The first week of my summer vacation has come and gone. It was excellent. This week, week two of vacation, I am going to be a little busier with family stuff. Therefore I will not be much in the way of original content on the blog. I should have a book review or two along the way, but do not intend to spend a lot of other time writing. Therefore I am queuing up a few things I’ve written in years past and hope you’ll enjoy reading them (or reading them again if you’ve been around that long). I was rooting around this morning and found this great quote from Kevin DeYoung (and man, that guy can turn a phrase!). I thought it was worth posting again…
Have you ever wondered if you are emergent? I know I have! Here is Kevin DeYoung, co-author of Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) on how you might know if you are emergent…
*****
After reading nearly five thousand pages of emerging-church literature, I have no doubt that the emerging church, while loosely defined and far from uniform, can be described and critiqued as a diverse, but recognizable, movement. You might be an emergent Christian: if you listen to U2, Moby, and Johnny Cash’s Hurt (sometimes in church), use sermon illustrations from The Sopranos, drink lattes in the afternoon and Guinness in the evenings, and always use a Mac; if your reading list consists primarily of Stanley Hauerwas, Henri Nouwen, N. T. Wright, Stan Grenz, Dallas Willard, Brennan Manning, Jim Wallis, Frederick Buechner, David Bosch, John Howard Yoder, Wendell Berry, Nancy Murphy, John Franke, Walter Winks and Lesslie Newbigin (not to mention McLaren, Pagitt, Bell, etc.) and your sparring partners include D. A. Carson, John Calvin, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Wayne Grudem; if your idea of quintessential Christian discipleship is Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, or Desmond Tutu; if you don’t like George W. Bush or institutions or big business or capitalism or Left Behind Christianity; if your political concerns are poverty, AIDS, imperialism, war-mongering, CEO salaries, consumerism, global warming, racism, and oppression and not so much abortion and gay marriage; if you are into bohemian, goth, rave, or indie; if you talk about the myth of redemptive violence and the myth of certainty; if you lie awake at night having nightmares about all the ways modernism has ruined your life; if you love the Bible as a beautiful, inspiring collection of works that lead us into the mystery of God but is not inerrant; if you search for truth but aren’t sure it can be found; if you’ve ever been to a church with prayer labyrinths, candles, Play-Doh, chalk-drawings, couches, or beanbags (your youth group doesn’t count); if you loathe words like linear, propositional, rational, machine, and hierarchy and use words like ancient-future, jazz, mosaic, matrix, missional, vintage, and dance; if you grew up in a very conservative Christian home that in retrospect seems legalistic, naive, and rigid; if you support women in all levels of ministry, prioritize urban over suburban, and like your theology narrative instead of systematic; if you disbelieve in any sacred-secular divide; if you want to be the church and not just go to church; if you long for a community that is relational, tribal, and primal like a river or a garden; if you believe doctrine gets in the way of an interactive relationship with Jesus; if you believe who goes to hell is no one’s business and no one may be there anyway; if you believe salvation has a little to do with atoning for guilt and a lot to do with bringing the whole creation back into shalom with its Maker; if you believe following Jesus is not believing the right things but living the right way; if it really bugs you when people talk about going to heaven instead of heaven coming to us; if you disdain monological, didactic preaching; if you use the word “story” in all your propositions about postmodernism—if all or most of this tortuously long sentence describes you, then you might be an emergent Christian.
Comments (52) »
1. Reg Schofield
July 27, 2009
8:29 AM
Great quote . Good to know I’m not emergent but an old codger . For the record , I hate Lattes so that clearly gave it away .
2. Don
July 27, 2009
9:10 AM
Does this mean i’m submergent?
The ‘tortuously’ long list is a pretty telling (and saddening) list of departures for the emergent conversation. The list seems to make the point that this movement is largely about a mood, not a movement. When the rebellion is over, I pray many of the victims will return to the truth and love of His word.
