M
MrVersatile48
Guest
I must let it first emerge that I have the wrong glasses on today & will have to wait to catch up on some fascinating threads till Mon.. 
:
..providing my proper glasses emerge.. :wink:
Anyway, I was able to read just enough of this to know that it will interest a few folk, so do enjoy:-
Just What Is This Thing Called 'The Emerging Church'?
John McNeil, ASSIST News Service by permission
Will it, in fact, address the decreasing involvement of young people in
many churches - the problems of the drop-out rate among churchgoing young people from 12 to 30, and of an increasing sense of alienation among both young and old?
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND (ANS) -- The emerging church is believed by some to be the most important development of the decade in Western Christianity.
It is primarily an attempt to counter the inroads that postmodernism has
made into faith and church attendance.
Churches which identify themselves as emerging are diverse. Some have
distanced themselves from both the mindset of traditional denominations and
contemporary "seeker" models of church, while others identify with ancient
traditions.
Some emerging congregations grow within an existing church, while others
are new church plants that retain their denominational affiliation. There
are also some significant differences between the United States and other
Western countries such as New Zealand, Britain and Australia.
Any attempt to pin down a definition of "emerging church", therefore, is
daunting. One of the acknowledged worldwide leaders, Brian McLaren, agrees
it presents a problem.
Mr. McLaren has been in New Zealand to take seminars in Auckland,
Palmerston North and Christchurch. He told Challenge Weekly that one of the
ironies is that a lot of the people associated with it never use the term
"emerging church".
"First, part of what's needed is to stop talking about the Church so much.
One of the central ideas that a lot of us are engaging with is the idea of
the kingdom of God at the heart of Jesus' message.
"When we keep talking about church functions, church meetings, how we do
church, we keep postponing the needed conversation about the kingdom of
God, which in a way is about the mission of the Church beyond itself.
"Also, the idea of the emerging church, with the emphasis on the, suggests
that this a model or a style, and whatever this thing is it has so many
different forms and shapes there's not really one style."
Mr. McLaren prefers to use the term "emergent conversation", because he
says that for those involved it is a theological conversation about Gospel
and culture - "about our understanding of the gospel related to mission,
some fresh and exciting engagement with scripture".
"Many of us feel we're in a transition period where the world in general is
emerging from modernity, from the Enlightenment, from colonialism, from the
industrial era. People don't know what to call this emerging culture, so
they use words like 'post-colonial', 'post-Enlightenment', some would say
'post-Christendom'.
One of the primary aims is to address the decreasing involvement of young
people in many churches. Mr. McLaren says there are both the problem of the
drop-out among churchgoing young people from 12 to 30, and the problem of
an increasing sense of alienation among both young and old.
"So a lot of us are asking: why aren't our conventional forms of Christian
faith working for people? And what do we need to do about that?"
What is being done is reflection, conversation and experimentation on many
levels - on the level of theology, worship, spiritual formation, mission,
social engagement.
"At all these levels there's a lot of fresh thinking. But it's at a very
early stage, and that's one of the reasons it's hard to define, because in
many cases we're asking questions but have not come up with good answers.
In other areas we're making some modest discoveries and progress."
Some of the experimentation has included what looks rather like a New Age
form of spirituality, crudely identified as involving more candles than
theology. But Mr. McLaren says very firmly that the Gospel of Jesus and the
kingdom of God must remain the dominant theology.
"I think the best book that has been written on this whole thing so far is
by a British theologian, Eddie Gibbs, and an American named Ryan Bolger,
who co-authored a book called The Emerging Churches.
"They came up with nine characteristics. The number one was a centring on
Jesus Christ and his message of the kingdom of God. Why is it that the
message of the kingdom of God was central for Jesus, and somewhat
peripheral for a lot of Christians today? There is a great interest in
rediscovering what Jesus meant by the phrase, and what that means for us
today.
"It's true there has been a lot of criticism. And, of course, when a group
like this is raising very deep questions, such as do we have the Gospel
right? - and you don't get much deeper than that - people who feel we do
have it right already have to criticise what we're doing.
"And we have to listen, because maybe they're right. So for people who
feel, for example, that the Westminster Confession perfectly contains
Christian theology the kind of conversation we're having is a waste of
time.
"But for people who feel that the Westminster Confession arose at a certain
time, addressed certain concerns of that time, then we have to be as
faithful to our time as the framers of the confession were to their time.
"In the US you see a very strong polarisation, where the religious right
has had a strong monologue, and it's been a kind of retreat, a feeling that
the good old days are back in the 1940s or 50s or 70s.
