Emergent Evangelism

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Doug Baker, who recently wrote this article that I was quoted in, has written a new article in Baptist Press titled, "Emergent Evangelism: Evangelism by Consensus?"  Here's a piece...

The "emerging" conversation is more than ageneration gap in which the theology of former days (or lack of it) is being challenged by a wave of young ministers with cell phones, PDAs and e-mail via Blackberry. The tension is most evident in the perennial debate among evangelicals about how to "do" church. What should the church look like? How should the church of the 21st century worship and minister in a context of ever-increasing information, but diminishing wisdom? To what extent should tradition be jettisoned in favor of a "whatever works" strategy, and will such strategies reduce Christian evangelism to a mere technique?

[...]

Never has the need been more critical for the Gospel to be powerfully preached by the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. How that is done is largely settled in Holy Scripture. The public reading of the Bible, the corporate prayer of the church, the singing of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to one another, the ordinances of Christian baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the offering of confession and thanksgiving to God are all elements of public worship which are explicitly revealed in Scripture. Is it not strange that almost every modern theory of “emerging” churches disregard many of these direct commands in favor of more “evangelistic” and “relevant” methods? No amount of technology or innovation can ever eclipse or manipulate the clear biblical teaching that evangelism is not simply a matter of form, but of substance.

The Gospel is powerfully effective to save to the uttermost those who have faith in Jesus Christ. For the Gospel is not something men made up by consensus. The plan of salvation is not the accumulation and production of man’s thoughts, but the direct revelation of God. As such, it is to be preached, not amended according to demographics, and boldly declared, not adjusted for the sensitivities of modern audiences.

Please read the article and let me know if I'm missing something.  Is Doug saying emergent evangelism is form without substance?  Is it technology and not truth?  Is it whatever works and mere technique?  Am I totally missing something?  If I'm not, then I think this is a very skewed understanding of the emerging church.  Hey Doug, I know you stop by now and again.  Feel free to jump in bro, and let me know if I get your right or not.

TdF: Team Time Trial

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Now that we are home I was able to catch the Tour de France on OLN.  I watched the fourth stage today which is the team time trial.  All nine riders for a team leave at the same time and race together, taking turns "pulling" (out front) and "drafting" (riding behind each other). 

It was an exciting stage.  Lance Armstrong and team Discovery Channel (formerly U.S. Postal) were the second to last team to start the race.  As they crossed the line they were in first place, but the pace of the final team (CSC) who was still on the course was faster as they tried to defend the race leader who is an American on their team. 

But Discovery Channel was too strong and CSC finished 2 seconds behind.  Lance has now taken over the maillot jaune (french for yellow jersey), which is worn by the race leader.  I wouldn't be surprised if Lance loses it over the next few days as the sprinters win some very flat stages, but he will likely regain it in the mountains sometime after this Saturday.

If you can't catch the TdF on TV, then keep up at Sportsline.com where they have updates every few minutes of the race.  Also check out The Paceline.

Back to Work

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Our vacation is over and it's time to get back to work.  I don't know how any pastor can actually take time off, or any Christian for that matter.  I know we get time away, but The Church should be such a part of our heartbeat that there is no way to truly take time away. 

I'll put it this way: We got time away from my local body and the responsibilities there, but that actually drove us to think of THE Church around the world.  I'll just bet that the thoughts we had during our vacation will color our family for the rest of our lives.  Just wait and see.

Vacation, Marriage, Ministry

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In a couple of days I'll have my laptop online so I can get a few vacation pics up.  I also have several things I want to write on, but for now I wanted to write something quick.

This vacation has been pretty relaxing, and the benefits are many.  Among other things, my wife and I have had a lot of time to remember how to dream about ministry together.  There is no one in the world like her and the ministry I do as a pastor is blessed in remarkable ways by her.  She sharpens my thoughts, encourages me to remember our calling, and wants me to do what God made me to do...whatever the cost.  Such a great sanctification God is working in me through my bride. 

