Tag Archives: Emerging Church

Book Reviews

The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations by Dan Kimball

There is a lot of negative talk going around the ‘church’ today about the new postmodern mindset. A lot of the talk is centered around the “no absolute truth” part of postmodernism – a concept that scares a lot of Christians.

Yet, the postmodern mindset is much more then “relative truth”. It is a mindset – nay – a worldview – a different way to look at the world around us – it’s not necessary “bad” or “evil” – it is just different.

For the past 500 or so years, the Western Church has been caught up in modernism – which held to a “single, universal worldview and moral standard, a belief that all knowledge is good and certain, truth is absolute, individualism is valued, and thinking, learning and beliefs should be determined systematically and logically.”

Postmodernism, on the other hand, holds that “there is no single universal worldview…community is valued over individualism, and thinking, learning, and beliefs can be determined nonlinearly.”[@more@]

In other words, postmodernism is closer to the worldview held by most cultures outside the West then it is to the traditional modern view of life.

For example, those living under a modern worldview are influenced by facts – which leads to belief – which in turn influences one’s behavior. Postmodern folks rely on experience to influences their behaviors – which then leads to their beliefs.

Dan Kimball does a good job of describing this shift and how it affects the church. Seeing that the emerging generation is more “hands-on”, Kimball sets up prayer stations around the church building allowing people to wonder from station to station praying.

Postmodern folks also have a love for more “vintage” expressions of the Christian faith – like classic art, stain glass windows, silence, etc. In fact, one article I read (not in Kimball’s book) suggests that the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches are posed for a great increase in numbers due to this mind shift.

While most of the book is great, I did have one beef with Kimball’s book – it almost seemed that he was writing down a formula for how to run an emerging church… It’s kind of funny that I got this impression since he makes several comments say the opposite…but for what ever reason, it came across that way.

I would liked for him to spend more time talking about the postmodern / emerging church mindset and less time describing how he “does church”….

In closing, Dan Kimball’s book “The Emerging Church” is a great resource in learning about the emerging Christian movement. Just remember that it is about a mindset and not a formula.

Book Reviews, Theology Thoughts

Everything Must Change by Brian McLaren

What can I say? How can one summarize a book that has caused more brain waves then Bede?

I guess you start by typing your thoughts… and hope that all goes wells. Undecided

There are three main topics that really knocked me about in this book:

  1. Justice
  2. Peace Insurgency
  3. Rethinking the “American Dream”

As such, I’m going to talk a bit about each of them – briefly as this is a blog post not a book. Tongue out

  • Justice

McLaren really changed the way I looked at Jesus and his ministry. A lot of scriptures I took to be purely “spiritual” or begin now have a huge neon “justice” sign next to them.

Of course, in making the sign, I had to ask myself “What is justice?”  Is justice purely a legal term describing the emotions of someone wronged when the cook gets thrown in jail?[@more@]

Or perhaps justice is something more… maybe it’s helping those oppressed by the culture around them…. those casted aside by the rest of society.  If that’s so, then Micah’s words to “act justly” means more then not lying or creating.

It could also mean that Isaiah 61 is more then just a spiritual prophecy. – perhaps, Jesus came to physically release the captive in addition to releasing us from spiritual bondage…. things to think about.

  • Peace Insurgency

I have been looking for another term to describe my passion for the Creator of All… the terms “Christian” and “believer” have been highjacked…”Kingdom of God” is to archaic…

How about “a member of the peace insurgency”?

Ponder this: a revolution or civil war is again a legitimate government…but an “insurgency” is a group of folks fighting again an illegitimate ruler. 

That is where we are – Satan has taken over this world illegitimately. We are fighting against him – yet, we fight not with guns, but with peace, love, justice, mercy and the grace of the Lord Almighty.

  • Rethinking the “American Dream”

What is the “American Dream”? Grow up, obtain a good job, get married, buy a house with a white picket fence and then start acquiring as much toys as possible.

Sounds good?

I think it sounds like crap!

They call my generation the “Me” generation – yet, I think that term fits each and every generation on planet earth. We are all – especially in the West – concerned about what “I” get out of it… even in the church.

Americas consume more resources then any other people group – we create companies that destroy the environment and/or “hire” slave labor so that we can buy more items/toys. And we call it “progress”!

Hear me out – and think about what I’m saying.

I think it’s time we, the church, stop pursuing the “American Dream” with all it’s fancy toys and start caring for the poor, the widow, the hungry, the homeless, the corporate cube worker trapped in debt, the rich fool trying to gain the most toys before he dies….

We call ourselves a “blessed” nation….but are we really ‘blessed’?  How are our spiritually lives?  Are they solid? or do we just have fat pocket books?