in a recent post, rags alerted me of a recent paper on the emerging church that Scot McKnight, a professor at North Park University, recently presented at Westminster Theological Seminary.
i haven’t read the whole thing yet, but it started out interestingly enough and has some very good points in the first several pages. i’d love to interact with this paper a little more, so for those of you that have read it, what did you think?
the paper is entitled, “What Is the Emerging Church?” and you can view it as a .pdf. here’s a little taste:
Here’s the urban legend: The emerging movement talks like Lutherans – which means they cuss and use naughty words; they evangelize and theologize like the Reformed – which means, in the first case, they don’t do much of it, and in the second, they do it all the time; they confess their faith like the mainliners – which means they say things publicly they don’t really believe in their hearts; they drink like Episcopalians – which means – to steal some words from Mark Twain – they are teetotalers sometimes – when it is judicious to be one; they worship like the charismatics – which means with each part of the body, some parts of which have tattoos; they vote liberal – which means they all move to Massachusetts come election time; they deny truth – which means Derrida is carried in their backpacks. Each of these points is wrong, but they are frequently repeated stereotypes that sting and bite – but, because they are wrong, as the emergents would say, they “suck.” In order to define this movement, there is a correct method to follow…
Related posts:
- emerging church.
- the anti-biblical, emerging church.
- questions of the emerging church
- driscoll on the emerging church.
- the emerging church–20 million strong?
Hah, that quote gives me emergent vomit
I’ll grab that PDF and read it on my road trip today, very cool — thanks for the link.
Gotta check it out, I suppose
BTW…what is “emergent vomit”???
correct me if i’m wrong, but i think it’s the same stuff that came out of the little girls mouth in the exorcist…
I’m on page 11.
I’m going to read it too. Its been LESS than a year since I first heard of “emergent church.” I haven’t heard too much. But honestly, some of the above quote is in line with what I’ve heard. Now, I DO NOT KNOW WHAT’S REALLY TRUE. I’m still a baby with knowing about the emergent chruch. So, that’s why I’m going to read the whole thing.
[...] Note: It is 30 pages long. Here is a link to my friend Aaron’s blog where you can read an introduction and download it. It is also available on my “writings” page [...]
[...] althought this is a briefer version of his lecture ‘What is the Emerging Church?’ given at Westminster Theological Seminary, it is still a valuable piece that will certainly bring the thoughts contained in that lecture to a broader audience. [...]