Maybe The New Yes – Why Were Not Emergent Introduction 2

Ted Kluck is the professional writer of the duo who are attempting to critique the emergent/emerging church in the book Why Were Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be). He says that he looks the emergent part (ok so there is a dress code, or is he trying to be funny) wearing jeans and a t-shirt most days and a bunch of cool shoes that keep him on the hip! When Kluck is describing himself he says this,

 “I am thirty-one years old, married for ten years. I am not cool. I write for a living, but I don’t lie around in my boxers until noon sipping Chianti out of the bottle, waiting to feel creative. I am not on a “journey,” and my testimony is of the bland, “raised in a Christian home” variety.”

 At first glance there seems nothing wrong with this bio, but then I saw something puzzling; why would he emphatically say something like, “I am not on a journey”! What is wrong with being on a journey? Maybe he has a problem with that terminology, maybe the idea of journey scares him? I’m not sure but his insistent statement seems to come out of left field. Of coarse being someone who considers himself on a journey (it’s been a bit of a bumpy ride lately) I consider his statement very…..SAD! I know maybe he has got it all figured out and since his salvation and conversion experience rely on the predominant fact that he was “raised in a Christian home variety” he has nothing to journey to or from for that matter? I hope the answer to this will be revealed in the coming chapters but right off the bat, I am concerned over someone saying they are not on, nor interested in a journey with God!

He admits later that he thinks church could be done differently and that we should be engaging culture more as a church, but that he enjoys being in his Christian bubble with the mainstay of this bubble being his home church; coincidentally the church that Kevin DeYoung (his co-author) pastors in Lansing Michigan. He states that his church is just plain normal with bad coffee every Sunday and the same lame carpet and plastic chairs they have always had. But he loves it because of the people, and the teaching, which he says, is, “theologically significant and challenging. Spiritual meat in a world of beer, milk, and philosophical cookies.”  

I love the fact that he listens to challenging and theologically significant preaching on a weekly basis and I have no doubt they are. I think everyone should be in this kind of church. If what you hear on a weekly basis is not challenging you to be more like Jesus then you need another church, plain and simple! My concern after reading the rest of the intro by Kluck is that he feels the emerging church perhaps lacks this same significance and challenge, likening them to the philosophical cookies in the above statement. I’m actually quite certain he feels this way after reading this next part about some of his friends who don’t attend his church and he is in disagreement with

  “I have friends whom I love dearly who are making bad choices in the name of “experience”; expressing a counterfeit freedom gleaned from pages of well-meaning spiritual-journey books outlining their authors’ mistakes in all their sexy, glamorous glory. This is a book for them. I believe that there is forgiveness for all our sins, no matter how grievous the mistake but I also know, from experience, that those sins create a chasm between us and our Lord.”

 I had to read this one a few times myself. It’s clear in this statement that he doesn’t like the idea of a spiritual journey; which is why he says he is not on one, nor interested in going on one. It is also clear that he thinks emerging Christians are following a false doctrine, counterfeit to the real gospel that apparently he and his church follow and have their jell-o “nailed down” and figured out. If your on a spiritual journey as a few of his friends have admitted to Ted Kluck thinks you may be in sin and getting further away from God the farther you travel on your so called journey!

 I keep coming back to the question, “what are these guys afraid of?” Why is the idea that someone considers their spiritual life a journey such a big deal, and why is this type of lingo and spirituality enough for him to question the salvation of his friends and hundreds of thousands of believer’s worldwide?

 Lastly, the title of the introduction tells us he is concerned with the lack of certainty in the world today, and that the church seems to be adopting this ambiguity in it’s gospel message. He clearly states this here

 As a Christian man, specifically a husband and a father, I need truth. I need to worship a God who makes demands on my character, with consequences. I need to know that Christianity is about more than me just “reaching my untapped potential” or “finding the god inside of me”. I need to know that I worship a Christ who died bodily, and rose from the dead. Literally. I need to know that decision can (and should) be made based on scripture and not just experience. These are the tings that give me peace in a world of maybe.

 Does anyone notice that he seems to say, “if God is not really like I want him to be, then I’m out of this Christianity thing”. I mean who says I need to worship a god that is like this, this, and this! What if he’s not like you want him to be? I feel like at the end of this statement he is sticking his tongue out at me. NeeNerNeeNerNeeNer. Ok, maybe that was out of line, let’s get serious.

