I was studying this week and thinking through the beginnings of the early church in Acts 2 for a message on Christian community.  God really showed something awesome to me through my exploration of the Great Commission and the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the early church.  Today in the midst of our American church culture, thoughts and teachings with regard to the Holy Spirit tend only to be seen in charismatic circles where spiritual gifts especially speaking in tongues are noted as gifts of the Holy Spirit and being spirit-filled.  We, however, miss so much if we let only our charismatic brothers and sisters teach on the power of the Holy Spirit.  We have so minimized the Holy Spirit’s power and role in our lives as Christians that we have missed the driving force, passion, and energy behind our lives as believers.  Take for instance the Great Commission that Jesus gives His followers to go and make disciples of all nations.  This command comes with a clause that we so often miss.  It is the clause to wait until the Holy Spirit has come.  There are very profound implications from this clause.  The Great Commission is to be fulfilled not by our own strength, willpower, and passion but through the power of the Holy Spirit at work within us.  It is His power not ours.  It is His strength not ours.  It is His passion not ours.  It is His words not ours. It is His glory not ours.  Let us not neglect and avoid the power of the third person of the trinity to drive our mission and fill our lives.  The same Holy Spirit who took a bunch of uneducated, uncommitted fishermen and turned them into powerful and devoted proclaimers of the gospel lives inside of you.  Let us live lives fueled not by our own power and strength but by the Holy Spirit.

Tonight Passion Atlanta finished with a session almost entirely focused on worship and anticipation for the Passion World Tour.  It is encouraging to see Passion seeking to take the Gospel to the nations.  I feel like they are in touch with God’s global mission.  I am greatly encouraged by this weekend and look forward to coming back to a Passion event again sometime soon.

I just left the first session of the Passion Atlanta Regional.  Chris Tomlin and David Crowder led the session in worship and Louie Giglio preached.  Louie’s message really stuck me.  He talked about how we have be taught that Christianity is all about us.  It is about what we can get and how God can bless us and make our lives better.  Louie then goes on to talk about our short lives being a small flame that is to spread the glory of Jesus Christ and the gospel to the watching world.  The message ended with a story of a female student in Florida through the eyes of her journal with regard to her interactions with her “fruit cake” Christian roommate.  The journals go on to tell about how in the moment of a deep hurt in this girl’s life God used her roommate to share the gospel with her.  This was a very practical and real picture of how we as Christians should seek to live out the gospel to a watching world.  This also challenged me in that I am not intentional to share Jesus Christ with the people in my world who do not know Him.  I am challenged and encouraged to see what God is going to do in and through the rest of this weekend. 

I heard a very interesting insight yesterday in an Easter sermon by my pastor, Dr. David Platt, that I wanted to pass along.  He was talking about how people can get upset and consider Christians close-minded when we say that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven and not a way in a list of potential options.  The interesting insight that Dr. Platt noted was that even if there were 1,000 ways to get to God people would still be mad and want there to be 1,001 ways to get to God.  The issue here is not that Jesus is the only way.  The issue is, as Dr. Platt noted, an issue of autonomy.  It does not matter to people how many ways there are as long as that number can not be a set number, but rather it is a number to which one can be added so that the person’s individual way which they have chosen to get to God will be included in the list of acceptable ways to reach God.  This is very interesting.  The issue is that we as people in the midst of a highly individualistic society do not want to have to depend on anyone but ourselves.  We want to achieve success and popularity, and when we take a look at out spiritual lives, we want to achieve acceptability and salvation before God.  The gospel calls us to desperate dependence on Jesus Christ.  It is not the one way that bothers people as much as the desperate dependence that the one way implies.

We have not been called to just sit on this glorious news of freedom from sin and victory in Christ that is given in the gospel.  This leads us to the second essential of being the church in culture - mission.  Jesus left His followers with a mission which we have been exploring all month to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28: 19 ESV).  This should be the all-consuming passion and drive for all believers. 

I want to note that the call is to make disciples.  Disciples are Christ-followers who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross.  There is a tendency in today’s Christian environment to lose site of declaring this good news and to instead make the focus of our mission secondary issues such as social justice.  These secondary issues are not negative things to do in and of themselves, but that is not the primary mission.  Jesus came to earth and lived for about thirty years on the earth before His death on the cross and resurrection.  During that time, He could have solved all of the issues with world hunger, cured everyone from all their diseases, and stopped the injustice of slavery.  The very intersting thing is that He did not.  So, does this mean that Jesus does not care about these issues that are pressing and cause pain and heartache for so many?  No, He does care because we see Jesus meeting many people’s needs such as these.  He is however focused on a single mission - to die on the cross and rise from the dead for sin.  Jesus knew that everything is at its root a spiritual issue due to the fact that all social justice issues are ultimately a result of sin and the fall.  We cannot merely address the symptoms and miss the disease itself.  Jesus understood this.

