thanks to www.teampyro.blogspot.comIn part one, you read what the emergent church movement says that they are for. But behind each of their positive statements lies a protest. Being "for" something new means that they are "against" what they are seeing now. Scot McKnight says that, at its heart, the emergent movement is a protest movement.
Read what the emerging church is against, according to McKnight, here.
In that list, if you are like me, you will find much that you agree with. In fact, this is the area where I am definitely on the emerging church's side. What they are protesting against are the same things that John Piper is protesting against in his book "Brothers, We Are Not Professionals."
And the same thing that James White and Tom Ascol were protesting against in my previous post here.
One wonders how anyone could possibly be "pro" for the things that the emergents are against, but clearly there is a large contingency of pastors/churches which are. I'm afraid that a large segment of the Southern Baptist Church is under the spell of professionalism and the Kingdom of God is paying a heavy price for it.
David Wells, in his book "The Courage to Be Protestant," after describing how consumerism in the West drives our culture, describes how pastors have allowed it to drive our churches:
"Why not pitch to them? Why not compete for them? Why not bring into the church the proven techniques of penetration? Why not speak the language of the marketplace...and sell, sell, sell! Why not pitch the church to these consumers as a product, as an experience that will meet the needs they are experiencing in this type of world? Can the church fail to do so and survive? A mailer from a church in Mesa, Arizona reads: 'Is your life everything you want it to be? You hear all kinds of offers to improve your life, but do they work? God is offering you a way to make your life everything you truly want it to be.' So there it is! The difference between this offer and the others is that this one works. Here the customer can match self-perceived need with a product. And bingo! Success!
Wells then warns:
All consumers, we need to remember, are sovereign, and the consuming impulse, once it enters the church makes individual preferences the deciding factor, the driving factor in what the church becomes. These preferences become the standard by which the church is measured. Can we argue against success? I believe we can. More than that I believe we should What we have here are churches reconfigured around evangelism that abandons much of the fabric of biblical faith to succeed. They have taken a part of that faith, modified it in deference to consumer impulse and then made of that part all there is to the Christian faith. Here is a methodology for success that can succeed with very little truth; indeed its success depends on not showing much truth." (pp. 51-52).
This is proven when you find the same marketing principles used to grow Christian churches taught to Jewish and even Muslim groups to increase their numbers as Rick Warren did last year (from the Christian Post- original article here):
Rick Warren Counsels Jews on Recruiting Congregants
Megachurch pastor Rick Warren attended a large Reform Jewish gathering last week to share tips on how to build a community.
Warren - who saw his church expand from seven people meeting in his house to 22,000 people worshipping in an expansive treasure island-like campus – said the key to holding onto visitors is involving them in a small group.
“We believe congregations have to grow large and small at the same time,” Warren said Thursday, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper. “We don’t really feel like people are in the congregation until they’re in small groups.”
The “Purpose-Driven” pastor spoke to thousands of Jewish leaders Thursday night at the Union for Reform Judaism’s biennial convention in San Diego.
With the holiday season in mind, Warren urged clergy to take advantage of crowded events to publicize other programs so people can get involved in the community through smaller groups.
“There are some principles that apply regardless of our faith, if it’s Jewish or Christian,” he said at the convention.
One of his principles: “Just be nice to people. Smile.”
After Warren spoke a few minutes at the podium, he sat alongside two popular Southern California rabbis for a casual talk about strengthening congregational life.
Other advice given by Warren included looking at everything from an outsider’s viewpoint, such as simplifying worship terms, making strangers feel welcome, and encouraging interaction.
“The congregation that really loves people, you have to lock the doors to keep people out,” said Warren, whose Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., is scheduled to host 14 Christmas services this year with an estimated crowd of 45,000 people.
The biennial meeting of the largest Jewish denomination in North America began Dec. 12 and concluded on Sunday.
Other guests at the conference included the Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners and Dr. Ingrid Mattson, president of the Islamic Society of North America.Okay, after reading that, I hope you are shaking your head in disbelief as I am.
Clearly, if the techniques work in a Jewish context or a Muslim context, then they are techniques that don't require the truth of Jesus Christ. Indeed, as Wells pointed out, they succeed all the better when the truth is not made clear.
Where do we get these ideas from? Clearly not from the Bible.
2 Corinthians 4:7-11 tells us: "We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh."
I don't see much marketing going on there, do you?
We could go on and on over this subject, but lets suffice it to say that many of the complaints of the state of the church today that the emergents have, we would likely agree with.
The problem is not in their complaints, it is in their solutions.
More on that next time.
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