I came across this article at The Ooze. Read it - it's, umm... amusing. Sort of. For those unfamiliar with it, The Ooze is a leading online journal of the McLaren breed (read: closing in on heretical) of emerging church thought. I'll admit that I don't read much on their website. Let's just hope this article is not as typical as I suspect it is. [Note: if you've never read anything from within the emerging movement before, please - DO NOT take the article I've linked to as typical of the whole. It's some of the chaff you have to pick through to get to the grain.]...
On to what he contends is typical of modern (but not emerging) churches:
1.) God is not trusted, but one's own abilities and programs are. Surely there are some churches out there that implicitly think this way. But to list this as a general truth about modern churches?! Have we really fallen so far as to think this poorly of so many churches? Maybe he's got 'mainline' cookie-cutter churches in mind. But even then, these are hard words. Worse yet, much of the emergent movement touts "postmodern ministry" as the way to "do church". Perhaps those in the Ooze crowd are just as guilty as those not? But of course the author (some dude named Lance) doesn't make this connection. The likely reason? He's probably involved in a postmodern church that embraces God, but was involved in a modern one that didn't. So now he's generalizing about all modern churches... Silly, at best.
2.) They want to teach people what to think and not how to think. Again, there are surely some out there. But how do you explain the huge volume of "know why you believe what you believe" books that the modern age printed? How do you explain the call to "critical thinking" being raised by so many modern pastors and leaders? The cynical part of me wants to point out that many left-leaning emerging folk are making a conscious effort to not think anything about anything, but I will resist that urge. As so often, the pendulum has swung too far...
3.) They largely rely on manipulation and pressure to attain results and then call those results the work of the Holy Spirit. Wow! This damning accusations is usually reserved for Benny Hinn and his crowd. But now pastors of mega- and purpose-driven churches are being painted with the same broad brush?! I'm rapidly loosing any semblance of respect I had for this author.
I could go on, but I can't. Seriously. It's just too awful to continue interacting with. Perhaps this gent has spent too much time drinking from the "toilet of emergent theology".
Hatushili
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Oozing Stereotypes
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2 comments:
An interesting article. Much of what he said has already been said though, and could have been said without the sweeping generalizations, whining, and unbridled cynicism. Clearly this man has been burnt.
If the guy had made it clear that he was talking about the experiences he had and was burned by (he does sound like a man burned), then I'd take it in stride. But to in any way attempt to characterize the entire modern church experience in this way?! He's forgetting one pivotal truth: modernity worked for generations of Christians. For many of us, culture is changing. But that doesn't mean we now have the right to look back at a different cultural period as a sniper.
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