I have not read anything YET that DeYoung and Kluck are critiquing that would deny any of these statements. Now, maybe someone somewhere says something that implies this, but as far as I have read, everyone would agree that God indeed does make demands on our character. In fact reading many of the Emergent/Emerging leaders has caused me to see just how selfish of a gospel I had been following. Jesus dies for me, everything I do Jesus has a plan for and it’s a really really good one that can’t fail if you just stay in “God’s will”. Give, so that it can come back to you good measure, pressed down, shaking together, and running over…we sing songs about this stuff and it’s not at all the message of Jesus or the bible. God’s will is a good thing, but that doesn’t always mean that you will look as if your prospering or winning all of the time…Jesus died, and so did all of his apostles along with countless others throughout the ages for the name of Jesus, yet we in America preach a gospel that says pray the prayer, give to your church and God will bless your socks off and protect you from all harm and bad in this world. And if you face something just blame (opps I mean rebuke) the devil. He did it to you!!!!! I’m sorry but that gospel is crap and doomed to fail!!! More on this laterJ

And every book I have read gives plenty of scripture to emphasize their positions, therefore numerous things have been decided upon with scripture in mind by all of these guys. Yet Ted Kluck seems to imply that the emerging church thinks experience is all you need and leave the bible reading to those crazy fundamentalists!! I have never heard of such a thing in any reading I have encountered. This book and review ought to be very interesting don’t ya thinkJ

Peace

Tony

Why Were Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be) A Review

I’m not one to write a critique of anyone’s literary work, as If I have the ability to put anything into word better than those who actually write for a living. Nor do I enjoy “being the guy” who just opposes things for opposing sake. That is why I hope folks can read this and “see the other side” of things. I’m not writing about Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guy Who Should Be) because I consider myself an Emergent Christian, though I may come across this way because I do connect with some of the things many voices in the movement have to say. I’m writing this because I think the authors Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck look at things through a particular lens (as we all do) that limits their ability to see clearly what many of the writers and communicators they critique have to say. With that said, I don’t agree with everything the Emergent or emerging guys say, and some of the critique in the book may even be legitimate! I’m writing because I can’t stand it when people pluck out one or two sentences to prove their point, and fail to actually give the context of the statement that often will give their readers a better and more accurate picture of what and why something was said or written in the first place. Of coarse this context doesn’t mean that someone will agree less with the authors of Why We’re Not Emergent, in some cases it could make for more agreement; but I can’t help but think the context is left out on purpose, or because the lens out of which they peer all things in life and theology will not allow them to see the context themselves. So I will attempt to paint some context, and give my humble opinions and hopefully do some justice to the Christian thinkers that Ted Kluck and Kevin DeYoung are picking apart in their latest work! I will take a few chapters at a time and only hit on small portions of the text, as hitting on all the issues would take forever!

The introduction is broken down into two sections because Kevin and Ted write entire chapters separately in the book, so they chose to have two different intros; stated in the introductions this is done because of their different thinking and writing styles. One is a pastor and seminary trained theology guy, while the other is a professional writer of all things sports! First up is Kevin DeYoung’s intro titled Still Submergent After All These Years. It starts with some autobiographical information detailing his traditional Christian upbringing in a Dutch Reformed community and church, with parents who saw John Calvin as a “good guy” (his words not mine). He continues to make it clear his Christianity is of the reformed type even calling the doctrines of the reformed churches of unconditional election and particular redemption “glorious truths”, admitting “others may find these two truths not so glorious”. He continues to tell us about himself, the church he pastors across the street from Michigan State University in East Lansing, only to put the exclamation point of the intro at this…“you can be all things that people have labeled as emergent in it’s followers, and not be an emergent Christian”.

The next section of DeYoung’s intro is defining the people he is attempting to critique. He explains that he will use the terms emerging and emergent interchangeably because they are pretty much the same thing. And also that not everyone they will write about would actually say they are part of the emergent church, but maybe would agree to be a part of the conversation as the leaders of the movement often call it. As Kevin invests some time in telling how difficult it is no “nail down” what it is the emergent guys believe he uses the metaphor; nailing their theology down is like nailing jell-o to a wall. Cute, eh, I thought so too upon first read! But to me he seems to poke fun and criticize how difficult it is to figure out what these guys really believe often mocking the term “conversation” which is what the fellows and followettes of the emergent group intentionally decided to call the movement. But he has serious problems with this terminology and even attributes this type of unwillingness to give “it” a label or definition to a high school mentality; DeYoung says it like this,

