My Spidey Sense is Tingling

Where women have their 'intuition', men have their 'gut'. Mine has been wrong on several BIG occasions, but it remains with me and I do pay attention, especially if more red flags are flying than when Rocky fought that big soviet guy.

What's up with the EMERGENT CHURCH MOVEMENT?

Every professing Christian gets the benefit of the doubt with me - it's automatic. I will give anyone a hearing if they come in the name of my risen Lord, it will be a Berean hearing, but it will be kindly granted every time. Having said that, and taken the time to consider things, here it is:

I'm always suspicious of best-selling authors, pastors and fully-booked conference speakers whose whole message revolves around the inadequacy of words. For people who distrust words, emergent guys sure seem to have a lot to say. How is it possible to diminish the role of words and still retain the substance from a 'faith of the Book'?

Though a passionate advocate of liturgy, participation in worship, story and narrative, relationships and community, leaving behind the failures of fundamentalism, resisting the errors within modernity and gnosticism, the importance of body, mind and spirit engaging in worship and devotion to God, living as a Christian 'at all times' [to be read in Rex-Kwan-Do voice], spiritual authenticity and hardcore realism, engaging the culture head on, radically bringing the gospel, rethinking life in terms of fundamentals, presuppositions and worldviews, huh [take a breath] ... I remain humbly critical of the Emergent Movement and strongly suspect it to be doing more harm than good.

I think I can understand why it's so appealing. People realize that they don't have much of a basis to their faith, and instead of looking to the old paths, they're taking the cylindrical glass elevator of postmodernity to higher ground [renouncing with disdain the stainless steel box version of modernity].

For the totally negative thumbnail evaluation [think of the previous paragraphs as noting the positive traits]: It seems to be largely based on a therapeutic model [see David Wells] and certainly can't be described as God-centered. It's highly effemeral and emotionalistic. It's an anti-institutionality institution and as such, Tim Keller predicts, can't last long without fundamental alteration. It caters to the cyber-oriented young urban professionals who live such artificial lives, they hunger to bleed just to know they're alive [as one of their own poets has said].

Emergent techniques would do little but alienate every farmer, plumber, truck driver and dock loader around and just about everyone else from any background who's older than his mid thirties. We'd end up with quite a lopsided 'church'; giving birth to a deformed body. Journaling, reflecting, emoting, venting, insence, lattes, 'feeling' each other - these things are fine, but holding fast the faithful word of truth requires a bit more beef.

To long for authenticity is crucial. Trying to grab authenticity from the fog of postmodernity, though, will not result in much to pocket [I admit from experience] even if the fog comes wafting down from the cathedral rafters.