3. Tim
July 27, 2009
9:39 AM
I’m afraid I’m still not much impressed with DeYoung. His assessments of the emerging church seem to always be stretched and over-generalized. Of course the emerging church movement is hard to define, as it is organic and changing, and a conversation rather than an organized movement. Many of the things he has described can be seen from seeker-sensitive to missional churches, from Acts 29 to PCA.
Kimball has long since moved on from the Emerging church kick. He’s said that the term really means nothing anymore. If only DeYoung could now do the same.
4. Mason
July 27, 2009
9:39 AM
Well I suppose if this is the standard then I’m rather emergent. Although, I think that this list shows exactly the way the “Why We’re Not Emergent” guys miss the point.
The ‘mood’ emphasis, which Don points out, is not what it means to be emergent. Emergent/emerging has nothing to do with lattes or indie rock or Macs (if it did than I am emergent to the core because I quite like all three).
The idea that dressing a certain way and using terms like missional makes you emergent is like saying that if you like the cold, the color red, and ask why the poor have no food then you are a communist.
Postmodernism and finding a way to articulate/live out the faith in a postmodern context is central to emergent. If you have the cloths and drink the coffee but are not influenced by actual postmodern philosophy (by which I mean Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault, not McClaren) then you’re a trendy Evangelical, and that’s about it.
5. Arthur Sido
July 27, 2009
10:01 AM
That list by Kevin is kinda cutesy and serves the purpose of having a chortle at the expense of “emergent” types. I agree with Tim in comment 3 that this list, like a lot of the rhetoric around the emergent church, is overgeneralized. Kevin lumps a lot of stuff in that list and in doing so dismisses the legitimate with the illegitimate. Much of what comes under the umbrella of “emergent” is flat out silly but some of their concerns are legitimate.
6. J.P.H.
July 27, 2009
10:11 AM
Not sure if I qualify:
“if you listen to U2, Moby…”
Guilty as charged. Though I really only like Rattle and Hum and earlier.
“drink lattes in the afternoon and Guinness in the evenings”
Don’t often drink beer (though not opposed), but I drink coffee like its water.
“and always use a Mac”
I use one for 8 hours a day at work. If and when I buy a new laptop it may be an iBook, but I’d want to dual-boot OS X and Windows 7.
“if your reading list consists primarily of Stanley Hauerwas, Henri Nouwen, N. T. Wright, Stan Grenz, Dallas Willard, Brennan Manning, Jim Wallis, Frederick Buechner, David Bosch, John Howard Yoder, Wendell Berry, Nancy Murphy, John Franke, Walter Winks and Lesslie Newbigin”
Don’t even recognize some of those, but Nouwen, Willard and Manning are popular with some folks at my church.
“if you don’t like George W. Bush or institutions or big business or capitalism or Left Behind Christianity”
Wasn’t a fan of Bush or “big business”. I like capitalism. Not a fan of “Left Behind Christianity”.
“if your political concerns are poverty, AIDS, imperialism, war-mongering, CEO salaries, consumerism, global warming, racism, and oppression and not so much abortion and gay marriage”
Gay marriage is a non-issue for me. Rampant consumerism and CEO salaries are concerns, but they’re not really political. Poverty is a concern, but mostly from the point of view that any economic policy will have ramifications for the poor and imho many people neglect to take them into account when formulating economic policy.
“if you lie awake at night having nightmares about all the ways modernism has ruined your life”
Don’t lay awake at night, but I suspect that “modernism” is in fact toxic in a number of ways. I highly suspect most non-emergent Challies readers would agree with that, perhaps more enthusiastically than the “emergent” crowd.
“if you support women in all levels of ministry, prioritize urban over suburban, and like your theology narrative instead of systematic”
Should be noted that Tim Keller advocates prioritizing “urban” over “suburban”. Or at least urban over rural. And he’s hardly emergent.
“if you want to be the church and not just go to church”
What…DeYoung wants to “just go to church” and not “be the church”? This seems like a universally positive goal.
