Faith, Emerging Church, & Real Life

When I first began to take the path(s) toward church planting I was continually intrigued with new ways of thinking of doing church, being the church, etc. I found that I was not alone in my thoughts. I found people to connect with on web sites like the Ooze, Next Wave, and Allelon; authors who were writing books that were describing what I, too, was feeling deep down inside. People like Brian McLaren, Leonard Sweet, and Mark Driscoll. Without ever immersing myself in the "Emerging Church" conversation (another word we often used back then was the "Postmodern Church"), I watched the tides, and even jumped on a wave and rode now and then.

But then I planted a church. This was now real life. I was no longer chatting on web sites (which, by the way, is a major aspect of participating with the Emerging church. You mean you don't have a blog? You don't even own a computer? You've never heard of Emergent or the Ooze? You don't have any Derek Webb cds? Well, you can't be an Emerging leader... can you???), but now I was trying to live out the "conversations" (buzzword) I was having about the ideal church. Everything was very philosophical until this point. I was so busy that I think my Ooze account ran out (I confess I did renew it). I missed out on Brian McLaren's last three books because I was too busy reinventing my church, finding faith, and being a new kind of Christian. Needless to say I was more ready than I realized. The "conversation" became less important to me. I was no longer interested deconstructing everything. That would prove to be a rather poor way to go about church planting anyway. (Some say that I actually tried it... perhaps I did.)

Anyway, in the meantime I became more interested in focusing on a local group of people and just asking God what HE wanted to do with them in that particular location we happened to be called to minister. I distanced myself from the emerging conversations. Besides, most of the loudest voices all seemed to be people in urban settings, or among cultures that were nothing like where God had called me to preach the Gospel. It didn't make us less emergent because we are in a rural setting. In many ways I have found that there are even more challanges in the rural settings, but that's for another article another time.

Well, recently I began lurking around the emerging conversations and I noticed a very interesting tremor taking place right now. One of the louder voices for the emerging/postmodern scene back in the mid to late 90's, Mark Driscoll, has completely removed himself from all things called "Emerging". Mark is pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Mark is someone I have listened to since 1996, partly because Mars Hill has been uploading his sermons to the internet for free ever since then. But mostly because his way of preaching the gospel resonates within me. His passion for the glory of God in all things. His outspoken, unabashed love for Jesus Christ. And he has a boldness in standing on the truth of the Scripture without getting cheesy, religious, or irrelevant. I would be lying if I said he has not influenced my teaching and preaching of the Word.

Mars Hill was one of the first "postmodern" churches I had ever heard of. Postmodern is an ambiguous term, of course. But in the magazine articles and web sites it seemed to mean a church who was interested in meeting people where they were, a church who was not afraid to uphold community and beauty (the arts) as two of it's greatest values. There is no doubt that he was foundational in what many call today the "emerging church" movement.

So why has Mark today removed himself from the movement? I think for many of the same reasons why I have not been as interested in the "conversations" over the past few years. When I say "postmodern" is an ambiguous term it's true, and there seems to be ambiguity about everything in the emerging church. Ambiguity seems to be theme of all things emerging. Ambiguous towards theology, ambiguous towards scriptural authority, ambiguous toward God's sovereignty. After spending too much time among emerging church conversations one begins to wonder, is anything certain? Is anything absolute? Is anything worth being definitive? I think that's what happened this past week when Brian McLaren (perhaps the Emerging Church leader's most renown spokesman today) submitted an article to Leadership Journal's Blog called Out of Ur with his perspective on homosexuality. Notice what I said, his perspective on homosexuality. "Perspective" seems to be the reigning form of biblical hermeneutic in the Emerging conversations. Of course, that's all we really have to go with, the perspectives of our fallen, three-pound brains to grasp God's truths. But it seems all perspectives can be considered valid today. Nothing is clear. In many ways there seems to no longer be truth, only versions of the truth.

Anyway, here is McLaren's article. And here is Mark Driscoll's response. And then one more response from McLaren. If you took time to read those, you can see what I mean by "tremor". Theologically I agree with Mark, but it's almost hard to see because you have to sift through all of the ugliness and bitter sarcasm in order to find it. Now, I understand why Mark feels the way he does. Here's a couple of excerpts from posts on his own web site that I found myself saying "Amen" to as I read it last week:

In the mid-1990s I was part of what is now known as the Emerging Church and spent some time traveling the country to speak on the emerging church in the emerging culture on a team put together by Leadership Network called the Young Leader Network. But, I eventually had to distance myself from the Emergent stream of the network because friends like Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt began pushing a theological agenda that greatly troubled me. Examples include referring to God as a chick, questioning God’s sovereignty over and knowledge of the future, denial of the substitutionary atonement at the cross, a low view of Scripture, and denial of hell which is one hell of a mistake.

