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This article If you don’t get married, it’s hard to get a divorce at The Washington Post highlights the very issues I've tried to raise in light of the concept of sacramental marriage recently practiced and promoted by emerging church ecclesiologist Dr. Tony Jones. As I argued before, and this article presents real life examples, that since he knows the fragility of the marriage relationship, the built in legalese of the marriage contract is a big help for the possible break up. Without the legal contract language of marriage, those in sacramental marriages could end up in awful situations like these after 20 years of unwedded bliss... Luxenberg recalls one client who lived with her partner for 20 years. They’d had a child and built a home together. The woman’s income was about $50,000, Luxenberg says, and her boyfriend’s was “six or seven times that.” When the couple split, the woman hired Luxenberg to see what recourse she had. The answer: not much. There would be child suppor...

I fell in love with Pearl Buck 's world because of her magnificent writing from the very beginning. For example, this paragraph transported me to China onto the land of a newly married peasant farmer. The sun beat down upon them, for it was early summer, and her face was soon dripping with her sweat. Wang Lung had his coat off and his back bare, but she worked with her thin garment covering her shoulders and it grew wet and clung to her like skin. Moving together in a perfect rhythm, without a word, hour afer hour, he fell into a union with her which took the pain from his labor. He had no articulate thought of anything; there was only this perfect sympathy of movement, of turning this earth of theirs over and over to the sun, this earth which formed their home and fed their bodies and made their gods. the earth lay rich and dark, and fell apart lightly under the points of their hoes. Sometimes they turned up a bit of brick, a splinter of wood. It was nothing. Some time, in some ...

Tony Jones calls the creation account true but not factual and thinks Paul's understanding of original sin and its transmission from Adam to us is corrupted by the confusion of true and factual. He sure acts like a typical liberal Princeton seminarian. He keeps getting hung up on the issue that somehow Adam's curse messed up his genetics which would explain original sin, and since no one has found the Sin gene, Original Sin must be an archetype, whatever that is, and not a reality. I responded You seem hung up on a materialist explanation of the transmission of sin from Adam. Perhaps we inherit some of our parents' spritual essences as well. However, it does seem mysterious, but why should mystery prevent us from accepting plain doctrine? Thanks to Mike Wittmer for the heads up and brief analysis. Justin McRoberts reflected on the complaints of a wealthy man . Michael Patton at Parchment and Pen makes a bailout proposal for the American evangelical church before it goe...

My religious friends of the progressive persuasion like to accuse unnamed brethren on the conservative persuasion of co-mingling their faith with their patriotism, see here . However, those of us who have been around recovery circle know the expression, "whenever you point at someone, there are 4 fingers pointing back at you." No one is out of their culture, we are, hopefully, learning to wear our heavenly citizenship more and more and our earthly stuff less and less, except for the earthly stuff that is in agreement with the heavenly stuff. In light of this, this author sounds interesting. He writes , Here is my question: if in every age the church has benefited and suffered from its engagement with culture, should we expect that our postmodern age is any different? Our postmodern context rightly reminds us of the biblical concern for humility, social justice, and care for the poor. But postmodern Christians can be so humble that they mumble, and they can be so focused on s...

I've seen probably a half-dozen of these now. The ones during the presidential primaries were a riot. Andrew Jones linked to this one today. It's funnier if you watch a few of these and if you know the names and current history. I love when Hitler calls Tony and Andrew "brothers."

These posts are my favorites from my travels around the blogs. They appear in the shared feeds section all week here at the Umblog, or you can bookmark this page , or add it to your feeds with the RSS link . 1-The Tall Skinny Kiwi broke down the 5 models of the emerging church back in the last century and now he's reposting his analysis, which is good fun. Enjoy. 2-A widow describes her painful transition with and without the church's help at Christianity Today. 3-The white wife of a bi-racial couple describes the racism her husband lives with constantly, in the context of Obama's pastor's Afro-centrist stand. 4-I blogged about induction stoves before . Here is one person's new and pleasant experience with his own. 5-A Canadian journalist defends his right before a government agent to publish the controversial Mohammed cartoons . 6-A c onversation with the boys on their bikes by a Christian who wants to know what the good news is that they are restoring. 7-A y...

Eric Pement concluded Christians are not immune from stumbling themselves or others by loose habits of speaking. It may occur with vulgar words or in other ways. I know of a much-loved minister who cannot resist making sexual or scatalogical innuendos in private conversation, even though “technically” he has never said anything obscene. At some point, he needs to be reminded that “coarse joking” is out of place in the life of the believer (Eph. 5:4, NIV). Not knowing what he’s doing, he loses more esteem by his off-color remarks than he gains from having a new joke to tell. Our point was summarized long ago in James 1:26: “If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless.” Swearing does not show “realness” or gutsy emotion. Rather, it betrays a flaw in our ability to communicate sensitively and tastefully, not unlike the woman who dumps four spoonsful of sugar in her coffee and imagines she really lik...