“if you believe following Jesus is not believing the right things but living the right way”
This also seems pretty true. Does DeYoung think following Jesus is “believing the right things” instead of “living the right way”? I’m willing to admit that there are almost surely people who are more “confused” than me on doctrinal issues who nevertheless manage to love God better than I do and live lives more in accordance with what is pleasing to Him.
7. Brendt Waters
July 27, 2009
10:21 AM
Tim, DeYoung anticipated your objection to over-generalization. In the same book, he states:
… when people endorse one another’s book and speak at the same conferences and write on the same blogs, there is something of a discernible movement afoot.
All emergents can and must be lumped together. DeYoung said so.
Game. Set. Match. Barf.
8. Justin Keller
July 27, 2009
10:35 AM
I think we miss the point if we turn the elements of this sentence into a checklist. That’s a hyper-literalized reading that is insensitive to the tone of both the passage and the book — a surprisingly unnuanced reading in my opinion.
Think of it more as good-natured poking in the ribs with a shot of hyperbolized teasing from a friend. Friends tease and have a little fun with each other sometimes. And I think those of us who might self-identify as anti-emergent are meant to have a chuckle at our own expense, as we recognize more of ourselves in that list than we might have thought.
And in the midst of the tongue-in-cheek fun, there are some points of difference that get discussed a little more specifically in the rest of the book — the priority of orthodoxy vs. orthopraxy, for example, or the epistemic status of propositions.
Maybe we all need to learn to laugh at ourselves a little?
9. Michael C.
July 27, 2009
10:42 AM
My favorite part though, or what would be funny is if Johnny Cash’s Hurt is played in Church. Because it’s a cover of Nine Inch Nails. More or less funny.
10. Bryan C. McWhite
July 27, 2009
11:05 AM
…and in all fairness, I would hasten to say (as a calvinistic, complementarian, etc., evangelical), Tim, if you DO NOT believe/adhere to/value many of the things in this list of ‘marks of emergents’ you might not be a Christian!
11. Zack
July 27, 2009
11:30 AM
You gotta include something about wearing a tweed sport coat with some kind of trendy t-shirt underneath.
Also those hats that don’t quite have a full brim ALA Matt Kearney.
12. Bryan C. McWhite
July 27, 2009
11:41 AM
…and you might be a grouchy, loveless calvinistic complementarian evangelical if comment 10 frustrates you.
13. Sean
July 27, 2009
12:24 PM
I’m not sure why overgeneralizations are abhorrent in one direction but not in the other(even within this thread!). That’s a puzzling double standard. Perhaps each who complain want to be the center of attention.
The generalizations are broadly accurate. There are outliers, to be certain, but the shoe undoubtedly fits much, much, much more often than not. One cannot be proud of these characteristics out of one side of the mouth and then (broadly and with sweeping generalizations! Irony alert!) deprecate those who accurately delineate these characteristics.
Sean
14. Karin
July 27, 2009
12:52 PM
“I’m thoooooooooo confused,” said the lay-person. “I don’t know about all of these labels. I’m one of the ‘this-I-know’ folks. Jesus loves me, THIS IS KNOW!!! That’s it; that’s all! That’s enough!
15. Micke
July 27, 2009
12:56 PM
hat are the signs of Doomsday, the end of days ?
The 2 tower, earthquakes, nature striking back, brother against brother ?
Or like in this horrible story , a mother and sisters against a sick sister struggeling for help, but they have already in secrecy decided to “sacrifice” her ! for money ! !
www,medicalforgery.com
16. Micke
July 27, 2009
12:58 PM
hat are the signs of Domesday, the end of days ?
The 2 tower, earthquakes, nature striking back, brother against brother ?
Or like in this horrible story , a mother and sisters against a sick sister struggeling for help, but they have already in secrecy decided to “sacrifice” her ! for money ! !
www dot medicalforgery dot com
17. pentamom
July 27, 2009
2:25 PM
Yeah, I think the point of the list isn’t “people who are like any of these things are generally emergent types” but “emergent types are generally like many of these things.” Certainly the formert is disputable, but since it’s not even been asserted, it’s not really worth disputing. But can anyone seriously dispute the latter?
