I think we have a great audience on Parchment and Pen. It is varied and representative of a diversity of Christian thought. I appreciate this. I need this. Thank you all for being a part of the serious thought.

I have a question for you. I am sitting here thinking through a class I am teaching tonight on essentials and non-essentials. It is very windy. There is a large oak tree outside that is catching the wind. Its strength amazes me. How does it withstand so much wind? It brought to mind a very familiar passage of Scripture: Continue Reading »

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Have you noticed it? Do you feel small? Do you feel inadequate to have opinions anymore? Do you feel a heavy hand upon your head? Do you feel demeaned, disenfranchised, demoted?

That is what it is beginning to feel like to be an Evangelical.

There is a new elitism that is sweeping Christianity. Oh, it does not go by any such name. In fact, it claims to be anti-elite. Its characteristics are those which discount opinions with too many raised hands. It promotes evangelical vertigo, western fatigue, and uncertain hope. It goes by many names: emergent, post-colonialism, post-conservative, post-modern, post-fundamental, post-Christian, and the like. It promotes all things “re-.” Re-imagine, re-construct, re-think, re-form, re-(ahem) claim. It is theology 2.0. Continue Reading »

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Join us for this lively broadcast where Mark Driscoll and I discuss Christ in a pop culture in relation to his new book Vintage Jesus.

Main issues discussed:

• What makes Christ so attractive to our culture today?
• Is it the true Christ people are attracted to?
• How do we represent Christ in our culture?
• Why is there criticism about contextualization? Isn’t this just part of the Christian mission?

 

 Mark Driscoll - Vintage Jesus [71:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (918)

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When the history books are written, I suppose that people will begin to recognize the degree to which our culture has changed in its thinking over the last few years. When all is said and done, I believe that the internet will be seen as the catalyst to postmodernism in the same way the printing press was to modernism.

I sympathize with the confusion in our world today. I am not riding the boat, but I do understand why people are floating upstream.

I was on campus at the University of Oklahoma today. I had lunch with a young Christian student. We began talking about relativism, skepticism, tolerance and the like. Being a Christian raised in a very conservative home, this young man expressed disgust at the attitude of the postmoderns on campus. “Your truth is your truth. My truth is my truth.” Isn’t this what they all say? I asked him if he sympathized with such a statement. Of course, the right Christian answer is “no.” Wait, it is “*%ll NO!”

I do. Continue Reading »

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Yes, I am alone once again. No worries, join me as I talk about the difficulties of representing Christ in a postmodern world.

 

 My Postmodern Sympathies [26:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2282)

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Phil Johnson of TeamPyro started a series on contextualization of the Gospel and Act 17 (Part 1, Part 2). He is combating what he believes to be a compromise of the Gospel shrouded in the name “contextualization .”

In his words, some in the “postmodern missional ministry” (i.e. emerging/Emergent church) believe that Paul, in Acts 17, “adopted the worldview and communications style of his hearers. He observed their religion and listened to their beliefs and learned from them before he tried to teach them. And he didn’t step on their toes by refuting what they believed. Instead, he took their idea of the unknown god, embraced that, and used it as the starting point for his message about Christ.”

This is the caricature, right or wrong, that is set up.

He says that in contrast to the compromised message of the postmodern Christian, Paul was not scared of offending people because he does not set his standard by how many people respond positively to the message. In fact, as Phil points out, Paul did not win many by his ”contextualized approach.” Phil says, ”That is the biblical approach to ministry. You don’t measure its success or failure by how pleased the crowd is at the end of the meeting.”

Let me interact with this a bit. Continue Reading »

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**Note: on the chart, “antropocentric” should be ”anthropocentric” and “fundementalism” should be “fundamentalism.” 

Well, I am almost done teaching my Wed night sessions on all things emerging and I created some more visualizations that I thought I would share. Please note that these visuals are representative primarily of the western Protestant church in America and are not meant to be all inclusive with regards to the greater Christian tradition. 

In this particular group of charts I believe that the center, as represented by what I am calling “Historic Evangelicalism,” is the “safest” place to be (not sure if that is the best way to put it). Evangelicalism arose as a movement out of and in response to Fundamentalism in the 1940s. Fundamentalism represents static movement (if there is such a thing). Neo-Fundamentalism represents those evangelicals that have a tendency to gravitate back toward fundamentalism to some degree. This gravitation toward fundamentalism by much of Evangelicalism is one of the reasons why many people are no longer willing to identify with Evangelicalism. It is out of this situation, in response to Evangelicalisms fading identity, that the Emerging church has risen.

You can click on each chart to get a larger version.

The Evangelicalism of the 1940s was a progressive movement. It was progressive in two ways 1) It was a movement of cultural engagement. 2) It was a movement that recognized the need for and valued theological diversity (at least to some degree). The Emerging church is progressive in the same way.

 

This may be somewhat of a caricature, I understand. Please take it relative to this assessment, but there is some truth behind it and value in looking at it this way. Speaking to Fundamentalists and some Evangelicals, the charge would be made that they focus on Scripture to such a degree that the message becomes more important than the messenger. As James Sawyer once put it, “We have the Father, Son, and Holy Bible.” Being “Theocentric” has less regard for the identity of Christianity as a Christ centered religion and more of an inclusivistic tendency to speak about God in general terms.

Continue Reading »

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Conversation involve questions. The asking of questions is either meant to illicit and answer or to provoke thought that provides an answer, even if the answer is a tentative “I don’t know.” I often tell my students that it is better to have an informed “I don’t know” than a forced make-ready answer.