"One of the effects of this emerging church conversation is a sense of hope
and enthusiasm about the future and the need to engage, and less of a
feeling of defeatism and retreat and nostalgia."
Mr. McLaren acknowledges that there is a huge danger that the movement will
appeal mainly to those who have been hurt or turned off by churches.
"There are a lot of people who feel damaged by the existing Church. They
feel that it didn't work for them, they feel that it used them, it didn't
have room for their questions, that it put a coercive pressure on them.
"Those people are hurt and angry, and they have to express that, they have
to process it and get through it. But that kind of hurt and anger can
easily be toxic. It's not easy to help people process that kind of stuff
and not get stuck in it.
"That's one of the real challenges I see when I travel. I see it in
Britain, I felt it in Australia and New Zealand; it's certainly an issue in
the States.
"Another problem is that many people my age and older - I'm 50 this year -
have watched their children and grandchildren completely leave the Church
and the Christian faith, and these children and grandchildren need some way
to reconnect with God.
"We're grappling with these issues, and we're not coming up with solutions
fast enough. But it's a little like pregnancy - it can't be rushed.
"But one of the great challenges is that we can be preoccupied with the
disaffected, and miss the challenge to connect also with people who are
more unchurched than dechurched.
"That group of people is increasing rapidly across the West. There are more
and more people two or three generations removed from any active Christian
life."
Mr. McLaren says there is equally the danger of something like this
degenerating into a fad.
"I had an interesting conversation with three pastors from Palmerston
North, and they said how discouraging it is to have a lot of these fads
come in from the US, and everyone jumps on the bandwagon, goes to the
conferences, spends the money, tries the programme and then there is this
feeling after it is all over that it didn't really change anything.
"And they made an insightful comment, that what New Zealand really needs is
its own confidence that it doesn't need to borrow something from somebody
else, but that people here have the creativity to address their own
context.
"This is one of the reasons I don't like the term 'emerging church'. That
feeds into the idea that it's an imported programme. The idea of a
conversation that New Zealanders play an active role in, but a conversation
that takes place increasingly globally, which is easier to do because of
travel and the internet, is a much more hopeful way to see it."
Among the strengths of the movement is a resurgence of interest in the arts
that, Mr. McLaren says, is unprecedented in his lifetime.
"There's also a real interest in spiritual formation that is not about easy
answers but is about going deep. For example, in the US last month, we have
been sponsoring what we call 'theological conversations' where we invite
people to spend two days with a leading theologian, who does not have to
prepare any lectures.
"Everyone who comes agrees to read two or three books pre-selected by this
theologian and then we just have discussion for a couple of days. We opened
this up for 100 people, and the spaces were filled within six hours. We
kept expanding it, eventually to 300 people, and that filled up as well.
"That to me is a wonderful thing, when you have people - some pastors, but
many lay people, too - to whom it matters so much that they want to spend
two days just talking theology."
Some critics believe that those involved in the conversation are saying
that traditional denominations are outdated or irrelevant. Mr. McLaren
himself does not subscribe to that.
"What we need is not to dismantle all the denominations and go and start
new things. I wish we could have a both-and approach, because there are
great things conserved in each of these denominations.
"And I think there are great treasures the denominations can share with
each other - they don't have to be proprietary of their strengths.
"For example, Anglicans have a great strength in their liturgy. There's no
reason why the Baptists couldn't borrow from that. The Baptists have a
great strength in mission and courageous innovation, and calling people to
commitment and conversion. That's a strength a lot of Anglicans would admit
they do not have.
"You get to the point where there's the possibility of a really
constructive sharing. That's what a lot of us are hopeful about."
Whether denominations become irrelevant will depend on the denominational
leaders.
"I'm very impressed. I meet a lot of denominational leaders around the
world and there are a lot of wonderful and wise people leading our
denominations. These people understand the problems and challenges, they
understand the obstacles to addressing those challenges, and many I have
met are deeply godly people who are trying to move forward with wisdom,
faith and courage. I think if our denominations respond wisely, they have a
great future.
"But I also think that some get into a 'circle the wagons' or defeatist
mentality, where they are held hostage by certain segments of their
constituency, and often the worst cases are where the entrenched and
cautious people frighten away the more innovative and creative people.
"That's a great loss, when a community scares away its creative and
adventurous people. For those groups, I think there will be problems.
"But one of the great blessings is that God can do anything, and even
though you might drive away one generation of creative people, if you can
hang on long enough another generation might grow up, and the second time
round we might be ready to listen."