Bryan, I can’t find more than one or two that would seriously call one’s Christianity into question if they were rejected, and even in those cases, we’d have to tease out what was meant by rejecting them as stated. There are goodly number of them for which rejection might be foolish, but calling people’s salvation into question because they don’t immediately nod in agreement with someone’s take on what Christians should think strikes me more as the reaction of someone who is grouchy and loveless, rather than the opposite.
18. Mark Traphagen
July 27, 2009
3:45 PM
There is simply no other reason to print sophomoric caricatures like this (in a book or quoted favorably in a blog) other than the immature “making fun of you makes us feel better about ourselves.” I was a part of that kind of “Christianity” for too long, and am very glad to have left it behind.
Now that I’ve written that, I feel quite a bit better about myself. I’m going to go buy myself a latte. Or get one of those soul patches with which Carl Trueman seems so obsessed.
19. pallen
July 27, 2009
5:22 PM
So, I guess I’m like 35-40% emergent. Does that make me a heretic or something?
20. KMS
July 27, 2009
5:54 PM
So I wonder why Tim Challies thinks he may have emergent tendencies? (“Have you ever wondered if you are emergent? I know I have! “)
In what ways are you ‘emergent’ Tim, or are you a closet emergent, afraid to let the elders know your inner views in case they come knocking on your door after tea?
Living in Australia and essentially not involved in a main stream denomination, rather house church, I wonder what all the fuss is about. It would seem to me that Emergent is just another form of what used to be called the liberal church movement. (I wonder what will be the next movement?)
Personally have my feet firmly planted in the authority of scripture and hold to a reformed confessional biblical worldview but also see that the so called emergent people have something to say on social issues which are in tune with biblical teaching as are some views in that list about being church etc.
(Why doesn’t subscribe to comments button work when ticked - I never get replies?)
21. Susanna
July 27, 2009
7:51 PM
I listen to U2 and drink lattes in the afternoon (as well as in the morning and at night thanks to our espresso maker)…uh oh…I guess I’m emergent?!:)
22. Susanna
July 27, 2009
7:52 PM
I listen to U2 and drink lattes in the afternoon (as well as in the morning and at night thanks to our espresso maker)…uh oh…I guess I’m emergent?!:)
23. Michael
July 27, 2009
8:58 PM
My son was born to the sounds of U2. The nurse wanted something a little more peppy than Jim Brickman. And I’ve always wanted a beanbag. Maybe I’m an emerging emergent? No. Not really. Long live the brick and mortar of a nasty cross and an empty grave.
24. Kathy
July 28, 2009
12:08 AM
I don’t know about emergent. Sounds Episcopalian to me. And they’ve been doing this for decades.
25. donsands
July 28, 2009
8:54 AM
Great quote from a terrific book. Thanks.
I went to see Shane Claiborne, when he did Jesus for president, and I found out I’m not a Fundy, but I’m definitely not a Christian like these, who are political on the passivist path of Christianity, and yet I appreciate his love for Christ, but too much politics. Brian McLaren was there playing intermission music. There’s an EMC guy who is outside of orthodoxy in some big doctrines, and yet these EMCers all get along kind of nice, and I don’t get it.
I suppose I may need to be less critical I think. Working on it in His grace.
26. Christine Korte
July 28, 2009
10:18 AM
I admit it, I’m a MAC user. But that’s where it ends!
I read the book and it was very enlightening.
27. Nathan
July 28, 2009
12:28 PM
This list shows two big mistakes Christians seem to be making:
* Rejecting ideas based on who is holding them rather than by the merits of the idea.
* Over-spiritualization of just about everything.
For example,
* AIDS, poverty & war-mongering are all real issues that have spiritual implications. Even if you end up agreeing with or supporting something that Hillary Clinton says or does regarding these issues, shouldn’t dissuade you from doing what’s right.
* A bean bag is neither spiritual nor unspiritual. What you sit on at church does not imply anything about your spirituality.
