I so appreciate all of the articles and links you kind people have sent me on the emergent church. I do praise the Lord that the Holy Spirit has led the younger generation of Christians into understanding the weaknesses of the institutionalized church. I feel that they are very much like those of us in the 1960s who were part of the so-called Jesus Movement. However, I also feel that the new generation is in a place of grave danger because, realizing that much of what is called evangelical Christianity has terrible weaknesses, they tend to ignore the weaknesses of their own movement. Just as the Jesus Movement (of which I was a part) was eccentric in its overemphasis on experience and on Jesus as our “friend,” so the emergent church not only fails to argue its case biblically but actually considers propositional truth largely irrelevant. Therefore I think that the emergent church is so completely destructive in the finding of truth that I would not for a moment even seem to equate it with the New Testament church. The profound connection I see between doctrine, spirituality, and the whole spectrum of reality veritably shouts a “no” to the wrong emphases in both emergent Christianity and non-emergent Christianity and a “yes” to the New Testament vision of Christ’s Body. I am convinced that both emergers and non-emergers are taught against too a narrow a backdrop. Some are fighting exclusively the old battle of the Reformation concerning the great doctrines of the faith, while others are seeking exclusively the answers to really deep spiritual issues such as the meaning of life, communion with God, and personal peace. The marvelous thing is that the Bible has such wonderful and clear answers not only to our intellectual questions but to the spiritual ones as well. I feel that most of the reformed churches have let the pendulum swing too far in one direction in thinking that if only the right doctrines were taught all would be well, while emergers have concentrated almost exclusively on the opposite area of relationships. I am becoming increasingly convinced that since God is both light and love (this is the message of 1 John) it is our calling as Christians to act in such a way as to demonstrate the character of God as both ultimate reality and ultimate relationship. Failure to show forth either of these is, in my opinion, equally a perversion of the gospel. We must display both truth and love simultaneously. I am convinced that what is needed today is a fundamental recommitment to the twofold emphasis of the primitive New Testament church upon apostolic doctrine and apostolic practice (Acts 2:42) — in other words a recommitment to both orthodoxy and orthopraxy. It seems to me, having read with interest a great deal of what the emergers are saying, that they understand the need for this. They are properly repulsed by a form of Christianity that stresses the external signs without the internal realties. And because of this, I sense that their numbers will grow among those in Christendom who are seeking a balance in showing forth the love of God and the holiness of God. It is my firm belief that doctrinal rightness is extremely important, but only as a starting point to go on to a living relationship with God. At the same time, the church still has the duty of guarding the truth and proclaiming the gospel to the lost, and this cannot be reduced to non-verbal actions. God willing, Becky and I will be doing both in Ethiopia in just a few short weeks.

(photo is completly unrelated to this podcast but its better than not having a photo