When it comes to Christ, when it comes to following Christ, when it comes to who Christ is and what he did, there are some questions that need to be asked. The answers to these questions will and do divide. The division regards differences in beliefs, convictions, or knowledge concerning the object.

Christ asked Peter a very divisive question: “Who do you say that I am?” Others had differing opinions. Some said Elijah. Others John the Baptist. The contrastive de tells us that Christ was asking what Peter thought in contrast to what the others thought. “You are the Christ, the son of the living God,” he answered (Matt. 16:16). With this answer Peter contrasted his beliefs about Christ with all the others who gave different options. Peter believed he was right and the others wrong.

This was an early confession, a creed, a statement of faith that was in response to a question. It was not from the lips of Christ, but one of his followers. Peter was the first to put his theology into a creed. This creed not only separated him from other contemporaries, but has separated Christianity as a confession of faith from all other alternatives since. “Who do you say that I am?”

But this was not the end. As I will attempt to demonstrate, there was a progressive development of a creedal belief in the New Testament that distinguished Christianity as a distinct system of belief. Continue Reading »

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Here is an illustrated history of postmodernism. It has to be watched to be understood.

I am hoping that this will give people a better idea of why we live in a postmodern world. It does not justify or endorse postmodernism in any way, it simply gives a context for the confused mindset that many in our generation are experiencing. The emerging church, Emergent and emerging, is that which seeks to be a witness for Christ because they identify with the postmodern mindset. I hope this helps in our ongoing discussion.

 

 History of Postmodernism: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1995)

This video is taken from the Introduction to Theology course of The Theology Program.

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Often when I begin a series on the emerging church people approach me with two questions: 1) “Am I emerging?” 2) “Are you emerging?” In both counts this is really a loaded question. I have a hard time answering it because I don’t know what they are really asking. It takes some further explaining before I am ever comfortable with such questions.

In the last post (”Will the Real Emerger Please Stand Up?“), I discussed the difficulty in finding a one-size-fits-all category for emergers as evidenced by the variety of leaders who claim the name. There is no one emerger that we can go to that represents the entire so-called “movement.” I then attempted to encourage people to see two primary strands of emergers—those that are simply emerging and a sub-set of those who are part of a more definite group of more liberal minded emergers called Emergent (closely associated with Emergent Village).

For this blog, I would like to narrow our definition of emerging by denying the label certain characteristics and giving a brief description of what I believe it means to be emerging. Continue Reading »

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Millard Erickson has a book called Postmodernizing the Faith where he summarizes the different approaches that the Christian community is taking in response to the postmodern plight. I blogged on this last year, but thought I would advance some of my thoughts. I think it is a great and valuable study that helps us approach a sensitive issue in an understanding, irenic, and profitable way.

The question is How do we as Christians engage a postmodern way of thinking? More specifically, how do we change the postmodern—or do we? Continue Reading »

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The most valuable lesson that I had in graduate studies was when a professor of mine had me defend Arminianism. The reason why this was so valuable centered on the fact that I was not an Arminian and the professor knew it. He set up a debate where I was assigned to research the best arguments for conditional election (the primary distinguishing mark of Arminianism) while others were to defend unconditional election (the primary distinguishing mark of Calvinism). Grading was done on how well each party defended the best elements of their assigned position.

I took this challenge very seriously and for weeks studied the arguments for Arminianism, responded to the challenges of Calvinism, and shaped my presentation in such a way that I thought contributed most persuasively in debate form. Once the assignment was complete, my professor said that I lost the debate, but every student, including those on the opposing side, conceded that I undoubtedly won. It was a bitter-sweet victory! Continue Reading »

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It is no secret that our culture today is undergoing a massive paradigm shift with regards to the way people come to know truth. The atmosphere of the intellectual landscape has changed. Confidence, certainty, and dogmatism have been replaced with doubt, skepticism, and agnosticism. All truth claims are held in high suspicion. Those still working under the old paradigm of absolute truth are thought by this new generation of thinkers to be naive at best and power mongering manipulators at worst.

Within the philosophical and theological communities, this new generation goes by many names: Post-fundamentalism, Post-Christian, Post-Evangelical, Post-Liberal, and the most common Post-modern. While these names may not be sufficient to completely convey the ethos of this generation, they all have one important element in common—they are all post something. The culture is moving beyond where it was before. Continue Reading »

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I’ve been reading J.P. Moreland’s superb book Kingdom Triangle, which was recently released by Zondervan. He begins with this true story by the missionary doctor to Zaire, Africa—Helen Roseveare. Though it’s a bit long for a blog, it is very inspiring.

One night, in Central Africa, I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward; but in spite of all that we could do, she died leaving us with a tiny, premature baby and a crying, two-year-old daughter.

     

We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive. We had no incubator. We had no electricity to run an incubator, and no special feeding facilities. Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts.

     Continue Reading »

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This is a real letter from a student at a well know unnamed Evangelical Bible College. He wrote this to his school’s administration after Campus Crusade for Christ came and made a presentation.

If there is anything I accept least of all, it is man’s susceptibility to judge and condemn. When I first saw Campus Crusade for Christ’s advertisement for the lecture on “Comparative Religions” in the ResCo cafeteria, however, my reaction was complete disgust. (With God’s help, I think I managed to relax long enough to forgive those ignorant enough to spread such propaganda and write an objective response). . . . Continue Reading »

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