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Modern Church Reformation?
A division in Christianity is arising, and it looks as though it may spark yet another reformation, similar to Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation splitting from the Catholic Church. This rising and pressing from of Christianity that may cause this surge is known as the Emerging Church. It represents a breed of a postmodern church involving casual meetings, orthodox practices, open discussion, and open minds. The benefits of practicing Emerging Church members are embracement from society, freedom within their faith, and a focus on community. The downsides are a lack of formal sermons and teaching, a lack of Biblical hierarchy, and no church discipline. Many influential Reformed pastors and leaders disapprove and chastise the Emerging Church, more for a lack of unbiblical foundations and lack of steadfast beliefs, but perhaps Reformed theology is simply too rigid to accept this resurgence of renewed Christian thinking. While Emerging theology seeks freedom, Reformed theology requires certainty, so a very probable break may soon be arriving. To Christians immersed in postmodern society, this calls for a heightened requirement of understanding individual beliefs, but also learning how to think for one’s self. Overall, the fact remains that all who follow Jesus are involved in a universal church that needs to react to each other in love and in Jesus Christ’s example.
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This article has 1 comment.
The pastor of my church used to be involved in the Emerging Church, but he left it when things started being not so Biblical. In his words, they've begun "calling God a chick," and a lot of other stuff.
I hope that a real division isn't starting, though. Those aren't fun. I do, however, think that the Emerging Church is allowing itself to be grounded in emotions when it should be grounded in God's word.
We'll see what happens, I guess.