Entries categorized as ‘Emergent church’
So says Christian Research Net:
“In 2006 Tony Jones of the Emergent Church, wrote a little book called Divine Intervention: Encountering God Through the Ancient Practice of Lectio Divina. Of course it was endorsed by his friend “author/networker” Brian McLaren – whom Jones lists among his “faith heroes.” McLaren says that Jones has provided “an important resource” for the “spiritual formation” of your youth.
“In a new article by Ken Silva at Apprising Ministries you’ll clearly see that what they aren’t telling you is that this so-called spiritual formation is the counterfeit Christianity of contemplative spirituality which flowered in the antibiblical monastic traditions of apostate Roman Catholicism. The grave spiritual danger is these so-called “ancient spiritual practices” are in reality doctrines of devils which came through seducing spirits and are the modern equivalent of sacrificing your youth through the spiritual fire of Molech.”
Categories: Book Talk · Emergent church · Theology News
The following was posted Monday by Ingrid at Slice of Laodicea. It bears repeating:
A.W. Pink wrote of another gospel and what it often looks like. We can identify this in any number of false teachings today where a Global Peace Plan is substituted for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, where we are told to find our Best Life Now instead of laying it down for the Lord, and where emerging church leaders tell us to find God in a new social gospel instead of His Word. Here’s what Pink said:
The gospel of Satan is not a system of revolutionary principles, nor yet a program of anarchy. It does not promote strife and war, but aims at peace and unity. It seeks not to set the mother against her daughter nor the father against his son, but fosters the fraternal spirit whereby the human race is regarded as one great ‘brotherhood.’ It does not seek to drag down the natural man, but to improve and uplift him. It advocates education and cultivation and appeals to ‘the best that is within us.’ It aims to make this world such a comfortable and congenial habitat that Christ’s absence from it will not be felt and God will not be needed.
–A.W. Pink
Categories: Emergent church · The Gospel · Theology
Ron Foster, a former member and leader in the emergent Mosaic church where Erwin McManus is “distinguished futurist and cultural architect,” gives a scathing review of McManus sermon entitled “Is God in Your Future?” at Christian Worldview Network.
Ron begins:
“I recently had a chance to hear Erwin McManus’s sermon entitled “Is God in Your Future?” While not every reader has had the opportunity to hear the sermon, I still think you will benefit from reading this critique due to the dangerous nature of Erwin’s message. The thesis of his message is that we can be creators of our own glorious future with God. We need to escape from all these fatalistic or legalistic religions where we blindly believe everything is controlled and determined ahead of time by God. We need to free ourselves from the rules that are restraining our creative energy. Then we can rise up in freedom and create the future we have always dreamed of. God Himself has got our backs in this whole liberating and revolutionary process, giving us power and esteem to do all this.”
Ron concludes his review with this:
“Erwin is a talented and passionate communicator. His messages are inspiring and enthusiastic, and they always call the listener to action. But Erwin’s message is unbiblical. Alistair Begg said in a recent Podcast:
There’s a way to preach the Bible unbiblically…You can use the Bible as the springboard for all kinds of ideas, can’t you? Look around in here and find something that fits your fancy and then launch a rocket off it. People say, ‘That was amazing, wasn’t it? Remarkable what he got out of that.’ Well of course it is because he put it in before he got it out.” [13]
This quote couldn’t be more apropos. First, Erwin announced to his congregation, “You can create a glorious future for yourself with the help of God.” But in order to defend his man-centered proposition, he had to demolish its chief opponent, Reformed theology, a.k.a. Calvinism. Calvinism is a threat to Erwin’s teachings because it acknowledges God’s sovereign place at the center of all things and emphasizes scriptural authority over experiential authority. He first attacked Calvinism with a sucker punch, pointing out some historical and contemporary bad examples, ones who called themselves Calvinists but abuse the doctrines of grace. Second, he equated Calvinism and the biblical doctrine of election with Israel when they were disobedient to God’s commands. And finally, he conducted this domino activity that was very moving but falls flat on its face when examined more closely. In it, he puts forth his view that election is random and unfair, and that anyone who believes it should seriously reconsider, or at least redefine it for themselves to be more inclusive and man-centered.
I strongly submit that Erwin McManus’s interpretation of scripture must not be embraced as truth. This sermon, “Is God in Your Future?” is not a biblical sermon. Rather, it is a bitter taste of Erwin’s own personal crusade against biblical theology and the sovereignty of God.”
It is worth reading the whole review.
Categories: Emergent church
The folks at Take Back Canada have gathered dozens of resources critically evaluating the “Emerging Church” movement. They see this rapidly growing phenomenon as a danger to conservative evangelicalism. Resources include links to information from John MacArthur, D. A. Carson, Albert Mohler, Ken Silva, Gary Gilley and many others.
Take Back Canada suggests that “no one involved in church leadership should ignore the dangers of the ECM.”
And again they note, “There’s nothing new under the sun. The ECM is just a new version of the liberalism that has plagued the Church for many decades. The teachings of Brian McLaren are more of a persuasive, but subtle, Christian agnosticism than they are the faith once delivered.”
