We had the second Emergent conversation last Saturday... a time of fun, food, sharing and brainstorming. Finally managed to put a face to Jade and Donald.
"What should the church look like today? What's the greatest burden in my heart?"
In my lil' discussion group, we sense a convergence of burden for 'submergent' mission.
Different people join the Emergent from different angles... Worship. Social action. Being church. For me, apologetics.
There's some concern about whether the movement will cause resistance to change? And the increasing attention (even bullets) that Emergent has been getting lately...
I have a feeling that if we do 'critique from within', we should be OK.
Similarly we should be mature enuff to handle constructive critiques from folks who see things differently. Correction may not be motivated entirely by a lack of love.
Had some stimulating/enlightening mamak chats with a friend... I am frankly somewhat concerned about how influential postmodern language theory is.
There is nothing outside of language.
We're trapped in a language-constructed reality, which does not refer to some real extra-cultural or metaphysical essence of some sort.
I wonder, how then can we use theological statements like "Jesus is Lord" in a universal way that transcends culture? How does it translate into evangelism?
Is faith a wager only? Or is there also a reasonable basis?
Is the Bible a record of fallen man's attempt to progressly discover truth? Or is it a revelation of God who is able to communicate truly via fallible people?
These are some weighty issues, which will affect our 'missional approach'.
I dunno the answers, maybe somehow we can still be faithful to the gospel given this framework... and I'm patiently waiting to see how it can be done.
It's good to explore issues within a fellowship of friends, engaged in a dialogue in this exciting time in which we live in.
PS:For those interested in a kind of 5-views book, SUFES carries "The Church In Emerging Culture" (ed Leonard Sweet) featuring dialogue between
Andy Crouch – Re:Generation Quarterly editor
Michael Horton – Reformed theologian
Frederica Mathewes-Green – Orthodox commentator
Brian D. McLaren – Emergent senior fellow
Erwin Raphael McManus – pastor of Mosaic church
"What should the church look like today? What's the greatest burden in my heart?"
In my lil' discussion group, we sense a convergence of burden for 'submergent' mission.
Different people join the Emergent from different angles... Worship. Social action. Being church. For me, apologetics.
There's some concern about whether the movement will cause resistance to change? And the increasing attention (even bullets) that Emergent has been getting lately...
I have a feeling that if we do 'critique from within', we should be OK.
Similarly we should be mature enuff to handle constructive critiques from folks who see things differently. Correction may not be motivated entirely by a lack of love.
Had some stimulating/enlightening mamak chats with a friend... I am frankly somewhat concerned about how influential postmodern language theory is.
There is nothing outside of language.
We're trapped in a language-constructed reality, which does not refer to some real extra-cultural or metaphysical essence of some sort.
I wonder, how then can we use theological statements like "Jesus is Lord" in a universal way that transcends culture? How does it translate into evangelism?
Is faith a wager only? Or is there also a reasonable basis?
Is the Bible a record of fallen man's attempt to progressly discover truth? Or is it a revelation of God who is able to communicate truly via fallible people?
These are some weighty issues, which will affect our 'missional approach'.
I dunno the answers, maybe somehow we can still be faithful to the gospel given this framework... and I'm patiently waiting to see how it can be done.
It's good to explore issues within a fellowship of friends, engaged in a dialogue in this exciting time in which we live in.
PS:For those interested in a kind of 5-views book, SUFES carries "The Church In Emerging Culture" (ed Leonard Sweet) featuring dialogue between
Andy Crouch – Re:Generation Quarterly editor
Michael Horton – Reformed theologian
Frederica Mathewes-Green – Orthodox commentator
Brian D. McLaren – Emergent senior fellow
Erwin Raphael McManus – pastor of Mosaic church
Comments
On concerns about the nature of theological language ... I found Maggi Dawn's extended blogs on Words and the Word helful and enlightening http://maggidawn.typepad.com/maggidawn/words_and_the_word/index.html
hey .. after the Diet of worms thingy I suddenly "saw" you in a talk show .. David Lettuce-man show. :-)
"He says he believes unerringly in all the parts of the Creed, as it is understood and practised by the Church, with the exception of one: the view that the Bible as the inspired word of God - by which is meant a text dictated by God himself to human secretaries, every word of which - indeed, every comma, every dot of the i and cross of the t - is God's own words."
Hmmm... Which ancient creed does in fact teach that? I'm sure she's aware that most card-carrying evangelicals do not subscribe to the 'dictation' theory of inspiration! heheh.... are we reacting against a straw man here?