Salmagundi
Leftovers from a week to remember:
- Turns out the first three bombs exploded almost simultaneously. The "official" timeline, cited in the note I added to my Day Seven post, was wrong.
- Steven King (features editor of the Belfast Telegraph, who is a totally different kind of writer from horror novelist Stephen King) was in London during the terrorist attacks, and he wrote a fascinating personal account. (HT to Peter Epps, who helped sort out the facts on this one.)
- Here's another personal account of the London bombings that particularly interested me. It's by Jon Mackenzie, who was in town to attend the same conference Darlene and I had come to London for. (As a matter of fact, Jon was very graciously bringing me a bag of Minstrels, which I hope he enjoyed. He needed them more than I did anyway. And, after all, it's the thought that counts.)
- To those who have complained because my negative assessment of "Live 8" was so wantonly and callously inattentive to the normal conventions of political correctness, I want to remind you that just the day before, I had made a post in favor of whirled peas.
- All week, I was continually asked to give my opinion of the "emerging church" movement. Here's the short answer: I think it's little more than the twenty-first century equivalent of "The Church of What's Happenin' Now," and the movement's true patron saint is Reverend Leroy. You can put whatever pretentious mask you want on it; you can dress it up in a tweed jacket with a pipe and teach it to speak in avuncular tones; or you can put it behind a pasty-white complexion and dress it in Gothic black with a full array of tattoos and body piercings. But at the end of the day, it still owes more to Flip Wilson than to 1 Corinthians 1:21-25.
22 comments:
Great assessment of the "emerging church'!. I think there are some beneficial ideas and observations that have come out of the movement, but I think the description, "the church of what's happenin' now" says it very well.
By the way, I have linked back to you since the day you started blogging, and I even stole one of your graphics to use as a nifty clickable icon so people could get to your page more easily, but you've never blogspotted me.
The emergent church is bringing the eastern mystical occult into the Church. Most Reformed Christian's do not see this fact!
In fact, most people do not see this happening, but I can assure you, it is!
Why don't you tell us how you really feel (re: emerging church), Phil! :)
Actually, I'm one of the pests that e-mailed you for your opinion several months ago.
Hey, Bass--
For some reason, neither Technorati nor Google has brought me to your blog. I'll link to it in the next blogspotting post.
Also, I noticed your blog says you are also waiting for permission to post my "Dead Right" transcript in .pdf. You have my permission if you want to post that.
hi phil
thats funny! and i am old enough to remember Flip Wilson.
california almost always disappoints me - there are some great churches there who are connecting with emerging culture (the best ones are the most invisible) but over the past 15 years of going in and out of California, some of the biggest disappointments have also been there - and your description would fit - although "the church of what happened 5 years ago" might be more accurate.
Maybe we all expect more from a big state like California that is well connected.
Hope you get to travel out again to expand your emerging church horizon . . . and if you get out of America to check out the more mature, more integrated emerging church scenes then please let me know and i will recommend some worthy movements and churches.
LOVE THE GRAPHICS ON YOUR SITE, except they make me feel like i have to sort out my own
PEACE
I'll let you and Doug sort it out, but that should be an interesting dialogue if you choose to have it.
My only comment is that the horror writer you refer to is *Stephen* King. Having done a thesis on H. P. Lovecraft, I take misspellings of horror authors' names rather personally.
"The rats! The rats in the walls!"
Glad y'all made the trip to England and back safely.
Cheers,
PGE
Peter: Of course. Thanks. I'll fix the misspelling first chance I get.
Doug: you don't have to take it personally. You probably shouldn't. If you do, you'll only reinforce negative stereotypes about the hypocritical notions of "tolerance" that dominate the postmodern "conversation."
Bruce: I wouldn't know. I haven't been in one of those churches where "nothin been happenin in 50 years." Good to see you.
Oops, problem isn't your spelling. It's just that this isn't the horror writer--he's a UK journalist.
And I do think there's a lot to be said for some serious re-examination of how we "do church." I'm not persuaded that what I'm seeing from the professed EC types is what Christ had in mind, though.
Take care,
PGE
Peter, thanks for the fact-checking help and the heads up. Good eye.
oh man -- Flip Wilson!
Pastor, I wish I was half as funny as you are because then I'd be twice as funny as I am now.
I'm in the same boat as Bruce, in that I'm really not satisfied with most of the models of church available today.
Regarding the postmodern church, I appreciate the vibrancy and openess that the EC movement has brought about, but the political undercurrent of trying to create "heaven on earth" is worrisome to me. The whining gets old, too. And the theological tinkering, for no other apparent reason than to rearrange the furniture is crazy.
But the modern church is burdensome as well. What I see most in modern congregations is the same things Jesus condemened in Ephesus: They have lost their first love. I rarely come across people in these churches who flat out love Jesus. Instead they love arguing theology and building walls between themselves and other believers. The power of the Holy Spirit isn't pursued, but instead confined. Too much God in a box.
