Friday, January 16, 2004
traffic
There’s a lot of traffic at my old site. I think I might have stumbled into an evangelical canon here ….
The excitement seems to be over my quote – The danger is that the emerging church is a re-run of evangelicalism, but with powerpoint, which I made here, and the response is; This movement has to be stopped!. I don’t think they like it but I am not yet sure.
Posted by steve at 10:41 AM
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ummm just spent 5 minutes trying to assertain whether the ‘evangelical canon’ is a deeply sarcastic and subversive work or the a serious blog. Not quite sure why he calls the emerging church ‘evil’, but maybe he is an avid mac user (like most emerging church types) and sees anything related to Microsoft as an evil and he does link to a anti-microsoft site quite a puzzle. But glad to have read back over your rather insighful post.
I think you were on to something with you comments on the spirit. Modern church may be recycling and reinterpreting what the emerging church is doing and by doing so misses that fresh creativity that the spirit has brought.
Comment by gareth — January 16, 2004 @ 12:25 pm
How bizzare. Today I’ve just got hold of a paper called “May the Force of the Operating System be with You: Macintosh Devotion as Implicit Religion” from the journal Sociology of Religion.
Meanwhile, back in the thread of discussion – I’ve been interested recently on the discussions on what is and isn’t “real” emerging church. You get the sense that there is a solidifying of “emergent” identity occuring (not a bad thing) but that it may also carry a sense of the whole “orthodox/heterodox” debate that, in part, led to some people forming these new faith communities in the first place.
Also saw this quote today – “Ironically, heresy depends on orthodoxy for its existence. Usually a powerful majority affirms its own authoratative truth by declaring the views and practices of a dissenting minority deviant.”
Comment by Stephen — January 16, 2004 @ 1:09 pm
thanks for the comments. its wierd seeing something I wrote linked with evil and thinking, heck, i am being taken seriously, did I really want to say that, was it just a grumpy day!
after a few minutes, I decided it was a post I was willing to get flamed for!
steve
Comment by steve — January 16, 2004 @ 4:28 pm
This is all very interesting, Steve. I fundamentally agree with your complaint that emergent could end up being no more than wrapping paper. But the guys on the evangelical outpost don’t seem to be able to identify the difference between absolute truth, modernist reasoning, and hermeneutics. Keep writing your stuff – some of us out here DO speak your language!
Comment by maggi — January 17, 2004 @ 8:36 am
Wheras I’ve decided that what he’s actually criticising is Powerpoint. He’s obviously been stuck in some situations with endless bullet point sermons/presentations. Poor wee chappie.
Comment by Larraine — January 17, 2004 @ 12:24 pm
Heh. Powerpoint is a work of evil, indeed.
Um, you do realise that whole ‘this movement must be stopped!’ quote was a joke, right?
Comment by Nate — January 19, 2004 @ 1:39 pm
This guy Joe Carter seems a bit threatened by his perception that us Christian “postmoderns” (or whatever we are) are somehow compromising. Why don’t we pray that a “Neo” would enter his life (in the style of McLaren’s “A New Kind of Christian”). Could you see Carter on long walk, getting his modernist evangelical worldview challenged by a guy he respects & therefore can’t dismiss…and then WHACK! breaking a stick against a tree!
Ok, I’m assuming you’ve read McLaren’s “ANKOC”. (!)
Comment by Goyo — January 20, 2004 @ 10:31 am