "What method are you using to witness?" To which the critic stammered something like, "Uh, I don't witness much." And Moody's reply was, "Well, I like my method over no method at all."

My first thought after reading this is that the guy criticizing D. L. Moody sounds just like me! I am sometimes so critical about what churches are doing, that I forget that I am much worse off not doing anything at all!

After today, what do I know about the emergent? First of all, it is a conversation; a dialogue. McLaren refuses to call it a movement. It is a conversation that is being carried out throughout Christian communities all over the world. These people are trying to see what God is doing in the world and how they can be part of what God is doing. They sense that Christianity needs to be redefined in the context of today’s postmodern culture, yet remain true to the Spirit of God and the Word of God. They believe that much of what we call ‘Christianity’ today has been greatly affected by culture. It is time to sift these cultural identities out and to find out what it really means to follow Jesus in this age. This includes being more mission-oriented:

Yet recently McLaren has started to sketch the outlines of his vision of a postmodern church. He sketches a big circle labeled "self," a smaller circle next to it labeled "church," and a tiny circle off to the side labeled "world."
"This has been evangelicalism's model," he says. "Fundamentally it's about getting yourself 'saved'—in old-style evangelicalism—or improving your life in the new style. Either way, the Christian life is really about you and your needs. Once your needs are met, then we think about how you can serve the church. And then, if there's anything left over, we ask how the church might serve the world."

He starts drawing again. "But what if it went the other way? This big circle is the world—the world God loved so much that he sent his Son. Inside that circle is another one, the church, God's people chosen to demonstrate his love to the world. And inside that is a small circle, which is your self. It's not about the church meeting your needs, it's about you joining the mission of God's people to meet the world's needs." ~ Andy Crouch, ‘The Emergent Mystique’, Christianity Today.

It may also include rethinking about what the good news really is. Is it just about saving souls? Is it just about getting to Heaven? Or could it be more than that?

Whichever direction it is that the Emergent is going, I really do admire their approach. There is no criticism and condemnation of previous generations and other schools of thought. There is no pride. They do not try to break out of the church to form a new denomination, but rather, they seek to bring a change in their own churches and denominations. They do not impose their reasoning and ideas on others who cannot accept it, but instead, they accept that God still has a role for these people in His kingdom and in the world today. They do not claim to know everything; neither do they claim to have answers to every question. They themselves are unsure of where all these conversations are going, yet they believe that God will bring about the necessary changes in His own time.

Emergent, whose leaders are evangelicalism's own sons and daughters, may yet contribute something more profound than one more fleeting form of cultural relevance. At least that's what Rob Bell hopes. "People don't get it," he told me. "They think it's about style. But the real question is: What is the gospel?" That question, of course, is not new. It was asked by, among others, a devout young German monk named Martin Luther who found church increasingly dissatisfying. His answer, rooted in Scripture, changed the direction of Christian history at a moment of epochal cultural change. Is it possible that a compelling new answer could emerge from McLaren's "conversation"? ~ Andy Crouch, ‘The Emergent Mystique’, Christianity Today.