The Emerging Church: Another Road to Rome
Commentary by Roger Oakland
www.understandthetimes.org
The Emerging Church controversy continues to explode. Perhaps the
best way to describe the Emerging Church phenomenon is to compare
it to an avalanche. Every day more and more information is being
made available regarding what the Emerging Church is and where it
may be headed.
The Emerging Church
It is not my purpose in writing this commentary to define every
aspect of the Emerging Church. In fact it would require several
volumes to do so. Even then, some would say that the Emerging
Church was not defined properly.
The common denominator being promoted is the idea that the time has
come for Christianity to be reinvented for our generation. In order
to do so, the church must provide the environment and the
experiences to attract people. Christianity, the Emerging Church
promoters say, must become relevant to our postmodern generation.
No longer does reason or Gods Word hold the answers to lifes
questions. Experience must become the key factor to encounter
spiritual reality.
A Prayer Station that was on display at Capo Beach Calvary
April, 2005 - with instructions on how to pray with an icon
The following statement taken from a book written by Chuck Smith
Jr. titled There is a Season (foreword by Brian McLaren and
endorsed by Leonard Sweet) provides insight into how Christianity
may be reinvented in the future as the Emerging Church moves away
from the Word of God towards the concept of experiencing God. Chuck
Smith Jr.states:
What would happen if we allowed people to feel what we cannot
explain, to know with the heart and not with the brain? We would
open the door of faith to a wider audience than if we continued to
insist on a rational belief in the facts as the only legitimate
starting point of the Christian faith. [1]
A prayer station created for use during the Emerging Church service
at Capo Beach Calvary illustrates what Chuck Smith Jr. means by
allowing his congregation to feel and know with the heart and
not with the brain. This prayer station was on display during the
month of April, 2005. Further, the prayer station complete with
candles, incense and icons featured an instruction sheet to assist
church attendees in how to pray with an icon. The instructions
stated:
Praying With Icons
Draw in a slow deep breath. As you do pray, Holy Spirit surround
me,
fill me, breathe life into me.
Empty your mind of all anxiety.
Empty your heart full of desire except for God.
Focus on one icon and imagine what that person might say to you
about God, yourself, and others
Read the icons as if the person who painted it wanted to send
a
message to you. Notice the details.
The icon is there to remind you of God: to make you conscious of
His
presence, all around you.
Pray in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy
Spirit.
(option) Cross yourself as you say these words.
Brian McLaren summarizes what the Emerging Church is in the title
and subtitle of his book A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I Am a missional
+ evangelical + post/protestant + liberal/conservative +
mystical/poetic + biblical + fundamentalist/calvinist +
anabaptist/anglican + methodist + catholic + green + incarnational
+ depressed-yet-hopeful + emergent + unfinished Christian.
According to McLaren, the goal of the Emerging Church is to
formulate a Christianity for the twenty-first century that is based
on a smorgasbord of ideas in the name of Christ. There are really
no ideas barred. However, based on what we read in Scripture, many
of these ideas lack support or are outright heretical.
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