Moore on Emergent Church

Apologies for lack of posting last week. I was speaking at the youth camp where I first heard the Gospel 20 years ago to the week. I was there all week speaking twice a day to 39 young people and once a day (early morning) to over 40 staff of various ages. Great week, super to be back, great privelege to share the Gospel there, as anywhere.

Today's post is from the consistently excellent commentary by Russell D. Moore reflecting on an event that he attended by some of the leading lights of the emergent church. Here is the conclusion his thoughts (read the whole thing here):

'...the leaders of the "The Church Basement Road Show" and the emergent church remind us, "All is not well." That's true today, in 2008, just as it was true in 1908, and just as it has been true since sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden. That being the case, with all of its apparent faddishness and vacuity, what is it about the emergent church that is so attractive to so many in our churches? Perhaps it's the fact that so much of what leaders from within the movement have to say is right, and true.

What if our churches began to preach the whole counsel of God as a narrative of redemption, a story that is good specifically because it is a story that is true? What if we began to declare the full-orbed gospel of cosmic reconciliation in Christ, without de-emphasizing the reality of personal enslavement to a personal devil and the need for personal evangelism and personal repentance of personal sin and personal faith in the risen Lord?

What if we began to preach and display grace, truth, and love as fully embodied in the person and work of Jesus Christ, without abandoning the fact that the Spirit of this same Christ has breathed out every jot and tittle of the Bible--making every word of Scripture equally grace-filled, truthful, and loving? What if our churches were characterized by great love for God and for one another, without casting aside the need for confessional fidelity? And what if we began doing even more good works in Jesus' name, proclaiming that the impetus for such works is the life, death, resurrection, and promised return of our King?

After attending "The Church Basement Road Show," I am more convinced that if more of our churches did these things, it would be even easier to dismiss certain aspects of the emergent church as heresy and some of its leaders as marginalized false teachers. For Christians have good news to proclaim, and if some of the emergent church's challenges to contemporary evangelicalism drive us back to greater fidelity to the faith once for all delivered to the saints, evangelicals can be thankful indeed.

And at that point, evangelical Christians may be able to preach afresh a gospel that, through the power of the Spirit, alone brings true revival--a gospel that belongs not to fictional preachers of the past, but to the Alpha and Omega, a flesh-and-blood King.