Yesterday I shared a very brief summary of the Emerging Church Movement’s (ECM) theology of the Kingdom of God. It cannot be overstated how important this theology is to everything that ECM has done and is doing. But what are we to think of ECM’s theology of the Kingdom of God? Here are some of my own personal thoughts…
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When you enter into the “emerging conversation,” you will find very quickly that you are entering a conversation about the Kingdom of God. In fact, I believe that the Emerging Church Movement’s (ECM) understanding of the Kingdom of God is foundational for ECM’s theology, particularly its ecclesiology. So, according to ECM, what is the Kingdom of God?
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There is an excellent article in today’s New York Times that every evangelical concerned with politics should read: “Evangelical movement shows deep rifts: Love affair with Bush has largely ended, sharpening latent internal divisions.” I agree with the author that the rifts are present and, perhaps, increasing. But what the author doesn’t answer is this: is the rift good for evangelicals?
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When ever a couple comes to me to get married, they get the same basic talk. This letter represents at a high level what kind of things are important. Read it and tell me what you think. Help me out by telling me if you think your premarital counseling was below average, average or above average, and why.
As usual, my blog posts start because I’ve been reading something. This time it was An Emotionally Healthy Church. The premise of the book is that an emotionally healthy church has emotionally healthy leadership, and it recommends some steps to becoming emotionally healthy. But I’m having trouble with one of the steps.
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“Missional” has become a Christian buzzword. Every church is believes in evangelism now considers itself missional. Missional, like other historic terms such as evangelical, charismatic, and baptist, has lost its distinctive meaning. But among evangelical churches, the Emerging Church may be the closest to a true missional church.
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It seems that most things don’t move at the speed I would like them to: getting my children to bed is too much of a challenge, shopping with my family takes entirely too long, check-out counters and cars are always moving too slow. There is no question about it, I’m impatient (and these are just the little things in life!). I’ve never really thought much about my impatience. In fact, many times I’ve justified my impatience as “righteous impatience” because I’m just trying to do what is right by getting my kids to bed on time! But then I read John Piper’s Battling Unbelief and I see my impatience for what it is: another sin.
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Then watch this: http://www.dontwasteyourlife.com/Podcast/69/
The tension between biblical faithfulness and cultural relevancy: we all have it at some point, but does it need to be either/or. Read this great blog from Ed Stetzer…you’ll be challenged.
One in a million. This is a phrase that has come up twice during our missions conference at Grand Ledge Baptist. We decided to do a month of missions and the focus has been Making Waves for the Kingdom, so we have had four guest speakers who have challenged us on how we are making waves (having an impact) where we live and far away. We live in culture that says to Christians: “No Wake Zone” but Read the rest of this entry »