Mr. McLaren says the move to relate to post-modern culture might be more
advanced in the West, but it will be only a matter of time before it
spreads.
"I have spent a good bit of time in Latin America and Africa, and I will be
in Asia a good bit in the next year, and I am told by a lot of people in
these places that they see similar problems brewing in their world.
"There is a certain sense that the diseases of modernity and post-modernity
have a way of spreading to the global south."
Mr. McLaren certainly believes that a positive way forward will be
developed.
"I have been a pastor for 24 years and I am not naïve about the problems of
the Church, but I am completely confident in the good news of Jesus. There
is nobody else who gives me hope other than Jesus, so as long as we keep
drawing from that resource I am hopeful."
>From inquiries made by Challenge Weekly, it would appear that the
questions and ideas promoted by those in the emerging church network are
meeting with less suspicion in New Zealand.
The pastor of Spreydon Baptist Church, Murray Robertson, says that before
attending the Christchurch seminar his picture of the emerging church had
been of small niche market congregations aimed at alternative lifestylers.
"But I was greatly impressed at McLaren, at his self-deprecating approach
as an American, and at the bigness of his vision. I had a good talk with
him and my impression is that most of the opposition to him in the US comes
because he is not a right-wing, Republican-voting, fundy.
"I think a lot of the criticism of the emerging church has to be seen in
the context of the religious scene in the US. I might be over-simplifying
things, but opposition by Americans to other Americans seems to come from
the nature of their polarised society, where they are not very good at
listening to each other.
"A lot of churches are stridently right-wing, or believe that their way of
doing things is the only way. These churches find it hard to accommodate
different ideas.
"The same situation does not apply in New Zealand, and many churches here
are in fact already doing what Brian McLaren is advocating. I visited their
church website and saw a church that looked remarkably like Spreydon."
Peter Lineham, associate professor of history at Massey University's Albany
campus, said the emergent church is grappling with some deep issues in
Western Christianity.
Professor Lineham agrees with Murray Robertson that there has been sharp
criticism of the emergent church from some conservative evangelicals.
He says some who have made vicious attacks on the movement have not
understood the mission heart that underlies it, and some of that criticism
is based on not understanding the longing for an expression of Christianity
that connects with our culture.
"That's the great genuineness of what Brian McLaren is speaking about. He
is speaking of a real shift in our culture and how to express Christianity,
and he's trying to meet that expression.
"He's certainly had a huge impact in his church in the States, and one can
really respect that, even though he's going to have to choose which door
he's going to go through out of the options he's offering.
"Like all movements, it's a bit flawed. There's a lot in the McLaren
approach which is nebulous. What precisely is the 'new kind of Christian'
that he talks about (in his book A Generous Christian)? It leaves me a
little baffled."
Tim Cooper - a lecturer in church history at Otago University - also sees
churches in this country well on the way that McLaren points to. As a
former church director of LifeSwitch Church in the Hutt Valley, he was
responsible for facilitating changes to meet the 21st century. He says the
fact that it has developed spontaneously here shows it is an important
movement.
"I think it's a real issue for New Zealand churches to work through, how
they make the experience of church meaningful to a new generation. The
older modes of church may not be so meaningful any more because they were
suited to the modern perspective.
"There is a real shift from modernism to post-modernism, which we have to
engage with."
But Mr. Cooper warns that churches need to beware that while finding ways
to relate to postmodern culture, they don't become too enculturated. He is
unhappy with one of the early books written by McLaren, A New Kind of
Christian, which appeared to rely more on post-modern thinking than the
Bible to resolve problems.
"If churches abandon the Bible as the basis for what they doing, that's
tricky. The weakness of postmodernism is: what do you pin it on? What basis
is there? Once you take out the idea of objective truth, what is left?
"I strongly believe that churches need to engage with post-modern thinking,
but post-modernism may be passing, and it may pass more quickly than you
think, because people will find in the end it's not a philosophy you can
live by. Who knows what will succeed it, but perhaps it will be a return to
absolute values.
"Therefore, while we should pay attention, we don't necessarily have to buy
into it. Nonetheless, churches need to pay attention. Things are rapidly
changing, and if we're 10 years behind we're a long way behind. We've got
to connect somehow," Mr. Cooper said.
