 |
The Emerging
(See May 6, 2009 |
Emphasis added in bold letters |
“The tasks ahead for Emergent
Christianity include:
- Wresting questions of
eternity away from its Greek ‘timeless’ bias.- Wresting evolutionthe story
of lifeaway from both Literal Creationism and Materialistic
Darwinism.- Wresting Orthodoxy back from
Enlightenment modernity.- Wresting Imminence (God in
Creation) away from Pantheism (God is creation), as well as
Deism (God is separate from creation) in a Panentheistic
approach (God is in All and All is in God).- Developing a new cosmology,
a new universe story, based in what the
‘new’ science is
making known, and a postmodern view of creation, and
discovering the
Cosmic Christ within this story.Nic Paton,
“Eternity, Evolution, and Emergence,” Emergent Village, Nov.
12, 2008.
The Emergent/emerging church movement
was first tried with that name back in 1970
at a series of conferences sponsored by
Faith at Work. This fact is disclosed in
Hiley Wards book
Religion
2101 A.D.: Who or What Will Be God?
(Doubleday, 1975). The book is a compendium
of futurist thought, including the science
fiction and paranormal and metaphysics
activities extant in the early 1970s. But
first the background information to put this
all in context.In September and October 2005 the
Discernment Research Group wrote a series of
Herescope posts[1]
about two Consultation[s] on Future
Evangelical Concerns held in the late 1970s
in which evangelical leaders openly became
enamored of
futurism as a new philosophy. The
purpose of the first consultation was to
encourage evangelical leaders to think
futuristically and begin long-range planning
for the church in the face of possible
alternative futures.In preparation for the first consultation
these evangelical leaders evidently read
documents [2]
associated with
Willis Harman of the
Stanford Research Institute. They
discussed the controversial
Club of Rome report
Limits to
Growth which called for a global
economic and ecological (population control)
management, because their MIT computer
models showed that the earth probably
cannot support present rates of economic and
population growth much beyond the year 2100,
if that long, even with advanced
technology.[3]Donald Hoke, in his Preface to
Evangelicals Face the Future (which
summarized the first Consultation), quoted
Hiley Wards futuristic suggestion:
We must
consciously work toward creating the future
we desire.
[4] This
particular statement is the mantra of the
futurists, who believe that mankind can
envision and facilitate his own evolution.
Hoke explained that the initial consultation
was precipitated by some meetings with Billy
Graham and Hudson Armerding in 1977 in which
they considered James Sires penetrating
question published in
Eternity
magazine (January 1976):
What if Christ does not come for 10,
100, 1,000 years?This speculation, combined with the ominous
declarations of the Club of Rome report
(population control, scarce resources,
ecological disasters, global governance,
etc.) resulted in a call by evangelical
leaders for a new theology and eschatology
to meet the challenges of the perceived
future crises on the planet.In his book Religion 2101 A.D. Ward reveals that
he had been meeting regularly with Billy
Graham in interviews over the years.[5]
His book is a compendium of what was going
on with futurist thought, conferences,
writings and activities prior to 1975. By
this time period evangelical leaders had
already been working on futurist projects
and doctrines. For example, Ward wrote:
Churchmen were introduced to The Limits of
Growth theory in Chicago in January 1973,
at Insearch: The Future of Religion in
America, a meeting sponsored by the George
Dayton Foundation of Minneapolis.
[6] He also described a number of
other church conferences on futurism,
including a series of conferences on the
topic of The Emerging Church which were
initiated by the Faith
at Work organization.
[7]“The future of the church, denominations and
all, proved to be the basis for an
interesting exercise of the emotions at the
Emerging
Church Conference in Chicago, one of
the five regional settings of the conference
sparked by the Faith and [sic] Work
movement.”[8]Lyman Coleman, who went on to become famous
for his Serendipity sensitivity group
experiences and curricula, conducted a
full-fledged touchy-feely,
consciousness-raising session at this
conference. Participants became engaged in
destroying a paper cup which symbolized the
potential total disappearance of [the
church] institution.
[9] Ward wrote that “[a]ll this
activity about a cup typified the mood of
the five 1970 National Clergy Conferences
which took up the question of the
shape of the
emerging church.
[10]
These conferences came up with a
radical
theology of the non-church movement.
[11] He
explained:“Those 1970 National Clergy Conferences on
“The
Emerging Church” foresaw a church
entirely new, yet keeping (1) the same old
doctrines of the “old time religion” and (2)
institutional shells. But there would be
little preoccupation with life after death.
