Something I just found... Written on 10/13/06

I have read a book by D. A. Carson, "Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church." He explains the Emergent Church very well. BTW, this man came to our school to speak the the teachers a while ago... The Emergent Church movement brings a plethora of postmodern ideas. Notice how I said "movement." Not too many Churches will claim to be Emergent Churches, rather it is a movement starting to appear in "regular" Churches. Carson explains how we can deal with the movement. As you have probably already realized, the postmodern culture arisen has a lot to do with the Emergent Church. You will have a spectrum of different Emergent and postmodern supporters. You have some that allorgorize and spiritualize the scriptures so that nothing is authoritative, which brings relative truth. Then you have some Emergent Church idealists who don't look at the Scriptures at all. Carson writes about McLaren who is an Emergent Church writer. Emergent Church (or can I say postmodern) writers are interested in conversation, not truth. They are awfully authoritative for speaking truth relative. Postmodernism has many implications. Some will think that we need to present the Gospel in a way that people can understand. This is a good idea, yet we don't have to change the Scriptures to do this. The Scriptures are not bound by culture, language, or societal differences between the the time it was written and our day. The scriptures are written by a supernatural God, therefore it will take a supernatural Helper to understand the things of God. Men cannot change the meaning of the Bible. The Holy Spirit will guide and illumine the broken who are chosen by God. So as we approach a postmodern society who thinks that even the bible is relative, we cannot bring a relative Gospel to reach them. We need to bring and offer them the one and only Word of God that is able to cut and pierce any soul making them dead to themselves and alive to Christ! The Word does change people. I like to think of the Emergent Church this way: In trying to contextualize the Gospel they have committed syncratism.