Conversing with the Emerging- part 1

There is no new thing under the sun.

Gnosticism came and went with various iterations of it continuing to morph and rise before disappearing again.

The seeker-sensitive movement has been a failure—producing very little in the way of Christ-like disciples. Its felt need sermons and glitzy productions was more culturally embracing than culturally engaging with gospel power.

The Emerging Church movement (ECM) is another movement that has come down the theological trail of attempting to be culturally relevant in order to make the gospel more presentable. It deserves some credit for attempting to deal with serious deficiencies that it has observed in both the seeker-sensitive movement, as well as in evangelicalism Protestantism.

However, in its attempt to deal with the postmodern mindset of today’s culture and the observable deficiencies it has largely rightly observed it has in general presented a gospel of a different kind.

From the beginning of the church age until now the critical issue is almost always focused on a right understanding of who Christ is in His humanity and deity.

The following is a multiple-part series on the ECM. It is certainly not exhaustive in nature. It does not reflect the various strains of the movement, but seeks to attempt to capture its overall theological and philosophical bent.

"The saying of Bernard is commonly known: ‘Some desire to know merely for the sake of knowing, and that is shameful curiosity. Some desire to know that they may sell their knowledge, and that too is shameful. Some desire to know for their reputation’s sake, and that is shameful vanity. But there are some who desire to know that they may edify others, and that is praiseworthy; and there are some who desire to know that they themselves may be edified, and that is wise.’" Richard Baxter

I hope that these next few blog entries, as simple as they may be will be edifying to all.