(c) 2006 ASSIST News Service, used with permission
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I must now emerge from here... 8-)
to investigate the strange yellow ball... :roll:
now emerging in the sky... :o
& let your posting creativity... :P
er... :-?
emerge??? :-D
Ian :multi:
: ..providing my proper glasses emerge.. :wink:
Anyway, I was able to read just enough of this to know that it will interest a few folk, so do enjoy:-
Just What Is This Thing Called 'The Emerging Church'?
John McNeil, ASSIST News Service by permission
Will it, in fact, address the decreasing involvement of young people in
many churches - the problems of the drop-out rate among churchgoing young people from 12 to 30, and of an increasing sense of alienation among both young and old?
AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND (ANS) -- The emerging church is believed by some to be the most important development of the decade in Western Christianity.
It is primarily an attempt to counter the inroads that postmodernism has
made into faith and church attendance.
Churches which identify themselves as emerging are diverse. Some have
distanced themselves from both the mindset of traditional denominations and
contemporary "seeker" models of church, while others identify with ancient
traditions.
Some emerging congregations grow within an existing church, while others
are new church plants that retain their denominational affiliation. There
are also some significant differences between the United States and other
Western countries such as New Zealand, Britain and Australia.
Any attempt to pin down a definition of "emerging church", therefore, is
daunting. One of the acknowledged worldwide leaders, Brian McLaren, agrees
it presents a problem.
Mr. McLaren has been in New Zealand to take seminars in Auckland,
Palmerston North and Christchurch. He told Challenge Weekly that one of the
ironies is that a lot of the people associated with it never use the term
"emerging church".
"First, part of what's needed is to stop talking about the Church so much.
One of the central ideas that a lot of us are engaging with is the idea of
the kingdom of God at the heart of Jesus' message.
"When we keep talking about church functions, church meetings, how we do
church, we keep postponing the needed conversation about the kingdom of
God, which in a way is about the mission of the Church beyond itself.
"Also, the idea of the emerging church, with the emphasis on the, suggests
that this a model or a style, and whatever this thing is it has so many
different forms and shapes there's not really one style."
Mr. McLaren prefers to use the term "emergent conversation", because he
says that for those involved it is a theological conversation about Gospel
and culture - "about our understanding of the gospel related to mission,
some fresh and exciting engagement with scripture".
"Many of us feel we're in a transition period where the world in general is
emerging from modernity, from the Enlightenment, from colonialism, from the
industrial era. People don't know what to call this emerging culture, so
they use words like 'post-colonial', 'post-Enlightenment', some would say
'post-Christendom'.
One of the primary aims is to address the decreasing involvement of young
people in many churches. Mr. McLaren says there are both the problem of the
drop-out among churchgoing young people from 12 to 30, and the problem of
an increasing sense of alienation among both young and old.
"So a lot of us are asking: why aren't our conventional forms of Christian
faith working for people? And what do we need to do about that?"
What is being done is reflection, conversation and experimentation on many
levels - on the level of theology, worship, spiritual formation, mission,
social engagement.
"At all these levels there's a lot of fresh thinking. But it's at a very
early stage, and that's one of the reasons it's hard to define, because in
many cases we're asking questions but have not come up with good answers.
In other areas we're making some modest discoveries and progress."
Some of the experimentation has included what looks rather like a New Age
form of spirituality, crudely identified as involving more candles than
theology. But Mr. McLaren says very firmly that the Gospel of Jesus and the
kingdom of God must remain the dominant theology.
"I think the best book that has been written on this whole thing so far is
by a British theologian, Eddie Gibbs, and an American named Ryan Bolger,
who co-authored a book called The Emerging Churches.
"They came up with nine characteristics. The number one was a centring on
Jesus Christ and his message of the kingdom of God. Why is it that the
message of the kingdom of God was central for Jesus, and somewhat
peripheral for a lot of Christians today? There is a great interest in
rediscovering what Jesus meant by the phrase, and what that means for us
today.
"It's true there has been a lot of criticism. And, of course, when a group
like this is raising very deep questions, such as do we have the Gospel
right? - and you don't get much deeper than that - people who feel we do
have it right already have to criticise what we're doing.
"And we have to listen, because maybe they're right. So for people who
feel, for example, that the Westminster Confession perfectly contains
Christian theology the kind of conversation we're having is a waste of
time.
"But for people who feel that the Westminster Confession arose at a certain
time, addressed certain concerns of that time, then we have to be as
faithful to our time as the framers of the confession were to their time.
"In the US you see a very strong polarisation, where the religious right
has had a strong monologue, and it's been a kind of retreat, a feeling that
the good old days are back in the 1940s or 50s or 70s.
