Posted on 04/12/2008 6:43:54 AM PDT by kindred
As a 17-year-old boy, I had looked for truth and answers in this world and found none. Then, to my own amazement, I found myself completely won over by the bold, unashamed witness of a group of committed Christians on my high school campus.
People could have tried to be cool and win me over, but it would have never worked. I'd had enough of "cool" in the crazy home I was raised in to make me choke. I had pretty much seen it all, and nothing to me was lamer than people trying too hard to be cool.
The Christian kids I encountered in high school weren't working overtime to be cool – and didn't even seem to care about such things. They cared about knowing and following Jesus, and that deeply impressed me. There was an authenticity about their lives that drew me to them, then to Jesus Himself.
I had been looking for something to believe in, something worth living or dying for, something that was genuine, real and authentic. But most of all, I was looking for something that was true.
By the way, young people are still looking for this today. I have seen generations with names like Boomers, Busters, X, Y and Z come and go. At Harvest Christian Fellowship, the church where I pastor, music and worship styles have changed over the years. But our message has not changed, and will not! In fact, it cannot, because the Gospel is the Gospel.
The Gospel message, Paul reminds us, is "the power of God to salvation to everyone that believes" (Romans 1:16, NKJV). I believe this message with all of my heart, and that is why it grieves me to see it under attack from some unlikely places.
The church has always had its...
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My college aged son happens to be at Passion 08 this weekend. But last year, he brought home CD’s of the messages given at Passion, and John Piper had a stern warning to the college kids about watching out for “emergent church” doctrine.
Matthew 25:34-40
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Revelation 20:11-15
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life.
The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.
Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
What is the emergent church doctrine? Never heard of it.
Ye ole “All roads lead heaven?” canard?
If so, that’s an old sorry song, and nothing new.
This usually means the volume has become deafeningly loud.
There are varying degrees of orthodoxy within the movement. Some indeed go overboard into heterodoxy; others are very orthodox if sometimes unconventional.
So basically, the 11:30 “contemporary” service?
Cowboy churches?
Praise bands are too holy roller for the 8:00am service me, but their doctrine (at our church, anyway) is just fine.
I don’t care if the dress in heavy metal shirts. play crappy music, and have hippe hair, as long as the doctrine is fine.
I’d prefer emergent churches to Oprah’s new “church”.
But whatever means you use to say Jesus is Lord---be it heavy metal/highly pierced tatooed people or suit-and-tie, frocked ministers, it all works for me.
That is true. A friend of ours who has started going to our Baptist church and has really liked it finally attended enough to get a “calling to task” sermon about sin and sexuality. She is a young woman who had never really attended church but was really surprised. She didn’t have a negative reaction but it was a shock because of course the world tells you that anything you so desire is ok. Send your kids out alone with their boyfriends and girlfriends, celebrate homosexual and other divergent sexualities, etc. Too many churches have become nice pleasant social clubs more interested in keeping the money flowing than speaking a truth that is much needed. And that doesn’t go for just sexual sin, there is a extraordinary need to address the attitude of making money justifies anything. I’ve seen far too many Christians/Conservatives take this attitude and I find it very troubling.
Romans 2:28-29
A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.
Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.
Read I Corinthians 6:9.
Any church that condones such behaviors as noted, such as homosexuality, is not a God fearing church. We are to help promote change in our brothers and sisters that engage in such acts. But, we do not accept those acts.
Romans 3:3-4
What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness? Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written:
“So that you may be proved right when you speak
and prevail when you judge.”
Why are you telling me to read I Corinthians? Where did I say I accepted homosexuality?
I just want to know what an emergent church is about?
Is the complaint about style (e.g., contemporary worship) or substance (variance from the Gospel or condonance of sin, such as homosexuality)?
As noted upthread, I don’t care about the style of worship (which is funny because I go to a super-traditional service at 8:00 am); I do care about various in substance.
Hey Larry,
I agree. Sometimes we get too caught up on the image of what we think a pastor should look like. If that were the case we would’ve never recognized any of the prophets were they among us today. My criteria is simple. If you are a believer then the doctrine at a minimum should be consistent. Too often though the layman can not separate the doctrine of the pastor from the written doctrine which leads to ideas being presented as Christian tenants when they most certainly are not. I take the same approach to the Constitution and other written works. There is no understanding or learning if one reads their wishes into documents that are not ambiguous.
Don’t give me a mealy mouth old man in the sky handing out candies and sweetness to the ‘chilren’ as God because that God does not exist in the Bible.
I wasn’t accusing you. I was just noting what some current churches are accepting as “normal” behavior. Sorry.
Ping. Not sure if everyone is familiar with the Emergent Church movement (Brian McClaren, Rob Bell, Tony Jones, Leonard Sweet are some of the leaders). It is New Agey Neo-Orthodoxy (People help God “create” or “dream”, and whatever makes us “feel” closer to God). It is important to be familiar with it because younger people are drawn to it in droves, and it is not the true Gospel.
Here is an excellent article exposing the Emergent Church for what it is by Bob Deway who has studied this movement extensively:
http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue87.htm
It is also creeping into every sect like a Trojan Horse virus.
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