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Part 4: The Emerging The New Thing July 17, 2009 |
Emphasis added in bold letters |
“To the Lord of the
Church
and all of His faithful people
who 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
Emerging Church. (Word) the authors expand upon what this strange
phrase, “the new thing,” would mean in defining the emerging church
movement. The authors anticipated that the 1970s would be “an era of
chaotic change in the Church” and also “a day of new beginnings.”
They wrote:
“We hear a sound of hope, a calling forth of a newly emerging
Church, a demand for priority and commitment, and a word of
instruction as to what the Church is to be. That voice …
speaks… of new goals, considerable resources, and fresh
strategies for the 1970’s.”The
authors spoke in the Foreword of a “new vision of God,” a “new
strategy,” and “new forms” for the institutional Church. This, they
said, would be based on compromise, writing that “the mark of the
emerging Church will be its emphasis on both-and,” meaning that they
would “not choose up sides” theologically. They said that they would
be “blending the dynamic of a personal Gospel with the compassion of
social concern.” Note how they described this early emerging church:
“In the emerging Church, due emphasis will be placed on both
theological rootage and contemporary experience, on celebration
in worship and involvement in social concerns, on faith and
feeling, reason and prayer, conversion and continuity, the
personal and the conceptual.” (Foreword)
Adopting the evolutionary progressive stance so essential to the
postmodern emergent worldview, the authors wrote that
“From its earliest beginnings until now, the Church has been in
the process of becoming, and it shall always be so. If the
Church is true to its Lord, it may never properly say that it
has “emerged.” In both the past and the present, the Church is
in a process, moving toward a fulfillment of its calling.”
(Foreword)The
authors therefore state that they reject the concept of “renewal”
and would adopt instead this concept of “the new thing,” citing
Isaiah 43:19:
“Behold,
I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth;
shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness,
and rivers in the desert.”Let
the reader note that the Isaiah verse is translated “a new
thing,” but the authors use the phrase “the new thing.”
In biblical eschatology these verses have to do with the coming
Messiah and the New Testament. But that is not what is meant by
these authors.In addition to all of their many usages of the term “new” pertaining
to a “radical shift” in church structure and function, the authors
wrote that a church needs to be able to change its “goals and
strategy” to “become receptive to the new thing that God is trying
to do….” (p. 139-140, emphasis added). While denying that they are
interfering with “Biblical revelation,” the authors assert that this
“new thing” is all about God giving “new orders”:
“the nature of God as revealed in Jesus Christ and the New
Testament most clearly indicates that God can do once again a
new thing and give new orders to His people.” (p. 141, emphasis
added)
Furthermore, the authors invoked Carl Jung’s evolutionary views to
suggest that the church “dream authentic dreams and see great
visions,” and that families in the church “dream a new dream of what
God is doing.” They described this
“dream” as being “God’s new thing for them” (p. 144, emphasis
added).And, not surprisingly, the authors concluded the book with another
contradictory set of assertions. They claimed that when the Church
begins “to ask God for an authentic dream or vision, living out that
new thing will not include destroying what has been” (emphasis
added). Yet, they hoped that as the “new emerged,” the old would be
“diminished.”To dream is not to destroy, but to build. The edifice that results
from dreaming quietly overshadows the old, and in time the old may
pass away. (p. 151)To sum up, “the new thing” for the newly forming church in 1970
included new revelation. And in the context of this evolutionary
worldview, it was intended that the formation of the emergent
church would progressively supplant the old church order. Today,
39 years later, we can see how successful this planned and
orchestrated paradigm shift has been.What does the phrase “the new thing” actually mean? Stay tuned to
the next post in this series. . . .
The Truth:“There is no new
thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may
be said, See, this is new? It hath been already of old
time, which was before us.” (Ecclesiastes
1:9b-10)
1. Cited in Bruce Larson & Ralph Osborne,
The Emerging Church
(Word, 1970), Author’s Dedication.
Part 1: The Emerging Church – Circa 1970
Part 2: Early Experimental Emergents
Part 3: Retro Emergent
© 2009 by Discernment Group
Source article:
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2009/07/new-thing.html
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Index to other articles by Discernment Group
http://herescope.blogspot.com/2009/05/emerging-church-circa-1970.html
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