She started with sweeping generalization that Emergents do not have a solid Biblical foundation for their faith, because worship is all about how they experience it. She says:
For Emergents, experience and subjective revelation trump Scripture. Absolute truth does not exist; all truth is relative to each person's experience. Thus, no moral judgments can be made about evil. Where there is no evil, there can be no call to repentance and no freedom from guilt through the blood of Jesus because there is no sin.
Furthermore, she says "emergent worship is highly individualistic in the sense of placing greater value on one's personal story and personal interpretations than on worshiping God through the biblical model of repentance." This is the kind of worship service that many churches practice in order to attract people to the congregation. Cindy was 'attacked' by other bloggers who pointed out that she was making generalizations and not giving proof of what she was writing about.
It took me several minutes to try to understand the basis of all the arguments that ensued after she posted her blog. It seems that almost everybody is in the same opinion that the Emerging Church Movement cannot be generalized to have the same characteristics. Because even Adventists today feel that "the stations of the cross" makes sense, as what Ellen White suggested to spend hours contemplating on the life of Christ each day. Even "candles and incense" is conducive for meditation and relaxation.
My question now is "how do we draw the line between the practices of Emerging Church and the SDA Church so that we will not be categorized as Emergent?" Many pastors I know gives a high regard to Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven Life." In fact, it was one of the main textbook used in the class of "Ministry and Spiritual Life." Our church here uses a lot of praise songs typically used in Emerging Church's worship service instead of using songs from the SDA Hymnal.
Looking at Wikipedia, the authors there quote from Gibs and Bolger who interviewed people and summarized the characteristics of Emergents as people who
desires to imitate the life of Jesus; transform secular society; emphasise communal living; welcome outsiders; be generous and creative; and lead without control.
Are the people in my church exhibiting the same characteristics? Are the leaders in my church advocating this practices? I do hope that they are "welcoming outsiders" to worship in church in order to feel welcomed. But I sure don't want the leaders to be "leading without control."
So, what I am trying to point out here? I need to be more educated on this subject.I am curious and want to know more about this movemet, the Emerging Church. Are there good practices that can be contextualized to the SDA Church, or do their practices need to be banned altogether?
No comments:
Post a Comment