Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

Home Archives for Mark McIntyre

What I Learn from the Missional Movement

Posted on Written by 2 Comments

I recently overheard half of a phone conversation regarding the “missional” movement and the “Emergent Church” which prompted some thoughts.

My thoughts gravitated to the two great commands. The first is to love God with my entire being. The second is to love my neighbor as myself.

We, as humans, seem to prefer extremes – finding life in the gray to be uncomfortable. Those in the orthodox camp seem to gravitate to the first command and strive for doctrinal purity as an act of worship toward God. Those in the “liberal” or “emergent” camp (I am increasingly uncomfortable with these types of labels since they can become more judgmental than informational) seem to gravitate toward the second and seek “social” justice and reconciliation between men.

The orthodox are often content to meet in their enclaves on Sunday waiting for the bold soul who will darken their door and ask them what they believe. The emergent people eschew formal meetings and seek to spend time “in community” reaching out to those who are not part of the church.

The pitfall for the orthodox is that we can be so focused on doctrinal purity and proper understanding that we fail to live out the second command and love our neighbors who are lost and going to Hell.

The pitfall for the emergent church is that they can be so focused on those who are living outside the church community that they can compromise the message of the gospel in order to draw people into the community. The danger lies in the ecumenical or “big tent” mentality which tends to gravitate toward the lowest common denominator. The lowest denominator ends up being the moral law which all can accept. This mentality can cause them to stay away from divisive ideas like “Jesus is the only way to God.”

I clearly fall within the orthodox camp and take a strong stand on critical issues such as the deity of Jesus, virgin birth, inspiration and authority of Scripture, etc. The challenge to me from the missional movement is that I have a message that I rarely share with those outside the church. Those in the missional movement put me to shame with regard to their efforts to reach out to a lost community. They put me to shame with regard to their efforts to live out the second greatest command.

But, I am reminded that the second command cannot be lived out without the first being first. In other words, to live out the second command, without prior living of the first, is doomed to failure from and eternal perspective. It does only temporary (temporal?) good to feed and clothe and commune with lost people and allow them to remain in their sin. To minister to physical needs without addressing the core issue of sin only provides temporary relief and could perhaps do greater harm.

The analogy I would use is giving pain killer to an athlete to get him back in the competition, the end result being that the lack of pain allows him to do further damage to the injured member. A line I heard recently is “God loves us just the way we are but loves us too much to allow us to remain that way.” To make it OK to remain in sin does no-one any good.

God knows what He’s about . . .

Posted on Written by Leave a Comment

Events of recent days reminded me of this anonymous poem. I originally heard Ravi Zacharias read it in a sermon and called RZIM to get the text.

When God wants to drill a man, and thrill a man, and skill a man;
When God wants to mold a man to play the noblest part;
When He yearns with all his heart to create so great and bold a man that all the world might be amazed;
Watch His methods, watch His ways.
How He ruthlessly perfects whom He royally elects.
How He hammers and hurts him,
and with mighty blows converts him,
Into trial shapes of clay that only God understands,
while his tortured heart is crying and he lifts beseeching hands.
How He bends but never breaks, when His good He undertakes.
How He uses whom He chooses and with every purpose fuses him,
With mighty acts induces him to try His splendor out.
God knows what He’s about.

-Author Unknown

Don’t look to Egypt for help

Posted on Written by Leave a Comment

Isaiah 31:1

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,
who rely on horses,
who trust in the multitude of their chariots
and in the great strength of their horsemen,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel,
or seek help from the LORD.

Over the years that I have been in and around the organized church in America, I’ve seen many different ideas as to how to make the church grow. Some are gimmicky, some are Biblically sound. Some give the appearance of working, others are miserable failures.

Many of the efforts to grow churches borrow methods from advertizing and marketing to determine what changes will make the church more appealing to her audience. Perhaps this is akin to Israel looking to Egypt for her help.

The only way for real growth to happen in the church is for the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be proclaimed so that men and women are brought into a growing relationship with Him. We must be faithful in proclaiming the message, God is the one who provides the growth.

I am not saying that the church should not seek feedback as to how effectively she is communicating the Gospel. I am not saying that modern methods of communication should not be used.

What I am saying is that the methods do not save anyone, God does. When the message of the Gospel is changed, or muted to make religion more palatable, when there is reluctance to talk about sin, Hell, judgment and salvation, then the message has been compromised. When the message is compromised, no good will result, no matter how large the budget or how full the parking lot.

When we go to Egypt for help, we may have larger army but it will not be an effective army for the purpose of storming the Gates of Hell.

Machen on the Emergent Church

Posted on Written by Leave a Comment

On a whim we stopped at a thrift store on Thursday, ostensibly to look for a night stand for our bedroom. This particular thrift store had more books than usual, among them I found a pamphlet by J. Gresham Machen entitled Christianity and Culture and two other items of interest. And no, there was no suitable night stand.

Ever since attending the “Missional Theology” conference at Biblical Seminary (Biblical in name only), I have been interested in the question of how the true Church should interact with 21st Century American Culture.
There was much discussion at that conference about what is called the “Emergent” church. This classification is difficult to pin down to any particular set of beliefs or strategies; the common thread seems to be the idea that the church should do a better job of relating to the “postmodern” culture in America.

While I am certainly on board with communicating the timeless truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in language that is understandable to a non-churched generation, there are elements of this movement that seem to think that there are no timeless truths and that new truths need to be developed. In fact, I can’t remember if it was stated at the conference or on a podcast, but I have heard one emergent leader say that we need to develop “postmodern Christianity.”

All this leads up to the last paragraph of Machen’s pamphlet:

“The Church is puzzled by the world’s indifference. She is trying to overcome it by adapting her message to the fashions of the day. But if, instead, before the conflict, she would descend into the secret place of meditation, if the by clear light of the gospel she would seek an answer not merely to the question of the hour but, first of all, to the eternal problems of the spiritual world, then perhaps, by God’s grace, through His good Spirit, in His good time, she might issue forth once more with power, and an age of doubt might be followed by the dawn of an era of faith.”

I am reminded of Paul’s words in Ephesians 6:12 where we are told that we do not fight with flesh and blood; our battle is a spiritual one that should be fought with spiritual weapons. Why should we expect a spiritual victory when we use the method of changing the message to appease men?

The preaching of the Cross has always been foolishness to non-believers (1 Corinthians 1:18). Yet, that is what we are commanded to preach. We dare not change this message simply because some find it offensive or antiquated.

Categories

Archives

Blogger Grid
Follow me on Blogarama