Comments

I don't think the link is working but Chris's is:

http://cwillz.com/2009/04/03/the-emerging-church-as-its-proponents-and-critics-see-it/

Thank the Lord this weed of a movement is
being exposed for what it is. It tried and succeeded
in some cases , to lead young believers to compromise
the Word of God and their own salvation. They try to
make a person feel good about ditching the Gospel
for drinking, smoking, indulging in the culture that
leads them away from God and family, and then feeling
superior to traditional, honest, missions loving Christians.
They decieve emergent followers into thinking that
caring about the poor means bashing those who are
actually caring and taking care of the poor 24/7.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The Parable of the Weeds
24Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
27"The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?'
28" 'An enemy did this,' he replied.
"The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'
29" 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' "
Matthew 13: 24-30

Andy,
I would not call myself emergent, but I do take issue with your comment. (not about replacing the gospel) you refer to culture as if it is the problem, culture is no more the problem than the fruit of the tree of KoG&E was, those that would say the fruit, the culture, the ... (whatever it is that you tend to notice can be abused) are gnostics. I think people like to deem certain substances as evil so as to not allow people the option of enjoying or abusing. adam did this with eve, god said don't eat, adam said don't even look. i digress, the point is is that you will never be able to reach out to people with the gospel by having all these extra biblical rules that insulate you from the people who need Jesus, not to mention the fact that by adding your rules as an addendum to God's rules expresses your low view of God and His Holiness. Adding to His rules indicate a lack of trust in God and the Holy Spirit working in peoples life. i might add one more thing, adding to scripture keeps people poor spiritually, it focuses their faith on themselves and not on God.
Cheers,
Stephan

Scott McKnight is so nervous and defensive in
this video. Where is his peace and joy.?
Selling out and knowing it brings misery.
Tony Jones is another spoiled guy who has no
idea how blessed he is. A orphan is Haiti
would give anything to have had his life
as a child.

I think Scot is getting fed up with people making abstract, obscure generalizations that people are making about the Emerging church. People like DeYoung are saying that because people like Doug Pagitt proclaim a universal gospel and Brian McLaren's eschatology comes across as liberal, that this is WHAT makes up ALL THINGS emerging!

Like Scot said, you won't find people like Rick McKinley, Dan Kimball, or Andrew Jones because theologically there's not much too disagree with. These people consider themselves "evangelical" at least theologically. Scot is saying that you cannot lump everyone who is re-thinking church and ecclesiology into the "liberal" camp of the emerging church or Emergent Village!

It's been nearly 4-5 years of talking about the "emerging church" and still people are essentially throwing out the baby with the bathwater when it comes to discussing emerging movement. They only listen to the people they disagree with and look for criticism and then attach these criticism to the ENTIRE conversation! That is extremely arrogant and extremely unprofessional!

All the talk about the emerging church being so diverse that it is impossible to authentically identify and critique its most prominent features and leaders became threadbare and hackneyed long ago. The same year that Robert Webber's Listening to the Beliefs of the Emerging Church came out (2007), featuring a contribution by Mark Driscoll, the sole conservative voice, Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones issued An Emergent Manifesto of Hope, with its incessant, naïve, anachronistic attack on "the Enlightenment-shaped Reformation" (105). The emerging church wants to be evaluated on the basis of its presumed theological diversity while advancing a theologically-monolithic agenda. It's a scam.