“Loving Scrutiny”
John MacArthur

Very different reviews of Everything Must Change & Brian Mclaren.

Hearts & Minds Books: (by Byron Borger)

Yet, despite a hefty speaking engagement set for tomorrow morning—and more books to set up, first—I just have to tell you about two new items that we got in the store today. They have brought me joy and some hope, even amidst my goofy mood.

Brian Mclaren’s long-awaiting new book arrived, a bit earlier than I had expected. It is called Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crisis and a Revolution of Hope (Word; $21.99.) I have been carrying around a beat-up early draft for a while, now, and have been itching to write about it, and now, the time has come, and I don’t have time or energy. Still, this is not a sleep-deprived rant, but a well-considered evaluation: this really, really, is a very, very important book. Read the entire article.

The Emergent Village: Tony Jones interviews Brian Mclaren.

Brian Mclaren and the Dangers of the Emergent Church

Gary Gilley Reviews: Everything Must Change

From Gary Gilley’s book review of Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz, we read,

 ”What is disturbing about Miller is his lack of biblical understanding (he admits that he has never read the Bible through, reads the Bible most often out of duty and is usually bored, and goes long stretches of time without scriptural input (pp. 80, 175). His spiritual turning points inevitably come through movies, secular literature, lectures, encounters with people, or God “speaking” to him and others (pp. 48, 85, 136, 230)—but virtually never from the Word.”

Gilley continues,

“…he lavishes praises on freeloading, pot-smoking, homosexual “hippies” who love unconditionally as they steal food from the rich and give to the poor (themselves and him) (chapter 18). Miller makes it abundantly clear that he loves to smoke and drink and finds it somehow amusing and authentic that his pastor is a prolific curser. It is the hippies, drug addicts and Unitarians who have taught him love, not the Bible or evangelical Christians. And he makes it all sound so attractive. The biblically-oriented life is dull, full of rules and judgmental people. Jazz-spirituality is where it’s at. Just do your own thing. Never mind the directives of Scripture, just as long as we all love Jesus—that’s all that matters.”

 

 

Why would any Christian ministry invite this guy to speak at their conference  or workshop?  What biblical truth could they possibly glean from someone who admittedly is bored when reading Scripture?

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Read Gary Gilley’s entire book review here.

Warning — If you are Emergent leaning — you will be offended and probably a little angry by this audio clip.

 

Here is an excellent post called, Dangers of Contemplative Spirituality/ Mysticism:  Lectio Divina, by Ken Silva over at Apprising Ministries.  He speaks of the dangers of contemplative prayer, mysticism, spiritual formation and Lectio Divina.  He mentions Richard Foster, Dallas Willard and Thomas Merton and others and their dangerous teachings.  He begins by saying,

Following a trail that was initially cut by the online apologetics and discernment ministry Lighthouse Trails Research years before Apprising Ministries has been covering the rise in popularity within Protestant evangelicalism of practicing corrupt Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism (CSM) ala Living Spiritual Teacher and Quaker mystic Richard Foster, with an assist from his spiritual twin Dallas Willard. It’s a rapidly spreading—and very dangerous—fad; and if left unchecked by spiritually timid evangelical leaders, CSM is going to be the cause of much division within the church visible.

Lots of links and additional information in this discerning article.  Read the rest here.

 

How did Emergents Start?   — from Brian Mclaren

Emergent grew out of the Young Leader Networks, which was launched in the mid-90’s by Leadership Network, a Dallas-based foundation. Doug Pagitt, Chris Seay, Andrew Jones, Brad Smith, and others were involved before I was, and they did a great job of setting a tone and direction for the emergent conversation. (Online source)

Emerging conference:  Christianity 21: Faith in the 21st Century. – Doug Pagitt says:

[Christianity 21] is quickly shaping up to be one of the most important Emerging Church events of the year. Utilizing innovative adult learning approaches, creative use of speakers and media, interactive design, cutting edge thinking from the nation’s top religious thinkers & community practioners, a rarely assembled network of attendees, and an unusually economical price this event is one you will not want to miss.

Consider joining these attendees and hundreds more at Christianity 21:
Shane Claiborne, Chris Seay, Tim Conder, Mark Scandrette, Becky Pierson,  Shane Hipps, Tony Jones,… (Online source)

 

The Evolving Church:
Brian Mclaren, Donald Miller (CCO/Jubilee Speaker, 2008), Chris Seay (CCO/Jubilee Speaker, 2010)

“Christ is here to meet your great true needs.” — Chris Seay

From Christianity Today: (Written in January, 2007)
Five Streams of the Emerging Church by Scot McKnight

As a theologian, I have studied the movement and interacted with its key leaders for years—even more, I happily consider myself part of this movement or “conversation.” As an evangelical, I’ve had my concerns, but overall I think what emerging Christians bring to the table is vital for the overall health of the church. — Scot McKnight

. . . In this article, I want to undermine the urban legends and provide a more accurate description of the emerging movement. Though the movement has an international dimension, I will focus on the North American scene.

To define a movement, we must, as a courtesy, let it say what it is. Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger, in their book, Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures (Baker Academic, 2005) define emerging in this way:

Emerging churches are communities that practice the way of Jesus within postmodern cultures. This definition encompasses nine practices. Emerging churches (1) identify with the life of Jesus, (2) transform the secular realm, and (3) live highly communal lives. Because of these three activities, they (4) welcome the stranger, (5) serve with generosity, (6) participate as producers, (7) create as created beings, (8) lead as a body, and (9) take part in spiritual activities.

This definition is both descriptive and analytical. D. A. Carson’s Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church (Zondervan, 2005) is not alone in pointing to the problems in the emerging movement, and I shall point out a few myself in what follows. But as a description of the movement, Carson’s book lacks firsthand awareness and suffers from an overly narrow focus—on Brian McLaren and postmodern epistemology.

To prevent confusion, a distinction needs to be made between “emerging” and “Emergent.” Emerging is the wider, informal, global, ecclesial (church-centered) focus of the movement, while Emergent is an official organization in the U.S. and the U.K. Emergent Village, the organization, is directed by Tony Jones, a Ph.D. student at Princeton Theological Seminary and a world traveler on behalf of all things both Emergent and emerging. Other names connected with Emergent Village include Doug Pagitt, Chris Seay, Tim Keel, Karen Ward, Ivy Beckwith, Brian McLaren, and Mark Oestreicher. Emergent U.K. is directed by Jason Clark. While Emergent is the intellectual and philosophical network of the emerging movement, it is a mistake to narrow all of emerging to the Emergent Village.

Read the rest of the article . . .

 P.S.  If some of our readers agree with Scot Mcknight and along with agreeing with the theologies of those whom he lists as part of the Emergent conversation  — Why the fear of admitting to being part of this movement? Especially in the words of McKnight, “but overall I think what emerging Christians bring to the table is vital for the overall health of the church.”

CCO promotes the Emerging “conversation” with a resident of the Emergent Village, Chris Seay.

Geneva College promotes CCO & Jubilee

Part 1

 

Part 2

An example of Rob Bell’s mishandling of Scripture.

Warning — If you are Emergent leaning — you will be offended and probably a little angry by this audio clip.