Saturday, February 26, 2005
The Trend INDEED Continues
Yesterday's post about the rise in blogging on what I call "self-help" Christianity seems to have spotted the beginning of something really serious. The posts on the subject continue to pop up.
Dawn Treader posts on his concerns about the Emerging Church movement and links to a number of other posts that share that concern. Is the emerging church movement the same as the "self-help Christianity" trend. I think so. This website, dedicated to the movement, describes itself in some interesting and troubling ways.
I love this post from yesterday by 21st Century Reformation.
The question I have is, "Does culture define God?" Of course not! It is very "me-centric" to think that God, or the church has to somehow adapt itself to the current culture. It defies the very definition of a monotheistic, omniscience, omnipotent, and omnipresent God. This stuff smacks of ancient mythology when the gods were little more than superheroes.
Today's post from Challies reflects on this subject as well.
Dawn Treader posts on his concerns about the Emerging Church movement and links to a number of other posts that share that concern. Is the emerging church movement the same as the "self-help Christianity" trend. I think so. This website, dedicated to the movement, describes itself in some interesting and troubling ways.
the emergence of the postmodern era (1960 onward) is only now beginning to impact the world and the church in a profound way. most folk know about luther, calvin and the reformation. some have likened what is taking place in the church today to a "second reformation."...begin swimming (even with a paddleboard) within the postmodern culture...the church should not fear postmodernity, as it provides us with a new context, and thus a fresh opportunity to get real, to drink deep from our own wells, and go back to our own future...What is the "postmodern era" if not the self-obsessed culture we find ourselves immersed in? Note also that the Dawn Treader post links this clearly with Joel Osteen, already roundly swarmed by Internet Monk. Osteen proudly claims the self-help label. From updates in Monk's post, "He's ok with being called a motivational speaker."
I love this post from yesterday by 21st Century Reformation.
I was having a discussion with a non-Christian friend of mine today at my work...and I asked him, “If Christian’s lived in a way that was distinct in the way we related to money. If we cared for one another, if we had high financial integrity and lived as if were not ruled by greed, if Christians showed that we loved people more than money, if we built hospitals and tried to prevent crime by building community centers and generally did good works, how would that effect our cause?”"Swim within the postmodern culture"--Indeed!
To this he responded, “That is my whole thing. I can’t see a difference.”
The question I have is, "Does culture define God?" Of course not! It is very "me-centric" to think that God, or the church has to somehow adapt itself to the current culture. It defies the very definition of a monotheistic, omniscience, omnipotent, and omnipresent God. This stuff smacks of ancient mythology when the gods were little more than superheroes.
Today's post from Challies reflects on this subject as well.
The church is the hope for our world, and it seems to me that the church can only bring to the world the hope she possesses if she is strong and healthy. All around us we see people proclaiming news of the churchÂ’s illness and offering both diagnosis and cure. Yet most of these cures are not working, for they are not drawn from Scripture. Bookshelves at Christian bookstores are groaning under the weight of books about how to make churches bigger, stronger and more appealing to unbelievers. Some authors have interviewed new believers to ask what drew them to church, and others have turned to hardened unbelievers to ask what might draw them to church. I have read many of these books - probably too many - and it seems that none of them hold the answers, for while churches are springing up all over our continent, the number of church-goers continues to decline. Furthermore, the theology of the "average church-goer" continues to worsen as new and exciting teachings are introduced to the church, many of which have no biblical basis.I like his statement that the church is the hope for our world, but we really have to change our view of what the church is. It is, simply, a group of people. It is not defined by size, meeting place, financial soundness. It is the Body of Christ. We need to stop building our institutions and start building His body.
