Tuesday, May 05, 2009
I've been thinking and saying that 2009 would be the year in which the Emerging Church would cease emerging and in fact shrivel up and die. I've seen some signs that evangelicals are tired of talking about it and want to just move on with more important things like living out the Kingdom. Furthermore, in the past few months, the Emergent leaders have begun to fully display their orthodoxy after years of avoiding any straight answers. In response, many of those Christians who had enjoyed a blissfully ignorant flirtation with the movement came to the realization that what they were involved in had some huge problems after all and perhaps resembled a cult more than a church. So, now that the lines are drawn in the sand and the EC rules for joining their club are actually in writing, play time is over. Plus, the Emerging church has never been about evangelizing the lost and the unsaved. Rather, it's been about gaining converts from within the Christian world (particularly those with fundamentalist pasts). That's a well that dries up eventually.Apparently, this guy agrees that the death knell is ringing for the Emerging Church. He gives some reasons for its demise:
1. Lack of Tact Theory: ... The emerging church lacked tact. It never gained the ear of the home base. Movements such as this need to be changed from the inside out, not the outside in. That is unless you are willing to go all the way and break completely from the home base (e.g. the Reformation).
2. The Offense Theory: ... While the Emerging Church, as well as teenagers, do have some very good things to say and should be listened to, it is the (almost total) disregard of Evangelicalism’s values that caused them to lose their audience. Evangelicals were offended.
3. Misidentified Evangelicalism Theory: It certainly is the case that Evangelicalism needs to reform. In fact, one of the Evangelical principles is that we are always reforming (semper reformanda)... Emergers failed to realize the shared DNA with Evangelicals and belittled them instead. They, most of whom were former Fundamentalists (not Evangelicals), mistakenly identified Evangelicals with Fundamentalists. Therefore, their cries of change, their proclamations of enlightenment, served only to belittle Evangelicals. Ironically, their judgmental spirit of Evangelicalism backfired and caused them to look more like Fundamentalists than than those whom they criticized. It was a Fundamentalism of a different kind, but the attitude was the same. Grace left the emerging building.
4. Heretical Tolerance Theory: 4. Heretical Tolerance Theory: Oh, and then there was that. The Emerging church refused to stand up for anything... From there they definitively cried out against Evangelical orthodoxy kicking us in the most sensitive areas: Abortion, Atonement, Justification, Assurance - and then there was the attempted burial of our belief that homosexuality was a sin. Oh, did I mention the attacks on Hell and the Exclusivity of Christ? They quickly moved from an insightful teen who might have some good things to say to crowd of disconnected enemies on the attack.
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