28. donsands
July 28, 2009
2:32 PM
“A bean bag is neither spiritual nor unspiritual. What you sit on at church does not imply anything about your spirituality.”
I’d like a church with all Lazy Boy recliners. That would be nice. I wonder does that say something about my spirituality? It surely does.
I think the things we use, the way we dress, and so on, can show what our spirituality is about. Not all the time, but it certainly can.
If you look at many traditions in the Church over its history, they tell what was important to those who built the buildings, and decided what clothes to wear, and so forth.
The things we have in our church can say what’s going on in hearts; but it’s not always telling. It’s a gray area, but there’s more to it than saying “A bean bag is neither spiritual nor unspiritual”, methinks.
29. Tim
July 28, 2009
3:30 PM
I have patches on my clothes, and don’t own a suit, so don’t wear one to church, so I guess that says something about my spirituality as well.
I don;t think DeYoung was trying to demonize all the items in the list, so you don’t have to worry if you’re a Mac user, but he was trying to be humorous, and in doing so was offensive and overly generalized. The whole quote was trying to create a better-than-thou dichotomy between the Young, Restless, and Reformed camp and the New Monastic movement/Emergents.
30. Mike
July 28, 2009
3:35 PM
Like u2 & Bush like manning & nouwen and also read carson & lloy-jones I’ve heard of some those other guys but never read them. wallis is boring I dont understand wright and calvin is to wordy. I dont know what that makes me. Im to old to be emergent anyway.
Mike
31. Mike
July 28, 2009
3:39 PM
If you dont know who Brennan Manning is I have a short utube vid of him on my blog.
32. pentamom
July 28, 2009
3:48 PM
The operative words in the “AIDS and poverty” comment were “and not so much.” The structure of the clause didn’t indicate that caring about AIDS and poverty etc. were in themselves Emergent, but the pitting of that set of issues against the other set of issues that you should also “not be dissuaded from” supporting because of the uncool people who are anti-abortion etc.
33. Nathan
July 28, 2009
5:49 PM
When a person’s actions and intentions are involved, nothing is devoid of spirituality. BUT a physical item is not _necessarily_ spiritual or unspiritual.
We need to be more concerned about whom we prefer sitting next to and whom we reject sitting next to rather than assume that there is some great spiritual implication about what we use for seating. When you have absolutely no partiality when choosing your place to sit, then I will let you explain to me why you are more spiritual by your choice of object to sit on.
Do I hear anything from conservative Christians about AIDS? No.
Do I hear anything from conservative Christians about poverty? No.
Do I hear anything from conservative Christians about war-mongering? No.
Do I hear anything from conservative Christians about gay marriage and abortion? Yes
Something tells me that the emergent side has flipped this around — horrors!
Anyway, my point was that just because the emergent movement (or Hillary Clinton) up-plays or downplays something has nothing to do with its real importance. It would be very easy for conservative Christians to read the AIDS, war-mongering and poverty phrase of the quotation and continue with their status quo glad that they are opposing the satanic forces in the emergent church.
34. William
July 28, 2009
6:21 PM
Wow, I don`t know what to say. I guess I`m at least in part, emergent as you put it. ” if you want to be the church and not just go to church” certainly fits me to a tee, but then, Jesus and the apostles must have been emergent as well as it reads in the bible. Church should not be an hour on sunday. We should all be the church the rest of the week as well. Far too many of us are not unfortunately. We are to be a light unto the world.
35. William
July 28, 2009
6:24 PM
By the way, I listened to U2 the other day too.
36. Kate
July 28, 2009
7:23 PM
Sigh… As if those who recoil from emergent doctrine don’t want to ‘be the church’. I’m not a speck emergent… but of course I also want to ‘be the church’ because my theological doctrinally based understanding of belonging to Christ includes being His church, His bride, His body, His servant. The phrase, William, ‘I want to BE the church and not just go to church’ is an oft’ repeated emergent rallying cry that paints the non-emergent in a stereotypical rigid and frigid mold. I don’t know anyone in my non-emergent circle of Christian friends who is not absolutely passionate about BEING the Church…they also happen to love the gathering together of believers at a local Church facility. We can have it both ways. I know there are some reasonable doctrine loving emergents, but their leaders are not of that sort.