Like the radical modern reformers, who are
more at home with non-church building task
forces and home groups, the conservative
renewalists are concerned with the here and
now.”[12]At the Chicago Emerging Church Conference
there was a keynote address by Rev. Bruce
Larson,
then president of
Faith at Work, who said there needed to
be a push to bring a relational or
incarnational principle into the churches.
[13]Hiley Ward, who was obviously a man
passionate about futurism, considered a wide
array of potential new theologies that might
work for this future emerging church. These
new theologies included:
Process theology
Everythingeven Godis evolving
Political theology efforts of
activists who pursue social change in
the name of social imperatives for
Jesus
Liberation theology Father
Gustavo Guitierrez: an evangelism which
announces the total liberation of
Christ
Critical theology the
dialecticism of Marx
Foundational theology A faith
based on a more general language and
more common experience, shared with all
mankind
Contextual theology theology
is reflection on the experience of the
Christian community in a particular
place, at a particular time relevant to
the culture
Theology of hope Jurgen
Moltmann: Revolutiona turning of the
tables, shattering old institutions,
creating new orders, even working toward
seemingly unattainable utopias
Autobiographical theology
retelling of a personal incident, a
testimony, a dramatic experiencesor a
chain of experiencesor retelling ones
whole life story. The Jesus People, the
poets, the mystics, the newly
converted .
Body
theology Rev. Arthur Vogel:
presencehuman presence, Gods
presenceas a means of linking time and
getting above it . [D]iscipline some
part of the body and/or integrate body
and mind in order to achieve a higher
awareness and consciousness [14]All of these evolutionary theologies can be
connected in one form or another to the
emerging church movements theologies today.
Interestingly, Ward cites an International
Convention of the Religious Education
Association held in Toronto in 1973 in which
Matthew Fox led a workshop promoting
Panentheistic Spirituality: The Religious
Education of Tomorrow?“[Fox] defined panentheism
as an experience of the whole. Beyond
pantheism, which is a passive look at the
universe, panentheism emphasizes experience,
not of a doctrine or revelation or a Deity,
but the experience of the whole.” [15]This original move to create an emerging
church movement was set in the rebellious
early 1970s, a time when anything connected
with tradition was being dismantled,
discarded and deconstructed. Everything was
so wild and radical during this time period
that in many cases the baby was thrown out
with the bathwater. Man-made traditions in
mainline Protestant churches, which often no
longer carried any practical or religious
significance, were tossed aside just as
easily as the traditions firmly rooted in
Scripture. This was an era characterized by
inadequate discernment, as leaders rushed
head over heels into the latest fads or
crazes, often trying to outdo one another in
trying to be hip and relevant to the
Jesus Generation. It seemed to be the
perfect time period in which to launch the
emerging church movement.But simple pastors and the folks in the pews
hadn’t yet caught up. They hadn’t read the
esoteric futurists. And the doctrines of
futurism were clearly antithetical to the
Gospel. That was precisely the problem
facing evangelical church leaders by the
time they gathered in December 1977 at the
first Consultation on Future Evangelical
Concerns, sponsored by the Billy Graham
Center at Wheaton College. Their challenge
in the decades that lay ahead was to
reformulate old doctrines and invent new
theologies that would fit the
model of futurism. They would also have
to take out a hammer and chisel and begin
badmouthing and demolishing the old
church structures. It would be several
decades before the
futuristic emerging church could be
fully launched without any noticeable
opposition.[16]
To be
continued, Lord willing. . .The Truth:
Knowing
this first, that there shall come in the
last days scoffers, walking after their own
lusts, and saying,
“Where is
the promise of his coming?”
(2 Peter 3:3-4a)
Endnotes:
1. See the series of Herescope posts in
September and
October 2005 on this topic.
2. This fact can be ascertained from the
context of the Scenarios, Addresses, and
Responses of the speakers published
remarks at the Consultations.
3. Dr. Dennis Cuddy, Ph.D.
Now is the
Dawning of the New Age New World Order
(Hearthstone, 1991), p. 245.
4. Donald E. Hoke, editor,
Evangelicals Face the Future (William
Carey Library, 1978), Preface, emphasis
added.
5. Hiley H. Ward,
Religion
2101 A.D.: Who or What Will Be God?
(Doubleday, 1975), p. xi.
6. Ibid, p. 8.
7. Ibid, p. 70.
8. Ibid, emphasis added.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid, p. 71, emphasis added.
11. Ibid, emphasis added.
12. Ibid, emphasis added.
13. Ibid, p. 72.
14. Ibid, pp. 153-160.
15. Ibid. p. 62, link added.
16. To see how the Leadership Network
launched the Emergent/emerging church
movement, read the series of Herescope posts
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here,
here, and
here. Leadership Network also
jumpstarted the megachurch movement.
© 2009 by Discernment Group
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