“Missional” is making the rounds in the interwebs in anticipation of a consensus. I suspect pulling a new word into meaning requires antagonists and allies. After all, “missional” still is adversarial to spell check! If missional emerges from the clutches of its varied uses to become a standardized term, what will it be in 140 [...]
Category Archives: Emergent/emergent
“Didachists” to Avoid – The Dishonest Type
I am reading Tony Jones new book on the “Didache,” The Teaching of the Twelve. I have Bettensen’s Documents of the Christian Church which contains excerpts from the Didache. Tony offers a complete copy in his book. Imagine that! The former National Coordinator for Emergent Village authors a book favorable of one of the earliest [...]
Al Mohler’s Postmodern Turn (off) of John Franke
Al Mohler reads John Franke through his deeply embedded cultural, linguistic systems to such a committed degree he seems to be missing John Franke. In other words, when one is accustomed to culture warring where disagreement is expected it is difficult to give any space for the Other/other. Even more so to offer an even [...]
Fear the Jones – Where Do You Get Your Information?
We have all been guilty. Our self-selected source of authority on a given subject speaks and with something like blind acceptance we believe it all, proverbially hook-line-and-sinker. Ed Stetzer recently tweeted a long assumed quote from St. Francis was bogus. Many, like myself, offered an attributed quote to St. Francis to counter a climate where [...]
Fear the McLaren – Could there be something good?
Recently I ventured to the great northwest part of our state to participate in a one day conference. During the conversations about what it means for the church to be “for the world” a panel discussion broke out. Two SEBTS seminary professors, a state Executive Director and a Director of Missions comprised the panel. Our [...]
Re-Enacting the First Century – ABQ Reflection Pt. 4
This is part 4 of my reflections from The Emerging Church Conference in Albuquerque and Phyllis Tickle’s presentation on The Great Emergence.
For some time the rage has been “church planting.” Statistical data is often used to support the contention new churches grow more rapidly than existing churches. And, in an ever-increasing consumer-celebrity culture the hottest [...]
Pathological Divisiveness – Reflections from ABQ Pt 3
During my days in Seminary I readn an article editing the experience of church splits. The author actually spun church splits into a methodology for church growth – planting churches!
Years later I am want for a Christian denomination without the experience of division. But alas to begin one simply means sooner or later a divsion [...]
Emerging – Adjective or Verb (Reflection on Albuquerque Pt 2)
In something of a “let’s see where our opposition comes from” move, denominations have been fearing the “emerging church” and yet have a hard time identifying it. That may be due to the fact it is more a verb than an adjective. Consider.
Ed Stetzer offered research on the “Emerging Church” for a variety of groups [...]
The Wind of Our Own Making – Reflections Part 1
(Last week I attended “The Emerging Church: Conversations, Convergence and Action” sponsored by the Center of Action and Contemplation in Albuquerque, N.M. More than 900 people representing different Christian denominations from the United States and around the world gathered to consider what is emerging in/for/to/through the Church. My best guess pegs the average age of [...]
Fear the Pagitt – What Role for the Scriptures?
We Southern Baptists know how to make an issue out of the Scriptures. Al Mohler recently tweeted he was sitting in the Cafe du Monde in the French Quarter listening to Paige Patterson describe the historic conversation between he and Judge Pressler. Said conversation eventually led to the Conservative Resurgence in the SBC. For those [...]
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