We need to never remove the proclamation of the gospel from missions.  We should also seek to show the love of Jesus to people by getting involved in social justice and other issues involving hurting people, but this should never be done without presenting the gospel. 

Our mission calls us to be gospel-centered and intentional to share Jesus with others and also to show love and grace to others in Jesus’ name.

The Emergent Church is such an abstract movement of redefining Christianity that I want to go ahead and preface this post with the fact that this is written from my knowledge of the Emergent Church which has been acquired through several: Emergent Village podcasts, The Church in Emerging Culture by Leonard Sweet, Brian McLaren’s A Generous Orthodoxy and The Secret Message of Jesus, and Truth and the New Kind of Christian by R. Scott Smith. 

The Emergent Church has been heavily influenced by the thoughts and writings of Brian McLaren. This movement started out to address as Brian does in A Generous Orthodoxyto unite a church that had been divided on many issues into a new version of Christianity deemed Emergent.  In this book McLaren, points out why he is a list of conflicting ideologies and how he can make them come together.  This movement began as a very noble cause to unite the bride of Christ in order to reach people with the gospel. 

The main discussion in Emergent theology is the issue of statements and some theology that the statements present.  The Emergent Church tends to put emphasis more on narratives such as the unfolding story of God at work which is seen to be evolving in order to reach a new postmodern context via the Emergent movement.  According to the Emergent Village website, the beliefs of the emergent church include beliefs in “God, beauty, future, and hope.”  The belief write up then goes on to state: “… but you won’t find a traditional statement of faith here. We don’t have a problem with faith, but with statements. Whereas statements of faith and doctrine have a tendency to stifle friendships, we hope to further conversation and action around the things of God.”  This statement and change from the doctrines of the faith which have been written and held by the church for centuries and are based on the unchanging truths of the Word of God leads to my major problem with the Emergent Church movement.  The Emergent Village site goes on to state four central values of Emergent (following italicized text comes directly from the website):

1. Commitment to the Way of Jesus

We are committed to doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God. In the words of Jesus, we seek to live by the Great Commandment: loving God and loving our neighbors – including those who might be considered “the least of these” or enemies. We understand the gospel to be centered in Jesus and his message of the Kingdom of God, a message offering reconciliation with God, humanity, creation, and self.

We are committed to a “generous orthodoxy” in faith and practice – affirming the historic Christian faith and the biblical injunction to love one another even when we disagree. We embrace many historic spiritual practices, including prayer, meditation, contemplation, study, solitude, silence, service, and fellowship, believing that healthy theology cannot be separated from healthy spirituality.

Practices:

• As Christ-centered people, to understand the gospel in terms of Jesus’ radical, profound, and expansive message of the kingdom of God.
• As people seeking to be formed spiritually in the way of Christ, to learn historic Christian spiritual practices (disciplines), and to use them for the development of character, integrity, and virtue which flow from true communion with God.
• As participants in the historic Christian faith, to be humble learners, to stimulate learning in others, and to give priority to love over knowledge, while still valuing knowledge.
• As lovers of God and God’s truth, to seek wisdom and understanding, which are the true goal of theology, and to engage in respectful, thoughtful, sacred conversation about God, world, and church.

2. Commitment to the Church in All Its Forms:

We are committed to honor and serve the church in all its forms – Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal, Anabaptist. We practice “deep ecclesiology” – rather than favoring some forms of the church and critiquing or rejecting others, we see that every form of the church has both weaknesses and strengths, both liabilities and potential.

We believe the rampant injustice and sin in our world requires the sincere, collaborative, and whole-hearted response of all Christians in all denominations, from the most historic and hierarchical, through the mid-range of local and congregational churches, to the most spontaneous and informal expressions. We affirm both the value of strengthening, renewing, and transitioning existing churches and organizations, and the need for planting, resourcing, and coaching new ones of many kinds.

We seek to be irenic and inclusive of all our Christian sisters and brothers, rather than elitist and critical. We own the many failures of the church as our failures, which humbles us and calls us to repentance, and we also celebrate the many heroes and virtues of the church, which inspires us and gives us hope.

Practices:

• To be actively and positively involved in a local congregation, while maintaining open definitions of “church” and “congregation.” We work in and with churches, seeking to live out authentic Christian faith in authentic Christian community.
• To seek peace among followers of Christ, and to offer critique only prayerfully and when necessary, with grace, and without judgment, avoiding rash statements, and repenting when harsh statements are made. To speak positively of fellow Christians whenever possible, especially those with whom we may disagree.
• To build sincere friendship with Christians from other traditions.

3. Commitment to God’s World:

We practice our faith missionally - that is, we do not isolate ourselves from this world, but rather, we follow Christ into the world.

We seek to fulfill the mission of God in our generations, and then to pass the baton faithfully to the next generations as well.