“It’s one thing for a high school student to be in process with his theology. It’s another thing for adults to write books and speak around the world about their musings and misgivings. I agree there must be space for Christians to ask hard questions and explore the tensions of their faith, but I seriously question that this space should be hugely public were hundreds of thousands of men and women are eagerly awaiting the next book or blog or podcast arising from your faith journey”

What are they afraid of? The implication seems to be someone is high school is allowed the latitude to sort out their faith, asking hard questions etc…but once you get past high school and enter adult-hood there should be a certain concreteness to your faith? Adults should not be having these problems; this questioning and seeking is child’s play! This is not an issue any adult should be facing. And if they are, please keep it to yourself, I certainly don’t want anyone else in the known world to have any idea that someone out there in the real world is actually questioning certain aspects of their faith! God forbid!

My issue with this approach is pretty simple; if we are not constantly wrestling with our ideas of God and making them sharper and more defined no a regular basis, we are set in our ways with no room to grow? Are we then on the same path as the Pharisees were when Jesus came along in human history? In more recent history I would have hated it if Martin Luther had not been in a mode of constantly questioning and wrestling with his faith just before posting the 95 thesis to the door at Wittenberg; if he hadn’t been in a state of constant seeking and questioning maybe we would all be catholic and have that one state approved religion here in the land of the free!

Martin Luther - "I shall never be a heretic; I may err in dispute, but I do not wish decide anything finally; on the other hand, I am not bound by the opinions of men. "

Later in the intro DeYoung is consumed by the fact that there is no clear leadership or hierarchy of the thinkers that make up the emergent conversation and after naming some names of the jell-o nailees and their insistence that not one of the conversationalists speak for the entire group he says this

“Fine. But if seven men get together to respond to their critics in one article, they should at least admit they not only share much common ground, but they are also some of the lead influencers (if they can’t say spokesperson) in the conversation. Call it a friendship, or a network, or a web of relationships, but when people endorse one another’s book and speak at the same conferences and write on the same blogs, there is something of a discernible movement afoot. Let this be crystal clear, we fully understand that emergent means a hundred different things to a hundred different people.”

My thoughts…I don’t think anyone in the “conversation” would shoot down the idea that emergent is becoming a movement of sorts. Nor do I think they would deny the fact that they are leaders to a certain degree but willing to listen to any voice within reason. What they don’t want is exactly what DeYoung wants and argues for…definition. They are not interested in defining anything and setting it in stone because they have all realized the definitions they learned as kids, and even in seminaries just don’t do it for them. Definitions in religion set boundaries and by default bring limitations, and these limitations are the culprits the people in the emergent conversation are trying to do away with. After all the boundaries set by religion are the spaces they have already stepped outside of or they are toeing the line in some cases and entire books have been written in an attempt to police the fact that they have stepped out of bounds. But hey, I say the folks in the emergent movement shouldn’t be too worried, if my memory serves me correctly it was Martin Luther and some of his contemporaries that got kicked out of the church because they stepped out of bounds (set up by the church) themselves!!

There is not enough space to quote the longest run on sentence in literary history, but DeYoung tries to sum up all things emergent in one sentence and at the end states if this sentence or most of it describes you, then you might be an emergent Christian. I guess reading this sentence made me say, “maybe I am more of an emerging or emergent Christian than I thought”, but after reading the sentence again, I kind of thought, “maybe Jesus was more of an emergent Christian than he was a 21^st century evangelical or whatever. Some of the highlights (much of the sentence is clear sarcastic jargon) of his definition of an emergent Christians are

If your political concerns are poverty, AIDS, imperialism, war mongering, CEO salaries, consumerism, global warming, racism, and oppression, and not so much abortion and gay marriage;

OR

If you disbelieve in any secular-sacred divide; if you want to be the church and not just go to church; if you long for a community that is relational, tribal, and primal like a river or a garden; if you believe doctrine gets in the way of an interactive relationship with Jesus; if you believe salvation has a little to do with atoning for guilt and a lot to do with bringing the whole creation back into shalom with its maker; if you believe following Jesus is not believing the right things but living the right way;

