DA Carson versus the Emerging Church, 02

Carson’s first emphasis in his lecture about the Emerging Church was to offer what he said were “five praiseworthy elements.”

1. He said that the Emerging Church is trying to read the times. That’s good. But since “80%” of the Emerging Church’s leaders are originally from conservative churches (and are just reacting against that conservativism), they are not capable to reading the times well.

2. He said that the Emerging Church is making a plea for authenticity. That’s good. But since the Emerging Church does not use the Bible as its standard of what is authentic or not (relying more on feelings and cultural acceptability), then the authenticity has to be called into question.

3. He said that the Emerging Church has recognized some of the parameters of postmodernism. That’s good. But they fail to analyze it well enough (he elaborated on this more in his criticisms).

4. He said that “in the best of Emerging Movement, there is an evangelistic thrust” to reach those the church are not reaching. That’s good. But since the Emerging Church is filled with post-conservatives, they are not really capable of reaching them. And there are churches like Mark Dever’s church in Washington DC, Mark Driscoll's church in Seattle, and Tim Keller's church in New York that are reaching postmoderns without jettisoning good theology.

5. He said that the Emerging Church is willing to question traditionalism. That’s good. But there are a lot of churches that can move beyond traditionalism but that hold onto the historic creeds and theology of the church (like Dever’s).

At a break, I talked with some of the people in the crowd. They all said that if that is Carson’s idea of “praise" for the Emerging Church, we can’t wait to hear his actual critiques!

Posts in this series:
DA Carson versus the Emerging Church, 01
DA Carson versus the Emerging Church, 02
DA Carson versus the Emerging Church, 03
DA Carson versus the Emerging Church, 04
DA Carson versus the Emerging Church, 05
DA Carson versus the Emerging Church, 06

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