Thursday, July 06, 2006

Emerging Hypervent-anoia

This was a quiet, quaint little blog neighborhood. Until yesterday. I average about thirty blog friends popping in to read my silly thoughts or look at the inane pictures that entertain me.

But yesterday was crazy. I had a crowd five times that size here. Kind of reminds me of grade school when someone out in the school yard yells “FIGHT!”

The emerging church debate came to our quiet little cul-de-sac courtesy of this internet article to check out this post of mine from January.

I don’t know if I should say thanks for the attention.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Here’s the deal: Calvary Chapel, the movement I’m a part of and love issued a position paper about the emerging church a couple of months ago, and then I guess, more recently (although I don’t have this information first hand – I only have the accuracy of internet reporting to rely on) Pastor Chuck ordered all of Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Books pulled from Calvary Chapel Book Store shelves.

So Calvary’s going in one direction and some other folks are going in another. This stuff happens.

But there are a bunch of self-proclaimed experts with domain names and server space (kind of like me I guess) that feel the need to set everybody straight. What’s with that?

Let me set you straight:

John 9:13-16
They brought him who formerly was blind to the Pharisees. Now it was a Sabbath when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.”
Therefore some of the Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God, because He does not keep the Sabbath.”
Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them.

So you have Pharisees, these hyper-spiritual guys, the guys who think that they’re the only ones on the Narrow Path, they’re the ones who know who is and isn’t going to hell, saying that Jesus is not of God. He doesn’t do Sabbath correctly. In fact, this guy, Jesus, He’s NICE to people when He’s supposed to be religious like us.
Then you have a group of religious people on the other hand that say something very un-theological. Some one over there actually uses some common sense: “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?”

And there was a division among them.

I like what my friend, pastoral blogger [drop name here:] Bob Franquiz had to say:

“We need to heed Gamaliel’s advice in Acts 5:

“And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it—lest you even be found to fight against God.”

Good thinking, man.

An addendum: Bob pointed out a great link to the best essay I've read to date.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I kinda sucks when people have to make things complicated for no reason. The emerging church serves a purpose ( the degree of which I won't comment on since there is such a wide spectrum). I know from my personal experience that when I got saved the bucket of Christian knowledge did not just drop down from the Heavens. I slowly got into the Word...and let God take it from there. It is a slow process and one that has led me to Calvary Chapel. The Church I got saved at would be considered an emerging church...they met on saturdays, they primarily focused on issues related to college students. Was the Word taught...yes...it was taught in a way that easily understood by the intended audience. The emerging Church may not always hit on every theological cylinder...but I would like to recall (from my own experience) that it only takes the recognition of Jesus as our Lord and savior to stimulate inward change and growth.