Many good things can come through a vacation, including getting away from the routine stuff of life.  But the things I needed to get away from the most were the things that distracted me from my beautiful and encouraging wife, and I thank God for her.

Tim Ellsworth

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Tim_ellsworth_1Tim Ellsworth, sports writer at Baptist Press (really the sports guru at Baptist Press Sports), has informed me that he has a new blog up.  I'm going to be reading it.  He will be talking plenty of sports, but hits other issues as well.

Tim, I'm looking forward to seeing if you say anything about the Tour de France, one of my favorite sporting events.  Go Lance!  And be kind to the perpetually mediocre Cubs and you and I will get along fine.

Take Note

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Scott Slayton is going to talk a little emerging church over at Scattered and Covered.  He's a buddy from seminary who is both funny and thoughtful.  His first post links to me, and it's nice to see someone who wouldn't say they are ec to be so generous from step one of the conversation.  You also might want to check out some of his posts reflecting on the Southern Baptist Convention.  Good stuff.

Joe Thorn had the pleasure of peeing next to John Elway today just to get me his autograph at Chili's.  I hope the autograph isn't written in urine.  I'm an Elway fan since our time living in Denver a few years back.  Our church out there was close enough to Mile High Stadium to park people on gameday.

Reactionary Fundamentalists

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Saw this Village Voice article and had to post one quote...

Alongside the Christian right politicians there are the religiousleaders who function as political organizers. These people are often obscure to the mainstream, but they are a gathering force in right-wing politics. They include such old standbys as Pat Robertson, the ailing Jerry Falwell, and Alabama's feisty Ten Commandments judge, Roy Moore. Among the leading lights:

R. ALBERT MOHLER JR.: President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and guru of reactionary fundamentalists, so well-known for their vicious attacks on women's rights and gays, Mohler is focused on public education, a subject that inflames the political and religious right across the boards. The Republican right long has sought to shut down the federal Department of Education and turn over public education ostensibly to local governments but, more importantly, to churches. Such a course would mean a financial windfall for religious groups.

I don't really want to comment on this other than to say that most evangelicals who read this will call the Village Voice liberal.  Funny, but as an evangelical (though I love Dr. Mohler) I have the same opinion as the bold above.

Wisconsin

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I'm in Wisconsin right now on a family vacation.  Having a blast with the kids.  I'll be online a little more by the end of the week, but nothing of substance until then.  Thanks for all who continue to comment.  Here's a pic of the family in from of the Wisconsin state capitol in Madison.

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Interviewed

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I was interviewed over the phone yesterday by someone who is writing an article for Baptist Press.  It should be released on Wednesday and includes quotes from me and a handful of others.  He also hopes another news source will pick it up, and I'll make any links available if that happens.  I'll be on vacation, so my internet access and posting will be very infrequent next week.

Broken

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I know this song isn't new, but I really love it and want you to hear it.  Amy Lee's vocals are always haunting and unique, and the harmony with Shaun Morgan is really well done.  Check out Seether and Amy Lee with "Broken."

SBC Theologians

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Please read this by Michael Spencer (Internet Monk) on Who Let the Theologians in Here? (The SBC, that is.)    What do you think?  You need to read the whole post to get his point, but here's a blurb...

The growing "theologian class" in the SBC has very few places to go.They must make their own mischief. Once the seminaries and colleges are in conservative hands, then we can expect the theological battles to move "in-house." Watch for more doctrinal contention about matters less than crucial to the mission of church. Watch for "theological renewal" to take on more and more the cast of predictable "theological battles" between various teams in evangelicalism. Watch for the conservative resurgence to increasingly sound like a lot of young preacher boys arguing about Calvinism. (Around Louisville, it already does. With a liberal Presbyterian Seminary across the road, it's SBTS that is turning out preachers of TULIP.)

