the emerging church of the late 1800s
Warner believed that it was possible for Christians to live together in the unity that comes when God’s love is present in people’s hearts. At the Beaver Dam meeting he stood up to say that he was forever finished with all religious groups that divided Christian people from each other. From then on, he said, he would be part of God’s church (or, the Church of God) and not others…
Early Church of God people were very determined not to be organized like the churches of their day. So they did not have church buildings and congregations as we do today. Instead they often met outdoors in what were called “brush arbors” when the weather permitted them to be outside...
Unfortunately, the early Church of God was still captive to its era. What started out as a movement to call all Christians into life together, ended up being another denomination (though even today, with their int’l headquarters and everything, most deny it is a denomination). In fact, I remember several people in the Church of God who had a difficult time recognizing the faith of Christians in denominational churches. Instead of being a beacon of unity, much of the Church of God became another division… If you didn’t see the evil of denominations, so the logic went, you obviously did not have the Spirit of God!....
The emerging church runs the same risk today, except it is not likely a unifying theological system which will dominate the movement. Rather, the risk is the treatment of theology within the emerging church becoming universal. While I personally share the value of openness to theological questions with my emerging church brethren (that’s right, I said brethren… but I include the sisthren, too :D ), we run the risk of dividing the Church once again if we make that openness a defining trait of true or good Christians. In valuing the mystery of God, we could easily divide the Church yet again by creating a group identified not simply by their love and pursuit of Jesus Christ but by a theological construct valuing mystery and charity (both extremely good things in my opinion) over propositions. Propositionally-based Christians can still pursue Jesus. That’s what most Christians were during the entire Modern era....
A part of the history not dealt with in the article I linked to was the power of the Spirit in the early Church of God movement. They were basically Charismatic without the speaking in tongues. Healings, words of knowledge, prophecy… these things were prominent at one time in the Church of God. But a fear of the Charismatics taking over, due to the Church of God’s loose structure, led many to disdain the works of the Spirit which were more extraordinary and could be described as “manifestations” of the Spirit’s power.
The emerging church also runs the risk of minimizing the power of the Spirit. In an effort to be relevant and shed unnecessarily offensive parts of the church today, we risk shedding the necessary offensive parts of the church. There are some. We cannot escape the weirdness of someone being healed. If we pray for it, we better believe that God at least might actually heal! If we ask God to speak to us, we better understand that God could speak and give us knowledge, wisdom, prophecy for today. (Please note I use prophecy not in the sense of telling future events, but prophetic wisdom for today)...
There's even better stuff in this article about racism and feminism, but then you wouldn't make the effort to go and read the entire article.
Early Church of God people were very determined not to be organized like the churches of their day. So they did not have church buildings and congregations as we do today. Instead they often met outdoors in what were called “brush arbors” when the weather permitted them to be outside...
Unfortunately, the early Church of God was still captive to its era. What started out as a movement to call all Christians into life together, ended up being another denomination (though even today, with their int’l headquarters and everything, most deny it is a denomination). In fact, I remember several people in the Church of God who had a difficult time recognizing the faith of Christians in denominational churches. Instead of being a beacon of unity, much of the Church of God became another division… If you didn’t see the evil of denominations, so the logic went, you obviously did not have the Spirit of God!....
The emerging church runs the same risk today, except it is not likely a unifying theological system which will dominate the movement. Rather, the risk is the treatment of theology within the emerging church becoming universal. While I personally share the value of openness to theological questions with my emerging church brethren (that’s right, I said brethren… but I include the sisthren, too :D ), we run the risk of dividing the Church once again if we make that openness a defining trait of true or good Christians. In valuing the mystery of God, we could easily divide the Church yet again by creating a group identified not simply by their love and pursuit of Jesus Christ but by a theological construct valuing mystery and charity (both extremely good things in my opinion) over propositions. Propositionally-based Christians can still pursue Jesus. That’s what most Christians were during the entire Modern era....
A part of the history not dealt with in the article I linked to was the power of the Spirit in the early Church of God movement. They were basically Charismatic without the speaking in tongues. Healings, words of knowledge, prophecy… these things were prominent at one time in the Church of God. But a fear of the Charismatics taking over, due to the Church of God’s loose structure, led many to disdain the works of the Spirit which were more extraordinary and could be described as “manifestations” of the Spirit’s power.
The emerging church also runs the risk of minimizing the power of the Spirit. In an effort to be relevant and shed unnecessarily offensive parts of the church today, we risk shedding the necessary offensive parts of the church. There are some. We cannot escape the weirdness of someone being healed. If we pray for it, we better believe that God at least might actually heal! If we ask God to speak to us, we better understand that God could speak and give us knowledge, wisdom, prophecy for today. (Please note I use prophecy not in the sense of telling future events, but prophetic wisdom for today)...
There's even better stuff in this article about racism and feminism, but then you wouldn't make the effort to go and read the entire article.
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