We believe the church exists for the benefit and blessing of the world at large; we seek therefore not to be blessed to the exclusion of everyone else, but rather for the benefit of everyone else.

We see the earth and all it contains as God’s beloved creation, and so we join God in seeking its good, its healing, and its blessing.

Practices:

• To build relationships with neighbors and to seek the good of our neighborhoods and cities.
• To seek reconciliation with enemies and make peace.
• To encourage and cherish younger people and to honor and learn from older people.
• To honor creation and to cherish and heal it.
• To build friendships across gender, racial, ethnic, economic and other boundaries.
• To be involved at all times in at least one issue or cause of peace and justice.

4. Commitment to One Another

In order to strengthen our shared faith and resolve, and in order to encourage and learn from one another in our diversity through respectful, sacred conversation, we value time and interaction with other friends who share this rule and its practices.

We identify ourselves as members of this growing, global, generative, and non-exclusive friendship.

We welcome others into this friendship as well.

We bring whatever resources we can to enrich this shared faith and resolve.

Practices:

• To make an annual pilgrimage to an Emergent Village gathering; to give one another the gift of our presence at annual gatherings whenever possible.
• To publicly self-identify with Emergent Village where appropriate and to represent Emergent Village well whenever we can; to exemplify the best of what Emergent Village strives to be and do.
• To invite others to participate and welcome new participants.
• To seek to be positive and constructive in caring for the Emergent Village friendship. To find some specific ways we can help the circle of friends in Emergent Village.
• To stay reconciled to one another. To give one another the gift of commitment not to give up on, betray, or reject one another, but instead, to encourage, honor, and care for one another.
• To stay informed about emergent locally and globally via the website and email updates.

Action:

We live out the four values of our rule through four lines of action:

• We explore and develop ideas, theology, practices, and connections … through conversations, conferences, think-tanks, gatherings, retreats, publications, learning cohorts, online resources, and other means.
• We resource individuals, leaders, and organizations – funding their imagination, stimulating their thinking, providing examples, events, literature and other resources to assist them in their lives and mission.
• We communicate our calling, vision, learning, and activities to the growing Emergent Village community, and to other interested people around the world.
• We provide ways for people to belong, identify with, and participate in this community, conversation, and mission at varying levels. We encourage the development of generative friendships, collaborations, and partnerships.

Reading through this excerpt from the website has lead you to one or two possible responses as a reader.  The first response is that you read through this and feel that the Emergent Church sounds like a great and glorious movement which you are jumping to become a part of.  This is a common response if you are in a place where you are fed up with  denominations, differences, debates, and divisions.  This has also taken off in a postmodern society where people have the mindset of tolerance and are attracted to a church movement that embraces this postmodern tenant. The second response is to be totally appalled by the lack of a biblical foundation in the midst of all of these values.  This response comes from someone with a strong background in a doctrine and theologically driven evangelical church.

I feel like in reading through this the good thing that comes to mind is the unity of the church in order to impact people with the gospel.  I would agree that churches divide and fight on many issues that do not matter, in that the Bible does not specifically address them, such as musical preference and political party.  There are issues however of doctrine and theology that the Emergent church has a tendency to throw out the window.  This deeply concerns me.  The thing that most concerns me in this entire list of statements is that there is no clear recognition of the importance of the Word of God in the mission, faith, and theological discussions of the Emergent Church.  In any discussion of theology, faith, and mission, there must be a standard that is defined as truth.  The Word of God has been given as the divine revelation of God written through human authors under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  To deny the place of God’s revelation and then try to do ministry and follow Jesus is something that scares me.  I applaud and appreciate the discussion on making outreach and evangelism more effective in a postmodern context that the Emergent church has offered, but I could never be emergent because I think that to be missional and follow Jesus without emphasizing His Word is really not following Jesus at all.  Instead, it is following a Jesus who you have made to be who you desire him to be.

Craig Gross is known as the “Porn Pastor” and is one of the founders of xxxChurch.com which is a ministry that reaches out to both people struggling with issues related to online pornography and people who are in the industry making pornography.  Craig’s ministry has been something that I have followed and watched grow and develop over the last several years.  In addition to running this ministry,  he is also the author of a book called The Gutter which talks about being intentional to minister to broken people.  The message of this book has become the defining goal of Criag’s life.  He goes into porn shows to set up a booth to pass out Bibles and to show the love of Jesus Christ to people in the porn industry.  Craig is willing to not join the group of protesters outside of the show who claim to be Christians while holding up signs letting people know that they are going to hell, but rather he goes inside in the midst of the people in the porn industry’s world in order to be a light to them and to show them the love of Jesus.  Craig’s ministry is willing to not judge people and tell them that they are horrible people who will burn in hell but to love on them and introduce them to Jesus who can mend their broken hearts and lives.  This is living out the gospel in the midst of a terribly sinful place.  Craig is willing to not just to preach to people but to love them with the love of Jesus. 