Since that time I have frankly not known what my place is in the greater church. I am part of no denomination and in a city where the evangelical heterosexual male pastors could have a meeting in a phone booth. Theologically I am an old school Bible-thumper, and culturally I am a progressive because my heart burns for the church to be an effective missionary to the culture for the gospel.

Later, in the same post:

Also due out this spring is the book Listening to the Beliefs of Emergent Churches, edited by Robert Webber. In it, John Burke, Dan Kimball, Doug Pagitt, Karen Ward, and I each contribute a chapter on the Trinity, Scripture, and Atonement and then critique each other. It will show the divergent theological camps in the emerging church and you can guess which author defended Pelagius, who was condemned as a heretic at the Council of Carthage in 418 for denying human sinfulness. You can also guess which one said that the atonement is best understood in nonverbal ways such as dancing and painting because faith apparently no longer comes by hearing the Word but by finger painting.

Presently, I’m also writing a book on the atonement with Dr. Gerry Breshears, who is a professor, friend, and former president of the Evangelical Theological Society. We hope to have the book out this year in time for a conference I am speaking at with D.A. Carson, John Piper, David Wells, and Tim Keller, on September 29–30, in Minneapolis for 2,700 Christian leaders. Sadly, it seems a lot of young hip pastors have become too cool for the cross and hopefully the book will help.

Mark is brash. But I tend to agree, I must admit.

However, just when you thought I was about to ordain Mark Driscoll as the next great theological mover and shaker of our generation, he blogged again. Then again. Then again. Mark's blog site is brand new, with only 8 posts. And 7 out of his first 8 entries are brimming with numbers, name dropping, pats on the back (his own), a near boast in how hard it has been to "grow a church to 4000 people", what books he's writing, what conferences he's speaking at, and did I mention NUMBERS? Please understand. I like Mark. I don't know him personally, but I can hear a humble passion for Jesus when he preaches. But so far his writings have been, I guess you can say, not the same. Maybe instead of being the next great theological leader of our generation, he is going to be the next church growth guru of a new generation.

I hope not.

I say all of that to say this. Please note that it is NOT my intention to slander people who are called and loved by God to minster the gospel. But I have learned something this week. And it's just a reminder of the same thing I have learned during this great journey of church planting. The reminder is to not put your faith in ANYONE over Christ (notice I said "over", not "but"). The emerging church doesn't know southeastern Ohio the way we do. In fact, I would contend the greatest "emerging church" leader I have ever met, read, or heard, is living right here among us. It's Keith Wasserman. He's not on the web sites. He's not at the conferences. But he IS in the trenches.

That's where I want to continue to be. I put a lot of links in this post because I encourage you to read, to lurk, to check out what is going on in church and culture. But ultimately it will aways come back to the same thing we have been hit very hard with lately in our worship together... the Supremacy of God. HE is supreme over all things, all people, all nations, all movements. If our church in rural southeastern Ohio should happen to somehow grow to 4000 people, please stop me before I write a book marking "my progress" along the way. Pray that we will always be focused on God. Yes, looking at the culture is important I believe. And there is even a place for recognizing victory and success stories. But everything must be seen through the lens of the supremacy of God. Not vice versa. Lest we forget who is really on the throne.

Comments

[Amy Hoffman]

Man! New name, same game. Ever since Christ came to be the perfect sacrifice for ours sins, people have been having the same conversation - only over different topics. Even the topics do not change so much as the moments they take center stage. The writers of the New Testament confront many of the issues that we face today. And they answered them with the truth passed down since God chose the Jewish nation as his people. Only now, in addition to that tradition, we also have the Holy Spirit to guide us directly. Just as Brian is swayed by the world's opinions, Mark is just as swayed by the bitterness in his heart. You ask me how I know? Well, the fruits are visable.

I must also point to a conversation the Athens house church had a couple of weeks ago about whether we are ashamed of the Gospel/Christ. I mentioned that sometimes it seems that I am shameful and don't provide an answer to someone because I can't formulate one myself. Therefore, it appears that I am shamed in not giving a response or a good one at that. I wonder if Brian would feel better if someone who had a good response were to share it with him.

Anyhow, Chris I can totally see you growing. I am very grateful that God brought me alongside you and April in coming to SE Ohio. I am grateful for your continuing search for a better understanding of who God is. It rubs off.

[Josh Lynch]

Chris, muh man...Great post. You know a good discussion about overarching christian theological trends gets my blood pumping. But then again, it is only a discussion. I have so many thoughts and feelings when I see the book caption down on the bottom right hand side of the root page on "Being where life happens" instead of being in an institutionalized bubble that characterist of American Captialistic/Corporate values, inhibits our ability to do just that.

Brian McLaren is a trender. He does almost use his church as a Christianology Fashion scene. ( is Christianology a word? I guess I just made it.) When I went, it was "Emergent."

Ehh...(sigh)

But without focusing on being the church where people are, what is the church?

Anyway, you can see how much I'm thinking about the subject. Great post.