Would the Devil Do This?
If I were the devil, I’d be real upset at churches. I’d spend a lot of time and effort trying to destroy them. My major efforts haven’t yet worked, so I’d go to work on pesky things that can be cultivated to destroy a church from within itself. Maybe I’d…
Celebrating “Open” Inclusiveness
Part 9: The Emerging Church – Circa 1970 If God is not limited to any special kind of time, space, or galaxy, the possibilities of God are greater. In a way, the Muslim concept of God hints at this “open” inclusiveness: “God will continue creating, and maybe recycling. Even after…
Reinventing Clergy
Part 8: The Emerging Church – Circa 1970 “In the emerging Church, a new kind of preacher is coming into his own for whom there is presently no adequate training….” (p. 59) “a clergyman becomes not a disseminator but an interpreter of news.” (p. 108) “‘Then it hit me: the…
Quantum Eschatology
Part 7: The Emerging Church – Circa 1970* “…[I]f you look at the metaphysical situation, there is a continental drift… the metaphysical center of the earth today… [is] India.“North America… is moving towards the Far East. You see that not only in the California phenomenon, but in the new religious…
Envisioning Emergence
Part 6: The Emerging Church – Circa 1970* “…[T]he vision that God reveals is likely to evolve and become clearer over time…. We are all called to be open to God’s leadership, to respond even when the pathway to the destination is unclear, and to be prepared for God to…
Emerging Towards Convergence
Part 5: The Emerging Church – Circa 1970* “After emergence comes emersion.” —Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man (Harper, 1965), p. 309. By Sarah H. Leslie The Emergent/Emerging Church movement is heading towards a crash collision with the New Age movement. In fact, it may already be happening before…
Theater Church
Spectacles for Spectators By Pastor Larry DeBruyn And do not become idolaters as were some of them.As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink,and rose up to play.”(1 Corinthians 10:7, NKJV) “Believers, Beware!” EXODUS-THIRTY-TWO may soon be coming to a theater near you! Don’t we remember…
“The New Thing”
Part 4: The Emerging Church – Circa 1970 To the Lord of the Church and all of His faithful peoplewho are helping Him to create “the new thing” in our time. – Author’s Dedication, the emerging church [1] In the Foreword to Bruce Larson and Ralph Osborne’s 1970 book the…
RETRO EMERGENT
Part 3: The Emerging Church – Circa 1970 Part 1: The Emerging Church – Circa 1970 Part 2: Early Experimental Emergents “A church should not change just to be different. It should change because the context of the culture about it requires its organizations to restructure themselves so church tasks…