37. donsands
July 28, 2009
7:42 PM
“Do I hear anything from conservative Christians about AIDS? No.” I do.
“Do I hear anything from conservative Christians about poverty? No.” I have.
“Do I hear anything from conservative Christians about war-mongering? No.”
Not sure what you mean here.
There’s a time for war, and a time for peace.
“Do I hear anything from conservative Christians about gay marriage and abortion? Yes”
You mean Christians shouldn’t be speaking about these issues?
The holocaust of babies in America, and the world is something God hates. And the homosexual bishops in the pulpit needs to be spoken about, I would think, and even condemned.
38. James
July 28, 2009
9:53 PM
Add to the list….You might be emerg*** if you’re overly sensitive and easily upset about what someone wrote in a book about the emerg*** movement. :o)
39. William
July 28, 2009
10:47 PM
Thanks Kate. I feel better now. :)
40. Jenny
July 29, 2009
7:59 AM
I know I go to a semi-emergent church. My husband and I have recently decided to leave it. The reason is because, we long for something deeper. I would like our kids to have something deeper than catchy songs, video clips from Nickelodeon, then a biblical message trying to relate to what they just saw. The first time I heard the song Hurt by NIN/Johnny Cash was in church. The problem is we go to church and hear a pretty good sermon, though biblical in content it is not deep. It is not encouraging change. Even though that is what they say they are doing. It is accepting you the way you are but accepting you not to change too. I know this because I am tired of seeing women, week after week, coming dressed like hussies!
I recently started studying the Westminster Shorter Catechism with my kids. It made me realize the depth of scripture they can handle in even elementary school. That is the problem in the emergent church I believe. The social issues they want to address are valid but I honestly think with true conversion and change in heart God gives you a burden for those things to handle in a biblical way. Christians stuck in youth will not handle those larger issues correctly when they aren’t deeply rooted.
So, even though what DeYoung wrote may have hurt some feelings, it is true in many cases. Even though many of those things aren’t all bad, there is a culture that develops in a church that can affect the growth of the people.
There is so much more I would like to say. I don’t comment often ….
41. Dave
July 29, 2009
8:19 AM
Trying to figure out the emergent movement is like trying to nail jello to the wall. I think most, if not all churches would be emergent to some extent according to, for example, the above discription. DeYoung is simpley spinning his wheels.
42. Christopher Lake
July 29, 2009
2:04 PM
I think that some people here might be reading this list in a wooden way, as if DeYoung is somehow “emergentizing” every single characteristic on the list, and along with it, every person who has any one of those characteristics. I highly doubt that he would say that anyone who listens to U2 and drinks lattes is necessarily emergent in his/her thinking.
I understand DeYoung’s point to be more about a *combination* of many different characteristics that, taken *together,* tend to be found in emergent circles. It seems to me, at least, that the list is meant to be funny with an undercurrent of seriousness. Many people here seem to be reading it in exactly the reverse way.
43. Jake
July 29, 2009
4:01 PM
its shocking how many people totally don’t get what DeYoung was doing.
Just as an example….
1. DeYoung isn’t emergent.
2. DeYoung says if you want to be the church, and just go to church, you might be emergent.
3. DeYoung doesn’t want to be the church.
Hmmm. Hopefully no one needs to point out the failings of this argument.
44. David Kjos
July 29, 2009
5:33 PM
A shocking turn of events, indeed.
1. Something (anything!) is posted about emerg*** by a non-emerg***.
2. Emerg***s (or emerg*** sympathizers) don’t get it, become offended.
3. Emerg***s (or emerg*** sympathizers) cry about being misunderstood.
Who could have predicted that?