Watch for one strange turn. The new SBC theologians are culture warriors. They want to "engage" the culture, but what they mean is to assert conservative Christianity in the cultural battleground issues. These issues motivate many pastors and churches because they are "red meat" issues. Backed up by Dobson and the new evangelical media, the theological class is writing less about Baptist views of the church and more about fundamentalist views of the culture war.

Many of these theologians work hard to function as pundits of political and social concerns. These theologians will lead the church full speed into the culture wars....with little interest in how this will affect the overall mission of the church. And there is no denying that it is difficult to fight the culture war on one hand, and be focused on missional vision at the same time. Theology and mission are interwoven, but the negative, "fighting mode" vision of the culture warriors grows churches by bringing in the like-minded: White, suburban, Republican families.

JIMMAY!

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I feel like I need to say this.

I want to personally thank Jimmy Draper for working so hard for guys like me.  On arriving in Nashville he had a signed copy of his autobiography waiting for me.  The guys around him speak very highly of him, and even when not "on the record."  They believe he is utterly sincere, and so do I.

Dr. Draper is doing all he can to understand my world when he has only known his world for so long.  I can only hope I will spend my whole life striving as hard as he has, and being willing to take the lumps he has taken (within the SBC), in order to understand before speaking.  He isn't the future of the SBC, but the future may be much better because of Jimmy Draper.

This is the point where I would blow the shofar.  :)

Reflections and Future

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Tent_crop_470_sbc_7I want to close the convention blogging with a post to reflect on what happened and envision what might be ahead. (One more post is coming with a few pictures.)

The difference between the Younger Leaders Summit and the rest of the convention was remarkable.  The YLS was worshipful, thoughtful, thought-provoking, challenging, even shockingly offensive at times (in a good way).  What I saw of the pastor's conference was a lesson in how to scold the culture rather than speak redemptively about it.  The rest of the convention was business as usual, cheesy videos, predictable motions and resolutions, and so on.  This is a generalization, so I want to reflect a minute on exceptions, some I've noted before.

Though some of the same rhetoric was leveled toward homosexuality that is common from SBC'rs, there were some better things said this year.  This is especially true of the video shown during Richard Land's speech.  Loving, hopeful, and redemptive without scolding.  Former homosexuals basically said that we need to not point the finger at homosexuals but to take their hand and walk toward Jesus with them.  Fantastic.  Incarnational.  Missional.  The SBC has a lot of problems, but if we can do more stuff like this younger leaders are going to stick around.

Erich_bridgesI had a lengthy discussion with Erich Bridges on Tuesday, senior writer with the IMB.  Erich is thinking of beginning a blog and wanted to ask some questions.  Chris Turner at Lifeway got us connected.  I don't want to divulge the conversation content, but this is a guy I liked from "hello."  You could see in his eyes the desire to reach the nations and he wants to transfer that passion through blogging to others.  I'll let you know if/when he gets a blog going.  For now you can read him regularly through articles on Baptist Press.  Also, take note of his article yesterday which opens with a comment about a young pastor he met at the SBC.  He is a very generous guy and I'm thankful to know him.

What if we could make multiple connections like this based on a desire to be missional?  That's all our meeting was, two guys discussing missional faith in the context of blogging.  I told Erich that if it were not for the IMB that many emerging leaders would have left the SBC long ago.  For all the problems the SBC has, the IMB is doing much good.  They are making connections with other missional agencies from other groups and denominations and working together.  They are about incarnational ministry in other cultures.  The whole convention needs to hear from the IMB, and I hope Erich will work to not only lead people to leave home and go overseas, but also to see the need to help all SBC'rs understand was missional-incarnational living really is.

I believe a major missing element of the SBC is vision.  It doesn't matter how many times the shofar blows, I'm not going with the vision of a million baptisms.  It's an arbitrary number.  I want real vision.  Jeff Harris talked about it at the Younger Leaders Summit.  Maybe the thing that could really unify younger and older SBC'rs, or traditional and "emerging" SBC'rs, or institutional and incarnational SBC'rs (or however you want to describe the divide) is if we have a vision of redeeming culture together.  We need a vision of incarnational compassion and beautiful truth.