"One of the effects of this emerging church conversation is a sense of hope
and enthusiasm about the future and the need to engage, and less of a
feeling of defeatism and retreat and nostalgia."
Mr. McLaren acknowledges that there is a huge danger that the movement will
appeal mainly to those who have been hurt or turned off by churches.
"There are a lot of people who feel damaged by the existing Church. They
feel that it didn't work for them, they feel that it used them, it didn't
have room for their questions, that it put a coercive pressure on them.
"Those people are hurt and angry, and they have to express that, they have
to process it and get through it. But that kind of hurt and anger can
easily be toxic. It's not easy to help people process that kind of stuff
and not get stuck in it.
"That's one of the real challenges I see when I travel. I see it in
Britain, I felt it in Australia and New Zealand; it's certainly an issue in
the States.
"Another problem is that many people my age and older - I'm 50 this year -
have watched their children and grandchildren completely leave the Church
and the Christian faith, and these children and grandchildren need some way
to reconnect with God.
"We're grappling with these issues, and we're not coming up with solutions
fast enough. But it's a little like pregnancy - it can't be rushed.
"But one of the great challenges is that we can be preoccupied with the
disaffected, and miss the challenge to connect also with people who are
more unchurched than dechurched.
"That group of people is increasing rapidly across the West. There are more
and more people two or three generations removed from any active Christian
life."
Mr. McLaren says there is equally the danger of something like this
degenerating into a fad.
"I had an interesting conversation with three pastors from Palmerston
North, and they said how discouraging it is to have a lot of these fads
come in from the US, and everyone jumps on the bandwagon, goes to the
conferences, spends the money, tries the programme and then there is this
feeling after it is all over that it didn't really change anything.
"And they made an insightful comment, that what New Zealand really needs is
its own confidence that it doesn't need to borrow something from somebody
else, but that people here have the creativity to address their own
context.
"This is one of the reasons I don't like the term 'emerging church'. That
feeds into the idea that it's an imported programme. The idea of a
conversation that New Zealanders play an active role in, but a conversation
that takes place increasingly globally, which is easier to do because of
travel and the internet, is a much more hopeful way to see it."
Among the strengths of the movement is a resurgence of interest in the arts
that, Mr. McLaren says, is unprecedented in his lifetime.
"There's also a real interest in spiritual formation that is not about easy
answers but is about going deep. For example, in the US last month, we have
been sponsoring what we call 'theological conversations' where we invite
people to spend two days with a leading theologian, who does not have to
prepare any lectures.
"Everyone who comes agrees to read two or three books pre-selected by this
theologian and then we just have discussion for a couple of days. We opened
this up for 100 people, and the spaces were filled within six hours. We
kept expanding it, eventually to 300 people, and that filled up as well.
"That to me is a wonderful thing, when you have people - some pastors, but
many lay people, too - to whom it matters so much that they want to spend
two days just talking theology."
Some critics believe that those involved in the conversation are saying
that traditional denominations are outdated or irrelevant. Mr. McLaren
himself does not subscribe to that.
"What we need is not to dismantle all the denominations and go and start
new things. I wish we could have a both-and approach, because there are
great things conserved in each of these denominations.
"And I think there are great treasures the denominations can share with
each other - they don't have to be proprietary of their strengths.
"For example, Anglicans have a great strength in their liturgy. There's no
reason why the Baptists couldn't borrow from that. The Baptists have a
great strength in mission and courageous innovation, and calling people to
commitment and conversion. That's a strength a lot of Anglicans would admit
they do not have.
"You get to the point where there's the possibility of a really
constructive sharing. That's what a lot of us are hopeful about."
Whether denominations become irrelevant will depend on the denominational
leaders.
"I'm very impressed. I meet a lot of denominational leaders around the
world and there are a lot of wonderful and wise people leading our
denominations. These people understand the problems and challenges, they
understand the obstacles to addressing those challenges, and many I have
met are deeply godly people who are trying to move forward with wisdom,
faith and courage. I think if our denominations respond wisely, they have a
great future.
"But I also think that some get into a 'circle the wagons' or defeatist
mentality, where they are held hostage by certain segments of their
constituency, and often the worst cases are where the entrenched and
cautious people frighten away the more innovative and creative people.
"That's a great loss, when a community scares away its creative and
adventurous people. For those groups, I think there will be problems.
"But one of the great blessings is that God can do anything, and even
though you might drive away one generation of creative people, if you can
hang on long enough another generation might grow up, and the second time
round we might be ready to listen."
