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Page 4 of 6 When it comes to issues such as the exclusivity of the gospel, the identity of Jesus Christ as both fully human and fully divine, the authoritative character of Scripture as written revelation, and the clear teachings of Scripture concerning issues such as homosexuality, this movement simply refuses to answer the questions....The problem with A Generous Orthodoxy, as the author must surely recognize, is that this orthodoxy bears virtually no resemblance to orthodoxy as it has been known and affirmed by the church throughout the centuries. Honest Christians know that disagreements over issues of biblical truth are inevitable. But we owe each other at least the honesty of taking a position, arguing for that position from Scripture, and facing the consequences of our theological convictions (Albert Mohler, "‘A Generous Orthodoxy’ - Is it Orthodox?," June 20, 2005, http://www.albertmohler.com/). Again, although reacting against at least part of what they see in seeker-sensitive churches, as was true with the church growth, and then the seeker-sensitive movement, the leaders of the Emergent Church movement argue that those who disagree with them are simply blind to the needs of our post-modern culture and, in this case, the new church that is "emerging." They argue the gospel message needs to be changed so that it is more accommodating and communicable to the emerging generation. If this sounds much like the seeker-sensitive line of thinking, there are some commonalities, but both the leaders in the ECM and its critics point out that there are different ministry philosophies at work. For example, in his column dated June 29, 2005, Albert Mohler, referring to D.A. Carson’s book, comments: From what did the Emerging Church emerge? The modern evangelical movement emerged in the last half of the 20th century complete with "megachurches" and baby-boomer variations. The Emerging Church is defined over against the massive megachurch models and the seeker-sensitive approaches popular among baby-boomer pastors. The formative leaders of the Emerging Church movement argue that they are trying to recover a primitive sense of Christian community that, while keenly aware of contemporary culture and deeply engaged with the culture, avoids the consumerism, entertainment-centeredness, and superficiality of mainstream evangelical churches. It is significant to note that the vast majority of leaders in the Emerging Church movement seem to have shifted from more conservative forms of evangelical Christianity to the new, more broadly defined Emerging movement. Carson suggests that a detectable sense of protest fuels the movement. Several of the movement's leaders document their own rejection of older forms of evangelical theology and church life. Some have rejected a dispensational eschatology, while others contrast their new understanding of the culture with a previous experience rooted in fundamentalist separationism. Carson cites the late Mike Yaconelli, who rejected more conservative forms of evangelical Christianity with a sense of intellectual and cultural condescension. Looking back at his earlier faith, Yaconelli commented: "I realized the modern-institutional-denominational church was permeated by values that are contradictory to the Church of Scripture. The very secular humanism the institutional church criticized pervaded the church structure, language, methodology, process, priorities, values, and mission. The 'legitimate' church, the one that had convinced me of my illegitimacy, was becoming the illegitimate church, fully embracing the values of modernity." Philosophically, the Emerging Church movement represents a repudiation of what it identifies as "modernism." While postmodernism is itself a contested category, the leaders of the Emerging Church movement clearly understand themselves to be affected by, if not fully embracing of postmodernism (Albert Mohler, "What Should We Think of the Emerging Church? Part 1," June 29, 2005, http://www.albertmohler.com/). One of the most important observations made by Carson, Mohler, and others has to do with the ECM’s epistemology (the nature and limits of knowledge). Mohler writes:
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 06 January 2007 )
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