Categories: Emergent church
The following is an excerpt from an interesting and important article by Paul Proctor on a dangerous trend in Evangelicalism that seems to be especially associated with the Emergent church movement:
“Contemplative Spirituality is finding its way into the church these days largely through youth groups, events, conferences, concerts, and coffee houses where Emergent leaders and their wayward wisdom wow young wannabes into mind-numbing mysticism right under the noses of ignorant and/or delinquent parents and pastors who assume their teens are being instructed in the faith of their fathers, having, in absentia, abdicated their spiritual duty over to change agents so they themselves can passionately pursue their own purpose driven lives.
“The seeker-sensitive pulpits of America long ago jettisoned the fear of the Lord and the Gospel of repentance in order to partake in the pragmatic pleasures of personal experience and cuddle in the cozy compromise of consensus, spawning a generation of “Christians” that care not about the absolute truth of God’s Word but only about turning inward for gratification and guidance and outward for adulation and affirmation, just like their PDL parents, making them more compliant to the coming one-world religion of tolerance, diversity and unity. Simply put, Contemplative prayer is quickly becoming the transition tool of choice to ultimately unite a compromised church with a wanton world through mysticism.”
Read the entire article here (sorry, you will have to read it amid all the advertising)
HT: Kenny O. for noting this at Thinkerup.
Categories: Emergent church
The Emergent church, with its liberalizing inclusivism, is beginning to look like the more extreme movement already parading itself around as Progressive Christianity. Steve Muse at Slice of Laodicea points us to The Center for Progressive Christianity as an example of the radical departure from the biblical Christianity that is already among us.
Much of what may be seen here in the presentation and discussion of their “8 Points” is certainly similar to what is being said in the Emergent “conversation.”
As Steve warns, peruse this site with a discerning eye. It is actually quite disturbing to read some of its dreadful misrepresentations of biblical teaching.
Categories: Emergent church
My Journey Into and Out of the Emergent Church
By Jason Carlson
The growing influence of the so-called emergent church movement has generated much interest and debate in recent times. As a columnist for the Christian Worldview Network, people often ask me for my take on the emergent church movement. Thus, the purpose of this article is simply to offer my humble perspective on the emergent church movement, based upon my unique firsthand interactions with many of its leaders, many of whom I count as friends in-spite of my disagreements with them.
My initial entrance into the emergent church conversation came about six years ago while I was a student in seminary. One of the key figures in Emergent, the official title of the organization that is the primary voice for the emergent church movement, Doug Pagitt (Pastor of Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis), is a close friend of mine. Doug had a profound influence on my life during his time as my youth pastor when I was in high school. Between my years in youth group and my entrance into seminary, Doug became intimately involved with many of the key movers and shakers who would eventually form the organization, or “generative friendship” as they call it, which is now Emergent. During these formative years of Emergent, actually back then it was called The Terra Nova Project, Doug invited me to many of the early gatherings of this group, it was at these events where I was introduced to and spent much time with people like Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, Pagitt and others. (more…)
Categories: Emergent church
The following is an excerpt from The Emerging Church – Part 1, a series by Gary E. Gilley of Southern View Chapel, Springfield, IL. See here for complete article and here for links to Parts 2 & 3.
Truth claims are held with suspicion within postmodernism and we find a precarious juggling act in emergent circles as they try to reach a wary culture with the claims of Christ. The emerging church is concerned about presenting genuine Christianity in a way the postmodern culture understands. Since the very heart of postmodernity is rejection of absolute authoritative truth, yet Christianity claims to be the proclamation of absolute authoritative truth, a head-on collision is almost unavoidable. What is to be done? Something has to give and that something seems to be truth. McLaren presents their view: (more…)
Categories: Emergent church
In my opinion, most credible critics of the “emergent” school, have effectively waded through the “emerging” rhetoric and successfully “cut to the chase,” helping us quickly see the issues at stake in the evangelical church. Along that line, some insightful critical remarks below are followed by references to online resoures for additional information.
According to D.A. Carson, the emerging church movement “arose as a protest against the institutional church, modernism and seeker-sensitive churches. . . It has encouraged evangelicals to take note of cultural trends and has emphasized authenticity among believers.” At its heart “lies the conviction that changes in the culture signal that a new church is emerging. Christian leaders must therefore adapt to this emerging church. Those who fail to do so are blind to the cultural accretions that hide the gospel behind forms of thought and modes of expression that no longer communicate with the new generation, the emerging generation.” (from Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church, Zondervan, 2005) (more…)
Categories: Emergent church
There is a relatively new movement in evangelical Christianity today called the emerging church or emergent church. What is it? At the risk of oversimplification, it seems to be the incorporation of liberal postmodern philosophy into the church for the purpose of more effectively engaging our multi-cultural western society for Christ – a task, it believes, at which the modern church has failed. The goal of engaging our society for Christ is of course a noble one. However, in order to make it more effective, the Emerging church has decided it should be done in a spirit of inclusiveness where doctrine should not stand in the way of “the story of acceptance for all.”
According to the Theopedia article, it is described by its own proponents as “a growing generative friendship among missional Christian leaders seeking to love our world in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” It notes that the leading voice for the emerging church movement is the Emergent Village, which began as a group of Christian leaders gathered under the auspices of Leadership Network in the late 1990s and formally organized in 2001. In their own words, “they began meeting because many were disillusioned and disenfranchised by the conventional ecclesial institutions of the late 20th century.”
(more…)
Categories: Emergent church