Douglas, you're right. EC is indeed bringing in mysticism into the professing church. Some people still don't see the danger of EC, which is sad, b/c by the time they see the danger, it may be too late for their church.
The EC movement is one we must take seriously. Like many other fads and theologies, the EC movement has crept in quietly under the guise of wanting to 'do church' better (I just hate that phrasing "doing church"), all the while leading people into the occult and other pagan practices. Then again, the professing church has accepted other religions as "Christian" such as the Oneness Pentecostals. T.D. Jakes who is a Oneness Pentecostal is one of the the best selling authors in Christian bookstores. In addition, Philips, Craig, and Dean music group are all Oneness Pentecostal pastors and they are also one of the best selling music groups too.
I'm beginning to think that once Roman Catholicism was accepted as 'just another denomination' even though they have a different gospel and a different God, it was a matter of time before professing Christians accepted cults as 'just another denomination' like they have Oneness Pentecostals. So, when EC came along, its no surprise that their heresies are being accepted as 'just another way of doing church'.
God help us.
Surphing
www.surphingside.blogspot.com
I noticed that you replaced the stern faced, suit wearing picture of yourself with the more jovial, "come on over to my place for Bible study and bar-b-que."
I like it.
Fred
Hip and Thigh
I think summarizing of the EC as "the Church of what's happening hits some of the EC movement, but there is another element that is the church that is "sick and tired of what's been going on." They've had enought of celebrity pastors, massive building programs, denominatinal wars, cheesy programming and cookie-cutter christianity. I'm not saying all they've come up with is good, but I just feel the need to point out that much of what goes on in the EC is not just a fad, but a reaction. Church history is full of pendulum swings.
Love your blog and your other stuff.
I suspect an evaluation of the ec has to be a bit more nuanced than you suggest.
I have always thought the ec asks great questions (questions that should resonate with those of us who are Reformed) even when we don't always agree with the answers.
I also suspect that the ec doesn't arise out of a desire to be trendy but from distaste with some of the things that sled dog has listed above.
Hey Phil! If you look at the "Comments on Fundamentalism" sub-heading in the left frame on my blog, you will find a linked reference to the excellent "Dead Right" article, posted at the top of the list.
The link *used* to be in bold faced font, but so many people have clicked on it that they have worn it back to normal font.
Jeri
"Frankly, I'd prefer a labyrinth to "Judgement House" any day."
http://www.boarsheadtavern.com/
archives/2005/07/11/14030537.html
Sir, maybe the "labyrinth" will be your "Judgment House?" Never to find your way out again? The exit bolted tightly shut. Forever?
Can you repent?
Hebrews 9:27
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
Hey doc, while you're pointing guns at every Moslem nation for possibly supporting terrorism, better point a few at Washington DC. Our government has been propping up the corrupt and despotic Saudi infrastructure for decades; hence supporting a significant contributor to terrorism. We've also been entangling ourselves in the policies of Israel and engaging in actions that have certainly provoked anybody sympathetic to Paelstinians, who committed no crime and did not deserve to be driven off their lands without even a cent of compensation for the loss of their homes and livelihoods.
The notion that because the figureheads of terorrism, the spiritual leaders of terrorists, and their chief strategists are holing up on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, all the while being financed by Saudi Arabia, therefore we must invade Iraq, is senseless. Sun Tzu called it "camping in the quagmire." Abbott and Costello called it "Who's on first".
If you want to kill and capture terrorists, find Osama bin Laden and his cronies and you will have made a good start. And they're not hiding in Iraq. Nearly four years after killing 3,000 of our countrymen and women, they are still alive and free. And that is a travesty of justice and a shame to this country. If we had taken the mountains apart to hunt them down and bring them to justice, we would have made a much greater and more dreadful impact on our enemies.
Jeri:
There is a reason we entangle ourselves with Israel: it's right. If it goes away, you have another terrorist state. You don't want that to happen. If you think getting rid of Israel will solve the problem, you're naive. Don't understand why you can't see that.
As to the Iraq war, we can debate the wisdom of that. I will note that we are engaged in a "war on terror" and that includes it in all of its forms. Perhaps you should read this article:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/804yqqnr.asp
and then see if you feel the same. Saddam was a notorious supporter of terrorists. That makes him part of the "war on terror." It's much larger than taking out bin Laden. It won't be over in our lifetime.
As for problems in the church, they are there, but dispensing with truth and adopting Eastern mysticism is not the solution. It is intersting to me that the EC seems willing to engage in a pretty harsh critique of the evangelical church practices of marketing the gospel and being seeker sensitive, but then it caters to postmodernism in an attempt to be relevant. It's just another form of seeker sensitive. It will never admit it, but it's just the latest fad.
Let's not veer off topic here. Please note rule 3 in the right sidebar.
On a lighter note :), thanks, Phil, for necessitating my looking up the word "salmagundi." I love learning new words!
Great stuff on the emergent folks. Did you see the PBS special? By the looks of things, I think the emergents are going to drive up the market on candles.
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