Holly Nelson writes at the Ooze When I originally encountered the Emerging church movement a while back, my first reactions toward it were positive since other christians shared similar frustrations that I was experiencing in my spiritual journey. I am grateful for having the opportunity to learn from it. At the same time, it has become just another christian subculture. It rejects the old status quo, only to establish a new one: new rules, new preferences, and new jargon.What is the problem? Subcultures exclude. The people within them create expectations based on personal preferences of how people within the group should act and appear. Yet, not everyone will have what it takes to belong. It is sort of like a club. The subculture (human religious system) is then mistaken for the Body of Christ (God's system). Obviously, they are not the same. Does the world really need another christian subculture? That question deserves an entire article of its own. For now, I would rather addres...

i'm continuing the dialog with Ben , pastor at St. Paul's near UConn. Hi Ben, thanks for replying. i did listen to your message, but i wasn't enlightened much more. sorry. i'm a better text learner than oral learner. so here's some text to dialog over, if you think it's beneficial and worth our time and your readers' time. the American Heritage Dictionary defines Christian "adj. 1. Professing belief in Jesus as Christ or following the religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus. 2. Relating to or derived from Jesus or Jesus's teachings. 3. Manifesting the qualities or spirit of Jesus; Christlike. 4. Relating to or characteristic of Christianity or its adherents. 5. Showing a loving concern for others; humane. n. 1. One who professes belief in Jesus as Christ or follows the religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus. 2. One who lives according to the teachings of Jesus." if we stick with the noun, only Jesus hi...

Kind of a weird question from a pastor. So i posted a comment but it hasn't been approved so i'll share it here. it really helps to read the article first though. fwiw, the church describes itself as, "St. Paul's Collegiate Church is a post-denominational community church in Storrs, CT, that was planted and officially launched in February 2005. There are over 18,000 college students and 20-somethings living in the Storrs-Mansfield community, home to the main campus of the University of Connecticut. Less than five percent of this group attends a local church." i wrote i'm a UConn IVCF alumnus, '92, and i was excited to see some more outreach at UConn, including this church. IVCF actually let me come back and give a talk last winter. it's at my blog in series called things i learned in college . but that's my introduction. i've been following your blog for awhile, but this is the first one that makes me want to comment. i think it's misleadi...

But have you heard these guys talk? For starters: if you still, frequently , have to explain to people the difference between emergENT and emergeING, perhaps you need to pick a new moniker. I still don’t know what the difference is. And I’ve never quite figured out what they are “emerging” from. And do you ever quit emerging? Lots of things emerge, but they eventually stop emerging, right (once fully emerged, I mean)? Will the movement change its name to “Emerged” when it’s done? And is this the first movement to have a participle for a name? HT: EO

Roger writes This leads me to believe that despite all the talk about “conversation,” most of those on the Emergent side of things (especially leaders such as Jones and McLaren) are really only interested in publicly conversing with people who believe exactly as they do. At best, they are just as sectarian as the fundamentalists they often criticize, and the Reformed academics I criticized above. Of course, I side with Carson, Scott, and Brett, and so I’d like the Emergent folk to engage their critics in hopes that they’d make certain changes. However, most of us critics are open to being wrong about where we stand and the best way to show us where we are wrong is to actually engage us instead of dismiss us.

This past Sunday Scranton Community Church held its final weekend service. After struggling for years to balance the demand of producing creative, innovative, culturally relevant weekend services with the demands of putting on and attending as many creative, innovative, culturally relevant church conferences possible, Pastor Dwight Schrute made the decision to pull the plug. "Over the past few months we've been pairing down our ministries to focus on what we do best. We eliminated Women's Minsitry, Men's Minsistry and all age specific ministries; the next logical step was to eliminate the weekend service. We were doing cutting edge stuff; talking about sex, making funny videos, singing everything David Crowder has ever written, but we just weren't hitting our sweet spot" Shrute shared. "Our real calling is to glean from other churches, copy what we've learned and then put on our own conference to teach others to do what we're copying. It just made...