There was so much more but that is a small sample of his definitions, and again I would say yes to many of these things; maybe not on the same level as guys in the emergent church but certainly on some levels all of the things in this sentence speak of things important to Jesus and His followers as portrayed in the scriptures. Though some of the things in this sentence are a bit sarcastic and over the top, DeYoung admits that many parts of the list describe him and Ted Kluck and their idea of Christianity as well, but he is trying to critique the few things they really disagree with…I counted 9 things in the sentence that he mentions that are akin to his theology and the way he follows Christ, so I wonder of all the things in the sentence how many does he really not connect to? I would be willing to guess that there are just a few theological doctrines DeYoung is not willing to concede to mystery and this is his real hang up with many in the emergent church. In other words, the nailing Jell-o to the wall theory really only applies to a few points of contact in the Christian doctrine that he wants nailed down before he is willing to call emergent or emerging Christians true followers of Christ. He states in his intro that he hopes his critique comes as a brother and in love; they may be his sparring partners, but they are not “bad guys” but I’m not convinced he thinks they are true Christians.

Daddy's Little Girl

Jillian is such a beautiful girl; she is a happy little girl who gets all the attention and love anyone could ask for. She is the first person we all think about in the morning, and we all want to see her bright eyes and sweet cheeks when we wake up. Myles is always talking to her, and if she cries he is right there to talk to her, hold her hand, or sing her a song. He hates to hear his little sister cry. I think even Max (the dog) gets a little nervous when she cries. He is always right there where she is and if he hears her fuss at all he starts to whine and looks around as if to say, “Would somebody do something about this”? I would say Jillian is exactly what our family needed, and I certainly hope we are exactly what she needed.

Our family has been through a lot this year, but the days that fall in between the past and the future change the feelings of the grief and magnify the memories. It’s different because the focus has changed, and we have a very high priority in our house with a new baby girl who needs us to be “in the moment”. So we do our best to soak up this moment and be right there with Jillian because she knows no other way to live. She is always in the moment. When she’s hungry, she lets you know. If the diaper is wet, she’ll clue you in, and when she is content to sit on your lap or on your shoulder she shows you just how happy she is in that moment!

 But I can honestly say that holding her makes missing Micah really easy. Oh My God, she looks so much like him. She smiles like him, cuts her eyes at you just like he did, and her sweat little cry sounds so much like his did. I sat there one night with tears in my eyes, thinking…blessing or a curse? She looks so much like someone I miss everyday; she looks exactly like a little boy whose memories can bring joy and grief in the same moment! Is this a good thing, or is it a bad thing? The answer for me was different in the first few weeks, because it was hard not to think of Micah when you held Jillian. They were born only 4 days apart. Jillian’s birthday is July 3, 2008, and Micah was born on June 29, 2007. The memories of just 1 year ago being in the hospital for over a month watching Micah fight for his life were stirring again, and it made those first weeks with Jillian very HARD! Remembering just a year ago every cry, every diaper, every spit up, and every heartbeat mattered. Life and death were before our eyes daily with Micah and now etched forever in our minds. We were all on high alert with Micah and holding him was such a prize for the whole family. So with Jillian, many of these same feelings and worries have carried over as I watch her and hold her as often as I can. With all of this emotion I carry around with me I have come to the conclusion that the blessing or cursing is in a choice.

Deut. 30:19 God says,

 “19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20 love the LORD your God, obey Him, and remain faithful to Him. For He is your life...."

 Though the memories of Micah are fresh and real in my mind, I must choose to be in the moment for Jillian, Myles, and Shanda! And choosing to be in the moment has brought so much life into the days I spend with my family! Today I’m learning that living in the moment and bringing life to my family is a daily choice that we are all working on mastering. With things so fresh, we all miss it from time to time! I said “him” a few times when I was talking about Jillian; Myles and Shanda have both called Jillian Micah by accident, but the reality is, they are so much alike and it wasn’t that long ago Micah was with us; it has taken some getting used to! I have a feeling this likeness will never go away and she will always be the pleasant reminder of a little boy that changed all of our lives with his fight, smile, and heart; and as the birth of Jillian has impacted the Simoncini family, Micah through Jillian continues to impact our lives! Jillian is a blessing, even in her likeness to the son that I miss everyday! This day I choose to feel the grief for Micah, and see the blessing Jillian Elaine Simoncini is to my family and me!

I have realized that in every situation we can choose to make life out of it and see the blessing, or we can choose to see the death and curse in it. Today I’m choosing life! What about you?