Mr. McLaren says the move to relate to post-modern culture might be more
advanced in the West, but it will be only a matter of time before it
spreads.
"I have spent a good bit of time in Latin America and Africa, and I will be
in Asia a good bit in the next year, and I am told by a lot of people in
these places that they see similar problems brewing in their world.
"There is a certain sense that the diseases of modernity and post-modernity
have a way of spreading to the global south."
Mr. McLaren certainly believes that a positive way forward will be
developed.
"I have been a pastor for 24 years and I am not naïve about the problems of
the Church, but I am completely confident in the good news of Jesus. There
is nobody else who gives me hope other than Jesus, so as long as we keep
drawing from that resource I am hopeful."
>From inquiries made by Challenge Weekly, it would appear that the
questions and ideas promoted by those in the emerging church network are
meeting with less suspicion in New Zealand.
The pastor of Spreydon Baptist Church, Murray Robertson, says that before
attending the Christchurch seminar his picture of the emerging church had
been of small niche market congregations aimed at alternative lifestylers.
"But I was greatly impressed at McLaren, at his self-deprecating approach
as an American, and at the bigness of his vision. I had a good talk with
him and my impression is that most of the opposition to him in the US comes
because he is not a right-wing, Republican-voting, fundy.
"I think a lot of the criticism of the emerging church has to be seen in
the context of the religious scene in the US. I might be over-simplifying
things, but opposition by Americans to other Americans seems to come from
the nature of their polarised society, where they are not very good at
listening to each other.
"A lot of churches are stridently right-wing, or believe that their way of
doing things is the only way. These churches find it hard to accommodate
different ideas.
"The same situation does not apply in New Zealand, and many churches here
are in fact already doing what Brian McLaren is advocating. I visited their
church website and saw a church that looked remarkably like Spreydon."
Peter Lineham, associate professor of history at Massey University's Albany
campus, said the emergent church is grappling with some deep issues in
Western Christianity.
Professor Lineham agrees with Murray Robertson that there has been sharp
criticism of the emergent church from some conservative evangelicals.
He says some who have made vicious attacks on the movement have not
understood the mission heart that underlies it, and some of that criticism
is based on not understanding the longing for an expression of Christianity
that connects with our culture.
"That's the great genuineness of what Brian McLaren is speaking about. He
is speaking of a real shift in our culture and how to express Christianity,
and he's trying to meet that expression.
"He's certainly had a huge impact in his church in the States, and one can
really respect that, even though he's going to have to choose which door
he's going to go through out of the options he's offering.
"Like all movements, it's a bit flawed. There's a lot in the McLaren
approach which is nebulous. What precisely is the 'new kind of Christian'
that he talks about (in his book A Generous Christian)? It leaves me a
little baffled."
Tim Cooper - a lecturer in church history at Otago University - also sees
churches in this country well on the way that McLaren points to. As a
former church director of LifeSwitch Church in the Hutt Valley, he was
responsible for facilitating changes to meet the 21st century. He says the
fact that it has developed spontaneously here shows it is an important
movement.
"I think it's a real issue for New Zealand churches to work through, how
they make the experience of church meaningful to a new generation. The
older modes of church may not be so meaningful any more because they were
suited to the modern perspective.
"There is a real shift from modernism to post-modernism, which we have to
engage with."
But Mr. Cooper warns that churches need to beware that while finding ways
to relate to postmodern culture, they don't become too enculturated. He is
unhappy with one of the early books written by McLaren, A New Kind of
Christian, which appeared to rely more on post-modern thinking than the
Bible to resolve problems.
"If churches abandon the Bible as the basis for what they doing, that's
tricky. The weakness of postmodernism is: what do you pin it on? What basis
is there? Once you take out the idea of objective truth, what is left?
"I strongly believe that churches need to engage with post-modern thinking,
but post-modernism may be passing, and it may pass more quickly than you
think, because people will find in the end it's not a philosophy you can
live by. Who knows what will succeed it, but perhaps it will be a return to
absolute values.
"Therefore, while we should pay attention, we don't necessarily have to buy
into it. Nonetheless, churches need to pay attention. Things are rapidly
changing, and if we're 10 years behind we're a long way behind. We've got
to connect somehow," Mr. Cooper said.
(c) 2006 ASSIST News Service, used with permission
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I must now emerge from here... 8-)
to investigate the strange yellow ball... :roll:
now emerging in the sky... :o
& let your posting creativity... :P
er... :-?
emerge??? :-D
Ian :multi: