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