Category Archives: Church

Establishing multiple congregations

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The authors of Mission-shaped church have some interesting practical thoughts on how churches can enhance the sense of identity within their different congregations by considering some of the following dynamices. The more these are in place, the stronger and healthier will be the sense that each congregation is a “church” in itself:
  1. Establish a planned and consistent divergence of worship style…
  2. Grow a dedicated and recognised leadership for each.
  3. Establish a particular mission focus for the differing congregations.
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Eph 3:1-13 – What has God done for the church? – sermon notes

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Paul has just been speaking, Eph 2, about the new society that God has established. It is an international and a multi-racial society. There is a place in God’s new society for people from every nation, tribe, language and culture under heaven. In the past, God’s work had been primarily focussed on the Jewish people. But now Jews and Gentiles are offered salvation on precisely the same terms, and with exactly the same benefits and blessings.…

What is Foundationalism?

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Emerging church people of a more philosophical bent often speak critically of ‘foundationalism’.

What’s that?

Nancey Murphy explains:-

Foundationalism is a theory about knowledge.  More specifically, it is a theory about how claims to know can be justified.  When we seek to justify a belief, we do so by relating it to (basing it on, deriving it from) other beliefs.  If these other beliefs are called into question, then they, too, must be justified.  Foundationalists insist that this chain of justification must stop somewhere; it must not be circular, nor must it constitute an infinite regress. 

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The Emerging Church in its own words 3

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Chapter 4 of Gibbs’ and Bolger’s Emerging Churches: creating Christian community in postmodern culture is entitled, ‘Transforming secular space’.  Here are some extracts.

Breaking down the dualisms of modernity

‘A consequence of the creation of a secular realm was modernity’s penchant to break everything up into little parts for classification, organisation, and systematisation.  Thus, in the modern period, many dualisms were introduced to church life that had not been problematic before: the natural verses the supernatural; public facts versus private values; the body versus the mind and spirit; faith versus reason; power versus love; and the list goes on. …

The Emerging Church in its own words 2

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Chapter 3 of Emerging Churches: creating Christian community in postmodern cultures, by Gibbs & Bolger, is entitled, ‘Identifying with Jesus’.

Here are some extracts.

What would Jesus do on a Sunday?

‘I read the Gospels over and over.  Nothing I was doing on Sunday was what I thought Jesus would be doing if he were here.’  (Joe Boyd)

The kingdom emphasis

‘It is strange how the church for so long missed the kingdom emphasis in the witness of the authors of the Gospels. …

The Emerging Church in its own words 1

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Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Culture (SPCK) by Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger is regarded by many as the most authoritative book presently available on the beliefs and practices of the emerging church.  It is based on interviews with 50 leaders in the US and the UK.

I thought that it would be interesting to provide some extracts from the book, in order let emerging church leaders, together with the two authors of the book, speak for themselves.…

How the emerging church marginalises the gospel

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For emerging church people, Jesus’ message of kingdom tends to be all about what God is doing here and now.  It is about peace, justice, and compassion.  The gospel is an invitation to participate with God in this mission.

Participating in God’s kingdom is not about change in status (unsaved to saved), or about affirming certain doctrines.  It is about following the example of Jesus as the best way to live.

The problem with this understanding of the kingdom is not in what in affirms but in what it denies or marginalises. …

In praise of the Emerging Church

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D.A. Carson’s Becoming conversant with the emerging church is already a bit dated, since things are moving rapidly in that area.  However, it remains a fair and thorough evaluation (unless you’re a big fan of emerging, in which case it’s obvious to you that Carson just doesn’t ‘get it’).…

What should we do with heretics?

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John Stott has some wise and measured words on this subject.  He is, of course, writing from within an Anglican context.  But I think that the principles he espouses are worth weighing in other parts of the church too.

‘What should the contemporary church do with heretics? Is that a harsh word? I think not. A humble and reverent probing into the mystery of the incarnation is the essence of true christological scholarship. But attempted reconstructions that effectively destroy that which is supposed to be being reconstructed is christological heresy.Let

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It’s all modernism’s fault

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Chapter 7 of Why we’re not emergent (by two guys who should be) explores the ways in which emerging church people have tended to make a bogeyman out of modernism.

Kevin DeYoung summarises the emergent approach:-

Once upon a time the church was a brighter, fairer place.  And then the Enlightenment happened, and the scourge of modernism – systematic theologies, propositions, foundationalism, certainty, creeds, monological preaching, individualism, inerrancy, logic, indoctrination, deductive reasoning – began to crack down on the church.…