45. Anna
July 29, 2009
7:26 PM
Well, now that we have a list of emergent characteristics, could we then have a list of non-emergent characteristics? I can find little, if anything, to differentiate between the two. Apparently emergent is the new catch phrase among christians which refers to anything and everything christians do today.
46. J.P.H.
July 30, 2009
11:19 AM
In the same spirit as DeYoung’s list:
You might be a non-emergent Christian: if you shun all music that lacks a Christian label, use sermon illustrations from “24”, think lattes are for dirty hippies and beer drinking is sinful, and regard Macs as frivolous toys; if your reading list consists primarily of Al Mohler, CJ Mahaney, J. Ligon Duncan, John MacArthur and John Piper; if your idea of quintessential Christian discipleship is John Calvin, George Whitefield, Ronald Reagen or Robert E. Lee; if you like George W. Bush and believe “big business” typically acts morally and with the best interests of individual citizens in mind; if your political concerns are gay marriage, illegal immigration, lowering taxes, opposing environmental legislation and defending the rights of home schoolers and not so much poverty or foreign military actions; if you shop primarily at the Gap and like golf and American football; if you frequently talk about the myth of “easy grace”; if you sleep quite soundly at night, completely unconcerned about the ways modernism has ruined the lives of others; if you love the Bible as a hyper-literal tool that incontrovertibly supports your particular theological beliefs and renders all others rank heresy; if you you no longer search for truth because you’ve already found it; if you’ve ever been to a church with a parking lot full of SUVs, where all the men wear suits, and that has a giant American flag on the dais next to the “Christian” flag; if you loathe words like relational, narrative, creative and emotional, and prefer words like rational, orthodox, authority and practical; if you grew up in a very conservative Christian home and are exceedingly glad of that fact, if you believe women should primarily be home makers and oppose their participation in most areas of ministry; mostly ignore urban issues since your church relocated from its previous urban setting to the suburbs; and like your theology regimented and systematic rather than narrative and/or relational; if you immediately dismiss anyone who wants to “be the church and not just go to church” as a whiny malcontent; if you long for an ethnically and socioeconomically homogeneous community with whom you can play golf, talk about your investments and commiserate about the Obama presidency; if you think many believers spend too much time worrying about their “relationship with Jesus” and should spend more time honing the correctness of their doctrine; if you believe you know exactly who’s going to hell and that its your business to inform them of that fact; if you believe salvation has a little to do with atoning for guilt and a lot to do with quitting your most visible sins and adopting certain doctrinal minutiae; if you believe following Jesus is primarily about believing the right things instead of living the right way; if it really bugs you when people talk about heaven coming to us instead of us going to heaven; if you disdain narrative, conversational preaching; if you use the word “relativism” in all your propositions about postmodernism—if all or most of this tortuously long sentence describes you, then you might be an non-emergent Christian.
47. Jonathan Benz
July 30, 2009
6:12 PM
Thanks for sharing this. I hate labels and haven’t considered myself ‘emergent’ but after laughing and uh-huh-ing my way through this, sort of might think I am…But I’m not committing to that label either. ;)
48. Miranda Pike
July 31, 2009
11:25 AM
That is awesome. We were in an emergent church, ignorant of what emergent was. When we heard about emergent and realized we were in that, we felt greatly deceived and so mislead. Of course, the leadership would never admit to being emergent. They don’t want the label, just the “grace and freedom from the law.”
So much deception is stealing true Christianity. It looks and feels christian, but it’s a joke.
49. Gregory
July 31, 2009
1:29 PM
Sounds like to be non-emergent would either be otherwise labeled “red-neck”. Maybe we could have Jeff Foxworthy explane it for us. He may even do a good job of it.
50. Larry
August 1, 2009
1:10 PM
Emergent, that`s funny right there, I don`t care who ya are.
51. Jeff
August 2, 2009
9:17 AM
If the word “Septuagint ” gets you exited, you just might be non-emergent.
52. Sandie McFerran
August 2, 2009
12:12 PM
Response #’s 50, 51, 52 - you guys ‘got it’ .