Current Issues: Emerging Church

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Current Issues Emerging Church

• Bethany Baptist Church
• Jerry Sanderson
• Spring Electives 2007

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Lesson 6

• Some quote from leaders of the Emerging Church.
• Lets evaluate each one.

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Rob and Kristen Bell

• Life in the church had become so small. It had
  worked for me for a long time. Then it stopped
  working. The Bible is still the center for us,
  but it a different kinds of center. We want to
  embrace the mystery, rather than conquer it. I
  grew up thinking weve figured out the Bible,
  that we knew what it means. Now I have no idea
  what most of it means. And yet I feel like life
  is big again like life used to be in black and
  white, and now, its in color.

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Mark Driscoll

• No one is born with a clear comprehension of who
  God is. So, in an effort to know about, various
  philosophers and religious leaders have presented
  their speculations about God with seemingly
  endless and contradictory declarations. But God
  has chosen to lift the fog of human speculation
  with divine revelation. Whereas speculation is
  the human attempt to comprehend God, revelation
  is Gods communication to humanity with clarity
  that is otherwise impossible. The object of that
  revelation is the 66 books of Scripture.

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John Burke

• Maybe the reason our generation seeks God through
  Buddhism or Eastern mysticism before considering
  Christianity is because so many professed
  Christians dont actually believe what they say
  they believe. They say Lord, Lord, but dont
  do the Lords will(Luke 646). Ultimately, how
  we live reveals what we truly believe.

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Dan Kimball

• When we go beyond core beliefs with such
  certainty about a specific system of theology
  that was developed a long time after the Nicene
  Creed, that is where we differ. I lean toward
  more historic Nicene Creed orthodoxy, and I still
  remain overall conservative in my theology. Yet
  I do allow mystery and exploration in some areas
  of theological belief.

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• Nicene Creed. We believe in one God the Father
  Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all
  things visible and invisible.
• And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten
  Son of God, begotten of the Father before all
  worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of
  Very God, begotten, not made, being of one
  substance with the Father by whom all things were
  made who for us men, and for our salvation, came
  down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy
  Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and
  was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.
  He suffered and was buried, and the third day he
  rose again according to the Scriptures, and
  ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right
  hand of the Father. And he shall come again with
  glory to judge both the quick and the dead, whose
  kingdom shall have no end

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• And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and
  Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and
  the Son, who with the Father and the Son together
  is worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the
  prophets. And we believe one holy catholic and
  apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for
  the remission of sins. And we look for the
  resurrection of the dead, and the life of the
  world to come. Amen.

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Why not just the Nicene Creed

• What about the Protestant Reformation?
• What about Augustine's refutation of Pelagius and
  the
• Council of Carthage's condemnation of
  Pelagianism ? (which occurred nearly a hundred
  years after the Nicene Council).
• At the Council of Chalcedon, 126 years later, a
  statement was written which explained in simple
  terms the hypostatic union of Christ's two
  natures. That's what finally helped end a more
  than 200-year-long parade of heresies about the
  person of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity.
• Phil Johnson

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• Pelagianism is a theological theory named after
  Pelagius. It is the belief that original sin did
  not taint human nature (which, being created from
  God, was divine), and that mortal will is still
  capable of choosing good or evil without Divine
  aid. Thus, Adam's sin was "to set a bad example"
  for his progeny, but his actions did not have the
  other consequences imputed to Original Sin.
  Pelagianism views the role of Jesus as "setting a
  good example" for the rest of humanity (thus
  counteracting Adam's bad example). In short,
  humanity has full control, and thus full
  responsibility, for its own salvation in addition
  to full responsibility for every sin (the latter
  insisted upon by both proponents and opponents of
  Pelagianism). According to Pelagian doctrine,
  since humanity is no longer in need of any of
  God's graces beyond the creation of will, Jesus'
  sacrifice is devoid of its redemptive quality. -
  Wikipedia

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Why not just the Nicene Creed

• The Nicene Creed is referred to by Roman
  Catholics and Orthodox as the "symbol of faith,"
  and its recitation is often part of Christian
  worship services. In the Catholic Mass, it is
  also referred to as the "Profession of Faith. -
  Wikipedia
• However, some evangelical Christians who take a
  view of sola scriptura reject the Creed (and
  especially its recitation), not necessarily for
  its content but simply because it is not found in
  the Bible. - Wikipedia

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Karen Ward

• I reference Scripture as the big S Story, a
  founding partner in a relational dance, as my
  friend Rachel Mee Chapman says, in the overlap
  of text, community, and Spirit. As such, my take
  on truth is that it is personal, and my view of
  authority is dynamic. For me, Christian truth
  takes flesh in the person of Christ, who in the
  name of the Father and in the power of the
  Spirit, leads Christian communities into truth
  and into him, as he is truth.

13
John Burke

• When people ask the question, Dont all
  religions basically say the same thing, we can
  affirm that they do all say the same thing about
  what is right and wrong, the moral law.

14
Doug Pagiit

• Complex understandings meant for all people, in
  all places, for all times, are simply not
  possible. Lanuage, situtation, specific issues,
  and peoples own preferences and insecurity all
  are involved in any belief system. There is no
  way to make a statement of substantive belief
  without these kinds of issues being at play.

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Doug Pagitt - More

• This was the case for Peter in Acts 1034-35
• If Peter had been one who would have allowed his
  cultural and religious presuppositions to remain
  firm, and not moved in the way God had led he
  would have missed out on what God was leading him
  into.

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Mark Driscoll

• If both doctrine and practice are constant, the
  result is dead orthodoxy, which Pagitt is
  reacting against. If both doctrine and practice
  is constantly changing, the result is living
  heresy, which Pagitt is contending for. But if
  doctrine is constant and practice is constantly
  changing, the result is living orthodoxy, which I
  propose is the faithful third way.

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Summary

• The Emerging Church movement is varied and
  diverse
• Much of it is a reaction to the leaders bad
  experiences in legalistic church combined with
  their genuine desire to reach our post-modern
  culture.
• Many of those leaders wrongly connect truth and
  doctrine with their legalistic experiences

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• Many in the Emerging Church take the Post-Modern
  ideas of truth being either
• Subjective
• Unknowable
• Uncertain
• Experiential rather than Propositional

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Remember, questions are OK, but.

• The KEY is where we go for the answers
• The BIBLE.
• The Bible HAS THE ANSWERS
• The Bible Alone accurately reflects reality
• Where we come from, why are we here?
• The fallen condition of the world around us
• Moral law, right and wrong
• Gods unchangeable character and attributes
• Gods working in the world throughout history
• The way to know God

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D.A. Carson says..

• There are some valid criticisms of Christianity
  of the modern period, sermons more didactic than
  narrative. However, there is a danger of
  swinging the pendulum and being so focused on the
  narrative that we miss or even disdain logical
  points.

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Sources

• Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church
  D.A. Carson
• The Truth War John MacArthur
• Emerging Church paper Gary Gilley
• Books by Emerging Church authors
• Listening to the Beliefs of the Emerging Church
  Editor Robert Webber
• A New Kind of Christian Brian McLaren
• A Generous Orthodoxy Brian McLaren
• They Like Jesus but Not the Church Dan Kimball