He is Limitless, so why limit Him
The Gospel of Jesus Christ works. It hasn’t lost it’s power. The message is still the same, and it shouldn’t be tainted with. No matter what era we live in, be it the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, the 23rd Century, the message of Christ needs to reach the hearts of men and women. That is our mission. The way that is communicated isn’t necessarily our problem. Puppets, slides, mass, being yelled at, etc. considering the time and place, the way this God-life gets communicated changes.
Emergent isn’t about method, it is recognizing that the mission is dying, and while existing communities are holding on to the last bastions of what ‘worked’ there is a generation that longs for a deep connection with God. Can you remember when there were 14.4k and 28.8k modems, that you dialed up for your web access. You could only load so much information back in the day, and it was limited. What we are seeing in our churches is limited access to an incredible triune God. Sometimes its limited worship – where we don’t learn what it means to be facedown, or enter in to a prayer time on our own. Sometimes it is the limited word – where it gets so watered down by How to Apply this to your Daily Life, that the strong personal message of God directly to you, gets put aside by 3 points on a slide. Sometimes it is the limited mission, or the non-mission – where churches are so stuck on finding out everyone’s purpose – that the one main purpose – to Glorify God gets added on to the pile of steps and programs. And sometimes it is limited relationships – where Religion has replaced the Man, Jesus. Sin isn’t a breaking of a law, it is a breaking of relationship with God, and there are churches that have broken that relationship by trashing their mission.
Emergent is about the mission.
So when you see in your ministry that people are coming to the Lord, learning about Him, learning about themselves, and seeing them joining God in His work, then you realize that this Gospel still works, not the method. The Church of God is about the mission, I firmly believe that, but the Church of God isn’t the mission, it is a small part of the Kingdom of God. Emergent isn’t a house of prayer, you will not see any Main St. Church of Emergent pop up in your neighborhood. You will see people in your neighborhood long for something to fill that empty void in their life, searching for a place to ask questions, to be accepted as they are, and antique non-mission oriented religion filled communities will be passed on in a blink of an eye.
I disagree with Bolger about redeeming churches, cause that isn't our business. It is redeeming souls, bringing people to the Father. The Church of God Reformation Movement isn't what I gave my heart to, I gave it to Jesus, and I want others to give their heart to Him as well. The emergent conversation itself could turn in to something other than redeeming God's people, but for now, it speaks to those who's questions aren't being heard by modern traditional communities, (they don't need to be yelled at about their sin right now, so could you please just listen to them?). And in 100 years, it will be something else, I just pray to God, my grandkids aren't sticking to old-time emergent religion.
Here is a good look at the world we are dealing with, somewhat, provided at Emergent Village
Emergent isn’t about method, it is recognizing that the mission is dying, and while existing communities are holding on to the last bastions of what ‘worked’ there is a generation that longs for a deep connection with God. Can you remember when there were 14.4k and 28.8k modems, that you dialed up for your web access. You could only load so much information back in the day, and it was limited. What we are seeing in our churches is limited access to an incredible triune God. Sometimes its limited worship – where we don’t learn what it means to be facedown, or enter in to a prayer time on our own. Sometimes it is the limited word – where it gets so watered down by How to Apply this to your Daily Life, that the strong personal message of God directly to you, gets put aside by 3 points on a slide. Sometimes it is the limited mission, or the non-mission – where churches are so stuck on finding out everyone’s purpose – that the one main purpose – to Glorify God gets added on to the pile of steps and programs. And sometimes it is limited relationships – where Religion has replaced the Man, Jesus. Sin isn’t a breaking of a law, it is a breaking of relationship with God, and there are churches that have broken that relationship by trashing their mission.
Emergent is about the mission.
So when you see in your ministry that people are coming to the Lord, learning about Him, learning about themselves, and seeing them joining God in His work, then you realize that this Gospel still works, not the method. The Church of God is about the mission, I firmly believe that, but the Church of God isn’t the mission, it is a small part of the Kingdom of God. Emergent isn’t a house of prayer, you will not see any Main St. Church of Emergent pop up in your neighborhood. You will see people in your neighborhood long for something to fill that empty void in their life, searching for a place to ask questions, to be accepted as they are, and antique non-mission oriented religion filled communities will be passed on in a blink of an eye.
I disagree with Bolger about redeeming churches, cause that isn't our business. It is redeeming souls, bringing people to the Father. The Church of God Reformation Movement isn't what I gave my heart to, I gave it to Jesus, and I want others to give their heart to Him as well. The emergent conversation itself could turn in to something other than redeeming God's people, but for now, it speaks to those who's questions aren't being heard by modern traditional communities, (they don't need to be yelled at about their sin right now, so could you please just listen to them?). And in 100 years, it will be something else, I just pray to God, my grandkids aren't sticking to old-time emergent religion.
Here is a good look at the world we are dealing with, somewhat, provided at Emergent Village
Posted By Andy | |
Permalink 
I think it's dying because we've married the gospel with how we do church. Emergent is seeing life as a missionary, not a chaplain right? Not as a caretaker, as a life saver. It's a worldview.
We can only hope that through our missional lifestyle people will be pointed to the Redeemer. Why I'm stuck on ChOG is I think that the root message is missional. I think that when you roll into a town in an old stagecoach, sing God's praise, preach the Gospel and people follow Jesus, that is impacting people where they're at. [Some of what D.S. and the gang did.] I think we have a good base to speak from. 120 years ago it was about doing whatever they could to communicate the Gospel. I'm only hoping that our expeirances as a movement in the past can be our Rosetta Stone. So hopefully some moderns will migrate and join us. By meathod I mean, anything that conveys the Gospel. My meathod is just simply being. Striving to be God's vessel. The doing, will come. I'm working on the faith part, so the works will be evident. I think that is at the heart of it, don't you?
Posted by
Randy |
3:00 PM
Do we all see how important the living out part is to others? Lets face it, the church is really one of the last places people want to go these days, and some have equated religious experience with things like pain, suffering, and abuse. So I don't blame people for not wanting to come to a place like church. They need to see Jesus, and they can only see Him by Jesus' people living like Him. I agree with you Randy, that being God's people finally, instead of just trying to look like them, is where we need to be.
Posted by
Andy |
5:13 PM