Brain McLaren is best known as the Father of the Emergent Church movement.  I am not going to take the time to fully enter into the discussion on the emerging church today, but that discussion will be coming later this month.  Brain is an established author with several books that are all considered important works in the emergent discussion.  The heart of Brian’s whole view seems to me to be: How can we as the church most effectively impact the culture and the world?  He raises questions about everything from how the gospel is presented, how theology is taught, and how the church is perceived.  Brian is a very influential voice who is seeking to raise questions and start a discussion which every Christian must enter into.  He has a heart for the least of these which is seen in the title of his most recent book, Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crisis, and the Revolution of Hope.  McLaren is not alone in his search for answers, joined by Tony Jones and other leaders of the Emergent Village, as he seeks to redefine church and Christianity as it emerges to reach people who do not know Jesus.

Dr. David Platt is the senior pastor at the Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama which is my home church.  Dr. Platt has really refocused and redirected what it means for his church to be the church.  He has a focus on global evangelism that is like nothing that I have ever seen before.  His desire has been to bring the church from a self-focused church in the heart of the Bible-belt to a church that desires to live out a Christianity which impacts not only the people in Birmingham but people in all nations.  Dr. Platt has a heart for those who do not know Jesus Christ that is contagious.  He is seeking to make the church a group of people who are focused on reaching all nations for the glory of God.  The prayer that he frequently prays that very well sums up the mission that he seeks to instill in his church is: “God give us the nations in a way that only You can get the glory.”  The mission of global evangelism is not only preached about but lived out in Dr. Platt’s life through his trips to the Middle East and trips to Asia teaching the gospel to house church leaders.  Dr. Platt also makes knowing the Bible a focus for the church.  He has launched a 6 hour Bible study which happens twice a year called Secret Church in which he teaches studies similar to what a person would take in a seminary (How to Study the Bible, Survey of the Old Testament, Survey of the New Testament, etc.).  Dr. Platt is redefining what it means to be the church in that he is seeking to make the church focused on the great commission of “making disciples of all nations.”

We have seen over the last few days two biblical examples of the ways that the church has engaged culture.  Today, we will begin looking a the evolution of modern methods through which the church engages culture.  We will introduce the method and discuss some pros and cons of the method and its impact or lack of impact on a post-modern, post-Christian culture. 

Evangelism Explosion (EE) is an outreach and evangelism method developed by Dr. D. James Kennedy.  It focuses on going either door to door or up to random people on the street and asking them questions about their faith.  The questions are usually initiated through telling the person that you are taking a survey.  This survey is built around two fundamental questions that are suggested by EE:

1. Do you know for sure that you are going to be with God in heaven?
2. If God were to ask you “why would I let you in My heaven?,” what would you say?

These are opening questions that are used to engage the individual in a spiritual discussion.  These questions are then typically followed up by presenting the person with a tract such as EE’s “Do You Know?”  The person when walked through the tract is then given a chance to pray to receive Jesus Christ as his or her Savior in response to the gospel presented by way of tract. 

Pros: This is a good method for evangelism in that it presents an easy way for someone to begin to share his or her faith with others.  It clearly sparks a discussion through some questions, clearly presents the gospel by way of a tract, and easily transitions into a time of decision. 

Cons: The first negative that I see in this form of evangelism is that it can easily seem like a sales pitch.  I can remember several times over the course of my time in college at UAB that I have been approached by individuals and church groups seeking to present the gospel in this manner.  It seemed really confrontational and like a sales pitch.  The groups would line up outside of the student center and pass out tracts and ended up seeming just like the fraternity who had been in that spot the week before trying to recruit new members.  Students and young adults are one of the most marketed to generations ever.  They are constantly confronted by sales pitches and people desiring their time and money.  This form of evangelism seems to fade into the noise of their lives and is tuned out and ignored by them.  The second negative is that this form of evangelism requires no relationship.  Due to being sold to constantly and being lied to via marketing, students are very skeptical.  Someone who presents the gospel in a forcible marketing style manner would definitely be someone worth doubting whether what they had to say was trustworthy.  This evangelism plan does not allow time for a relationship of trust to begin to be built between the person sharing and the person listening.  This lack of trust leads to another area of ineffectiveness in this method.  The third negative is tracts themselves.  Tracts in general look and feel old and disconnected from the person you are speaking to.  They have a tendency to have unattractive designs and to make assumptions about the individual being shared with that may not be true.  The fourth negative is that in today’s post-modern society the questions which imply that there is a place called heaven that exists and that the person would desire to go there might not be true.  In a culture where individuals can grow up with no religious background or in a worldview that is totally opposite than the Christian worldview, these questions themselves become debatable.  This is another possible problem with this method of evangelism.