I think the future of the SBC is going to come down to whether or not those of us who realize buildings and programs aren't enough will offer with gentleness and patience the biblical vision for dwelling among the culture and loving them to Christ.  We need to set an example for the SBC (1 Tim 4:12) so that they will finally realize we aren't in this for power, but for the mission.  That way we not only can work to redeem the culture, but also the SBC.

One more post of pictures, and convention blogging is officially over.

Wednesday @ SBC

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Img_0597_350I'm home safe and sound, and I want to detail a few things from Wednesday at the SBC.  Honestly, I'm getting my days mixed up a bit since the whole week was a blur.  So I'm making every effort to be sure that what happened on Wednesday was actually Wednesday. :)

Marty left us on Tuesday night, so Joe and I had to go it alone. 

The day started with our hotel giving us a receipt under the door and needing to tell them that we weren't leaving until Thursday.  No prob.  The Sheraton was a fine place to stay but for the overpriced Img_0606_350and undercooked food, the overpriced and underpowered Wi-fi, the strange propensity to leave us daily with too few of a certain size of towel, and the bar-coded piece of paper that rarely worked when trying to get in or out of the parking garage.  I do have to say the king size bed was the most comfortable hotel bed ever, the view was pretty cool, the elevators were lighting fast which led Joe and I to try base jumping from inside the elevator on the way down, and the lady on the phone, who always addressed me as "Mr. McCoy" whenever we called to ask for more towels, was kind and quick to fix things.

We went to the convention to raise our ballots on a number of ho-hum issues.  Then we spent some time in the exhibit hall talking with some folks and checking our email.  We stopped by the Southern Seminary booth and talked with Dr. Kenneth Magnuson (ethics) and old friends and neighbors Clark and Helen Logan.  Great to catch up. 

We saw Chris Turner again, Lifeway guy, and we all decided to meet and eat at P.F. Chang's.  Doug Walker graciously invited us to the Southern Seminary luncheon at no cost to us, but we just couldn't make it because of our lunch meeting with Chris.  Joe got the orange peel chicken, Chris got the sweet and sour pork, and I got the orange peel shrimp (which is what I always get there because it's so honkin' good).  Of course we also got lettuce wraps which are always phenomenal.  If you haven't been to P.F. Chang's, stop reading and go eat.  One of my favorite places.

We were able to hang out and meet up with so many folks from Lifeway, IMB, local pastors, state associations.  Really great week of new friendships.  It's hard to describe the connections and "networks" that are being built through a couple of days in Nashville.

We spent a little time in our hotel writing and working on pictures and videos.  Then we left for Broadway to take pictures and videos of places we have been.  We also went shopping for our kiddos.  I got all four of my kids Nashville harmonicas, the boys got Sheriff badges, my daughter got some stationary and stickers with her name, and I also got them some candy and a toy wooden snake.  They really love all the toys.  I love my kids so much.

We spent a little time at the convention after shopping, but the business was done and we were exhausted.  So we dropped by the exhibit hall one more time.  We found out Craig Gross, of xxxchurch.com fame and author of The Gutter, was in town and came to the Lifeway exhibit.  We missed him, but one of our new buddies at Lifeway passed on our website info and told him to check us out.  Craig, shoot me an email if you stop by.

We went back to the hotel and ordered Papa John's (for the second time) and enjoyed some sausage and onion pizza.  We spent a lot of time writing and working on videos and packing to go home.  We also watched the live streaming video of the SBC and Bobby Welch, and were glad not to get trampled by all the "soccer fans."  If that doesn't make sense to you, just move along.

We woke up Thursday, somewhat rested, and made the long drive home.  We ate McDonald's for breakfast and only snacks the rest of the way because we were in a hurry.  The friendships at the SBC were great, but there's nothing like coming home to our families.

Next post I'll reflect a bit and look forward a bit.