Deeper Water

I was checking out the blog of Andrew Jones (yes, the Tall, Skinny, Kiwi himself!) when I found a reference to an article in Christianity Today.

Now, in the post on Andrew Jones’ blog, he points out that emergent folks ought to be reading the biographies of dead Christians… and that is a wonderful point with which I whole-heartedly agree. The part of the article that jumped off the monitor to me was a little different. Perhaps the reason I liked these words so much is because the author, Chris Armstrong of Bethel Seminary, spoke words I have been trying to articulate for some time. Rather than attempt to paraphrase them, I am pasting them below.

“Emergents are folks dissatisfied with the way a lot of evangelicals have been doing church, and they are exploring and suggesting alternatives. From the Emergents’ perspective, the church today has become culturally stale and bland—speaking an out-of-touch conservative language to a post-Christian generation of young people who have never darkened the door of a church in their lives.

This generation, say the Emergents, doesn’t need to hear the old platitudes of a leftover Christian establishment. They need instead to hear the trumpet call of the gospel—a new song for new people. To really reach them, we must re-tool church for the new realities of a postmodern world. We must re-translate the gospel for a different breed of unbeliever….

…The Emergents seem to me to have it right: No single program or rulebook can possibly speak to the hearts of this diversely gifted, diversely perceptive, and diversely wounded young generation who yearn for spiritual fulfillment yet deeply distrust “organized religion.” We need to reassess—to find new models of creative ministries.”

Dang, I wish I had said that.