Darell Bock is another smart guy who is tackling the emerging church. He writes, "Just an updated note on my use of terminology. I am not working in a way that distinguishes the terms emergent and emerging as some wish to do. I am interested in wrestling with how the church addresses a post-modern culture and the various proposals tied to that goal and associated with the terms that focus on such efforts."

at GetReligion: September 5, 2006 : "Looks like it’s a thoroughly Protestant understanding. I’m surprised that Groeschel is surprised by the sins and anguish that are being revealed. I’m sure that a pastor or priest who regularly hears confession would not be so shocked at what is afflicting the flock. In fact, I would think that confession-hearing pastors get an insight into the life of the congregation that non-confession-hearing pastors are oblivious to. I’m also interested to read that Groeschel believes healing comes from confessing to other people. Oprah would certainly agree. An open, anonymous confession site has interesting implications. On the one hand, assuming that there is any truth to these claims, the pastor can better preach to the flock. On the other hand, given that these confessions are coming in from at least nine separate congregations as well as, well, the rest of the world, then how useful is it to hear the confession in terms of more focused preaching? In h...

just received this from Anton and Janet who run the ApologeticsIndex .... It was long past-due, but we have just posted a major entry on the Emerging Church at Apologetics Index: Postmodernism and the Emerging Church Movement The author is David Kowalksi, an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God. He has authored a number of articles, including two in the "Encyclopedia of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity," published by Berkshire Publishing. The article provides - An appropriate response to the Emerging Church Movement - An overview of the distinctive teachings and goals of the Emergent Church - A look at the movement's methods and communication strategies - The Church's proper role in postmodern culture - An overview of the movement's leaders - An overview of the movement's opponents - A (satirical) glossary for those who are new to the conversation - Overviews of Emergent ...

the set up: Gene Appel, lead pastor of Willow’s South Barrington campus, said that leaders have been asking God for months for a new vision for Axis, and they sense an emerging desire to be a “diverse church with an intergenerational vision.” If Axis’s launch ten years ago signified the start of the next-generation-church-within-a-church phenomenon, what are we to make of Axis’s demise? Has Gen X ministry been a failure, or was Axis a victim of its own success—a transition ministry that has outlived its usefulness? Dan Kimball, pastor of Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, California, and author of Emerging Church and Emerging Worship, has written about the end of Axis. In part one of his post, Kimball discusses why the church-within-a-church model is difficult to maintain. the conclusion: This is why so many worship gatherings launched within a church last only 3-5 years. Very few last any longer than that. They end up imploding because if the new worship gathering is truly rethinking...

interesting discussion at "Out of Ur" regarding Megachurch 2.0, the video venue. don't stop at the article but read the comments. my slippery slope fear is why not just meet with a couple friends at home in front of your TV and watch a webcast or a televangelist and call THAT church? i'm not sure that is right or wrong, but is there really such a famine of the gifts of the Spirit such as teaching? on the mission field some believers gather around a radio broadcast to listen to someone who knows nothing about them or their needs. some are listening to translators reading the sermon of an American. what if we just sit around and read the sermons of dead preachers? who needs technology? really all you need is 2 or 3 gathered in His name. how bad is atomization? if friends keep splintering off into smaller and smaller flavors of church, could it be another means to the end that God accomplished during the persecution of the Jerusalem church in Acts which dispersed the bel...

I call this flavor of nonsense affiliated with emergent church grunge theology (Pearl Jam, Alive specifically) with a twist of REM , or maybe SNL deep thoughts with Jack Handy theology . only if you drank deeply from popular culture in the 90's do you hear these echoes in odd paragraphs like this from a book. the commenters have no mercy. why are they so mean? because ideas have consequences and the commenters point this out over and over again. "Ed Gungor’s new book, Religiously Transmitted Diseases (Nelson Ignite, 2006), equates definitive answers with “dead religion.” In this excerpt from the book, Gungor affirms the life-giving role of mystery within our faith. Religion may be attractive on one level, but it always strives to remove all the mystery that congests life. It has answers for everything, because questions are way too untidy. “Jesus is the answer.” Right? But what if Jesus isn’t the answer? What if He is the question?" his website, in the "words" ...

One of my readers from Australia has a great post that starts this way.... "I have great hopes for the Emerging Church. I would like it to be a force from vitalization of the Christian movement in the West and beyond. But I think there are a number of critical issues it must come to grips with if it is to be all it can be. Here are my concerns: 1 The EC is drawing a false dichotomy between Secularized Spirituality and New Religious Movements. I don’t know why I need to keep saying this but try as you might, you cannot separate the commercialisation of Yoga from the westernization of Hinduism, the commercialization of meditation from the westernization of Buddhism or the commercialization of Enneagram therapy from the re-branding of western esotericism, that is, the occult. Both are intimately related. ... 2 If the EC wants to become seriously missional it must develop a robust theology of other religions that is BOTH respectful AND challenging. ... 3 If the EC wants to develop a...