The Birth of the Emerging Church

The Birth of the Emerging Church


Sandra D The Birth of the Emerging Church Jan 3, '09 5:11 PM

for everyone



You've heard the old saying, "Things are not always as they seem." That adage implies that what appears to be good could very well be quite the opposite. A perfect example of this from Scripture would be Eve in the Garden of Eden. The serpent promised her eternal life and the chance to be like God. (This has always been his tactic.) His offer came in the form of an appealing, attractive piece of fruit. Eve, even though Go had already warned Adam and her, succumbed to what appeared to be so good. And of course, the results were devastating (Genesis 3).



Today, man is still being allured by seemingly wonderful ideas and schemes. But the Lord has made it clear that His ways are so much higher than our ways, and what often appears to be a good thing is not that at all. As we examine the birth of the emerging church in this message, I believe you will see that in this case also, things are not as they seem.



While we are here writing about the origins of the emerging church, the fact is that there is a distinct spiritual component to it -- a guiding force from the supernatural realm. The occult, witchcraft, and more have been around since before Jesus came. He rebuked them. But Satan will not let them go away. His aim is to change God's way into a way that will cause the people to worship him. This has always been his tactic and will always be. So be on the watch for it.



The Leadership Network



This movement was the largely the inspiration of a successful business guru whose ideas of an emerging church were catapulted onto existence by other successful businessmen, and thus it became the influential religious force it is today. The guru was Peter Drucker, who was writing about the emerging church long before many of today's emerging church leaders were even born. He wrote in the 1950's. But let us start in the 1990's when the emerging church got its official start.



In an article in the Criswell Theological Review written by Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Fellowship, Driscoll recalls the early days:



In the mid-1990s I was a young church planter trying to

establish a church in the city of Seattle when I got a call

to speak at my first conference. It was hosted by Leadership

Network and focused on the subject of Generation X... Out

of that conference, a small team was formed to continue

conversing about post-modernism...



By this time, Leadership Network hired doug Pagitt to lead

the team and organize the events. He began growing the team

and it soon included Brian McLaren... Pagitt, McLaren, and

others such as Chris Seay, Tony JOnes, Dan Kimball, and

Andrew Jones stayed together and continued speaking and

writing together as friends....



McLaren, a very gifted writer, rose to team leader in part because

he had an astablished family and church, which allowed him to

devote a lot of time to the team. That team eventually morphed

into what is now known as Emergent.



When I went back to my home church, the pastor there was into this emerging church practices. I talked with him to make sure of what I was hearing. But when I tried to tell others of this, they got angry, called me a trouble-maker, and generally ignored me. I was writing about this in http://christianchatsandart3.spaces.live.com/ and had cards made to give out so people could find the site and read about this emerging church. Some people gladly took the card. But I was denied giving the cards out in my Sunday School class. The director of the class wouldn't let me. I just hope some of them read what I wrote and got an idea of what this movement is all about.



I am tired, so I will write more tomorrow.

Sandra