Wednesday 10 February 2010

Emerging, Authentic, Flawed, Wrong?


I'll come clean. I am struggling a bit with the 'Emerging, Emergent, Emerged and Authentic Church' stuff. I imagine this, along with the fact that I don't go for young earth or a literal seven days of creation renders me a condemned and fallen heretic! Oh well, I've been called worse (it's true you know, only last week someone assumed I supported Tottenham Hotspur!).
I am becoming uneasy because what I am seeing is something that can only be regarded as 'church lite' - so let me explain why and how. A while back a clergy colleague was running a course which saw people bringing their own spiritual experience into the context of being 'emerging church'. Where he saw Church and I saw syncretism. Not only that but where I see repentance, forgiveness, renewal, living once - then dying - then being judged (Hebrews 9:27) others are seeing something which appears to ignore these. I see the Cross where others appear to see being 'real' or 'authentic' as the route to salvation. Seems to me that we've been sucked into some postmodern quest rather than Christianity and it seems that grace has little to do with it.
I find the trendy questioning of the efficacy of the Cross and the universal 'child abuse' that is to be found in penal substitution worrying. We are removing the tough issues and refraining from asking tough questions (perhaps because in 'Church lite' we are unable to answer them anyway!). We can create 'church without walls'  but we cannot create Church without Jesus and Him crucified, risen and ascended - and yet this is what I'm seeing more and more. Jesus is the only way - I think this is what is clearly stated in John 3:16 and although I am told that I am mistaken and that my view is the result of a 'high Christology'. To this I can only answer that they are wring and that then need to return to the basics rather than embrace the comfortable new way of being Church. It isn't supposed to be comfortable because it's about taking up our own Cross and following Jesus (Mk 8:34 //).
It does seem that we are more concerned with people coming to church rather than we are with people coming to Jesus and this is certainly not authentic.
Then again, I could of course be wrong!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

No, you are not wrong. You are right on the mark. I like the way one of my seminary professors stated it. There is some flexibility and a range of practice on some non-essential things. But the closer a practice or belief gets to the Atonement of Jesus Christ for our sins, the less flexibility there is.

The death of Jesus Christ for our salvation is the central truth of the Christian faith. When that is altered, it is no longer an orthodox faith we are dealing with.

The emergent church is moving farther and farther away from the faith once delivered to the saints. I would not want to be a leader responsible for the loss of a person's faith and their heavenly eternity.

Anonymous said...

Found this in passing and think you're correct in so much of your thinking.

Why on earth are you an Anglican :)?