of course they’re nutty!

This is one of the best responses/comments regarding emerging and other “progressive” movements within christianity that I have ever read. And the whole post from Deeks in general is very fair. I also want to say that Chuck Smith Jr. gets huge high fives from me.

…it’s inevitable that reform movements appear extreme and off-balance. Of course they do! They wouldn’t be reform movements if they didn’t create a little disequilibrium. They challenge the status quo, which always sounds threatening and dangerous to those being challenged.

And this is another snippet that says so well what I have been trying to articulate for some time now.

Finally, I care about Smith’s statement because it’s unfair and inaccurate. The so-called emerging church is not a monolithic, single-minded, doctrinally united, movement that can be either embraced or rejected as if it everyone in it thinks the same thing. I’m sure there are individuals within emergent who, in the eyes of fundamentalists and some conservative evangelicals, hold to uncomfortable and perhaps even erroneous positions. But the movement itself has no doctrinal statement because it is not a church, or even a para-church organization. It started as, and continues to be a forum for conversation for emerging leaders who are struggling to respond missionally to a post-Christian culture, which by the way is what Chuck Smith did 40 years ago when he reached out to the Jesus people and introduced contemporary music to his church.

so kudos to Deeks and HT to Andrew (tallskinnykiwi) for the tip off.

**edited to add: make sure you read the whole in Ken’s series and keep watching for future entries. I think he’s done a phenomenal job so far.

[tags]Chuck Smith, Calvary Chapel, emerging, Emergent, missional[/tags]

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