Many thanks to Mark Traphagen for posting his notes and the link to this analysis of the emerging movement presented by Scot McKnight. McKnight’s paper, "What is the Emerging Church?" is well worth reading. You can get it at this link on pdf or audio. I found myself in it even though I have avoided the term emerging as a label for our ministry at Cityview. I still would esquew the lables and prefer the relationships. I am a follower of Christ serving a city as a pastor to a congregation in Vancouver. We are working out what it means to love God and love people on a daily basis. As a pastor I lead a group of people to boldly and humbly accept the influence–the salt and light–that proceeds from knowing Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit engages the word of God and us so that we will encourage, prod, and provoke one another on to love and good deeds. I know that we are becoming a community of faith, hope, and love. But it requires great courage. Therein I believe is one of the greatest pastoral responsibilities for our day–crafting an environment that supports courage. The salt and light that proceeds from a follower of Jesus will be down right scary if the fear of people is allowed to remain unchallenged in our lives. And thus, the announcement of Jesus’ identity and our desparate need for a redemptive work of grace must come from our mouths as good news and as an invitation to respond to Him.
I appreciated Scot McKnight’s call for the announcment of the Gospel near the end of the paper. He writes, "any kind of Christianity and any kind of Christian…that is not evangelistic is woefully inadequate. Unless you proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, there is not good news at all; and if there is no good news, there is no Christianity–emerging or Reformed… We may be humble about what we believe and we may be careful to make the gospel and its commitment clear, but we better have a goal in mind–the goal of summoning everyone to follow Jesus Christ and to discover the redemptive work of God in Christ through the Spirit of God."
No paralysis in this analysis.
