The UmBlog

so i'm concerned with seeing the enneagram on Pagitt's blog . Previously I had concern when I read about Solomon's Porch that "Monday night means yoga class, not board meetings. For worshipers at Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis, it's part of their passion for a new kind of spiritual formation." CT . I am discerning a lack of discernment at Pagitt's church, because Pagitt isn't discerning. Hold off on flaming me though. I spent my 20's in a movement that lacked discernment also, The Vineyard . There was much I was blessed by in the Vineyard. It was used by God to scratch those itches that my Plymouth Bretheren upbringing didn't. (FWIW, Brian Mclaren comes from the PB). I never left the Vineyard though, instead our affiliation changed to Calvary Chapel . This wasn't a huge leap, as the Vineyard sprung from CC . And my pastor came from CC. So we were a Vineyard with alot of Bible teaching time and we became a CC with alot of worship time. W

from Watchman Fellowship "The Enneagram is an occult oriented chart or diagram with many points and lines inside and touching a circle. The chart purports to describe nine different personality types, and therefore, nine approaches to the perception and response to reality...And the most important myth is that it can be adapted to fit Christianity. Catholic charismatic lecturer Dorothy Ranaghan has written a well-researched booklet, A Closer Look at the Enneagram, and asks the important question, "If the enneagram is unscientific, esoteric, taken from a contemporary sycretsit version of Islamic mysticism and tainted with the occult, how is it that many Christians have bought into the system so wholeheartedly?" (p. 37)" It's big in Catholic circles. From Saint Mike's "Out of nowhere, the enneagram burst onto the Christian scene and became very popular with publishers and retreat houses. The enneagram is a circular diagram on which personality types numbe

Jesus Creed: Jesus and the First Spiritual Law I've just started reading through McKnight's reflections on the 4 Spiritual Laws. I will have comments on this series, but I also wanted to point out Gerald's comments, most of the way down, on Salvation and Perseverance in Augustine's thought. I can't comment yet on Gerald's blog but I think I was saying similar things in my First Shovelful .

Theologizing Away Discomfort , by David Brickner is a worthwhile observation on some trends in the emergent church, e.g. At the heart of that philosophy is the notion that what we do and how we live matters more than any message we might proclaim. Claims to truth falter and fail, but a life that is "authentic" is necessary for evangelism in our postmodern society. At first blush this sounds holy and smart and kind of biblical. The problem is, it creates a false dichotomy between words and deeds, as though we need to choose one over the other to be effective. This is certainly not biblical.

Rwandan genocide - Wikipedia I watched Hotel Rwanda last night. And so just as Rwanda burned as Clinton fiddled, how many have to die in Darfur under Bush's watch?

I don't think closing the deal is wrong or bad. Peter closes the deal in Acts 2, Philip does in Acts 8, in Acts 17:4 "some Jews were persuaded," and Jesus himself closed the deal with the blind man in John 9.

My friend Geoff comments on a previous post... I like this conversation. Here's my question: were we saved 2,000 years ago when Christ was crucified ala "I have been crucified with Christ," and what we call being saved is more like waking up to reality? Or is it something that is imparted to us when we believe? Maybe the distinction isn't all that important, but I think it affects how I "do evangelism." I am resistant to the notion that salvation occurs with confession because I've seen it lead to pressure tactics and manipulation. Closing the deal. Getting people to say "the magic sentence" and all that. But that doesn't mean that confession is not not critical. I'm just not sure it's essential. Can someone be saved and not realize it. I tend to think so. Your thoughts... My thoughts... Let's expand the snippet... ESV Galatians 2:16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ

The emergent voices have left me provoked to discuss soteriology (how we are saved) and harmatiology (our sin) and hell and stuff like that. But it is hard to write these things up real quick. I can't do it quickly. I don't want to treat God's word flippantly. I don't want to leave gaping holes in the discussion. I haven't found links to writers who say what i want to say without their distracting baggage. I think I will write some sketches of thoughts. A commenter in my previous entry pretended to have a dialogue with me about how the Old Testament saints were saved. The truth is I don't know. I'm not sure we know morethan that Faith in God was involved. If that is all the available data, Hebrews 11, then how can I speculate beyond that. Why waste time in the mysteries? Let's spend time in the clear stuff.

emergent-us: Our Response to Critics of Emergent This is showing up all over the place in blogdom. I wanted to comment before iget contaminated with others' comments. a couple things provoked immediate responses in me. "If few in the academy come to our defense in the coming years, then we will have more reason to believe we are mistaken in our thinking and that our critics are correct in their unchallenged analyses." Why does the academy become the final judge of the EC? The academy will have as much cacaphony as the rest of us unlettered bloggers do. So if there is not a united "Nay" from the academy that means the EC was right? "yes, we believe that Jesus is the crucified and risen Savior of the cosmos and no one comes to the Father except through Jesus" Here come the strawmen...This is nice but the issue that divides is whether the confession of Christ as Savior is necessary. In order to make their stand they might as well lay it out that conf