Emerging Africa

If some of you have been following you might have noticed that Richard and I have been having a lengthy discussion under the 'Getting our schools to Jesus' post. Sorry Schalk for the side-track. On the basis of that discussion I would like to pose a question to the emerging community who converse here. It is a simple question and it is this:

Is there a place for the concept of 'exclusion' in emerging Christianity?

Ever heard a sermon a sermon on 'serving each other' where the application goes something like this:

"...so where do you think you can serve. Have you ever given thought to being a welcomer at the door, what about the band - can you sing or play an instrument? Maybe you can't but you can operate sound at the back. What about children - do you have repore with children - has the thought of teaching Sunday School ever crossed your mind? Maybe you have great upfront gifts - what about leading a service, or at least praying or reading publicly in a service - what about leading a home group during the week? There are so many opportunities for you to serve, so pull up your sleeves and get stuck in."

Hi all - seems conversation is a bit slow around this place at the moment. Anyway, I just want to let you all know about a blog I've just started. After 4 months of not blogging I've decided to start again, this time with a bit more focus.

I've decided to blog more specifically on the things I'm dealing with at the moment which primarily is to learn more about being a Bible teacher and gospel worker. I don't really have much in the way of answers but I thought it might be encouraging and edifying for me to share my journey of theological exploration with anyone else interested. So if you're keen on the idea and serious about seeking the Lord's face in terms of Bible teaching and gospel work then come around and check me out at [...daylight|http://www.stephenmurray.wordpress.com]

In Christ

Ben Witherington III, a highly respected Bible scholar gets [conversant with the evangelical church in the US|http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2006/11/evangelicals-in-post-haggard-post.html] and after reading this I decided that its completely unhelpful for me to call myself an evangelical. I could give a hearty amen after every single line in Witherington's post - but according to the content he's critiquing me, an evangelical.

When this dawned on me (I'm a bit slow) I realised that much emergent literature is critiquing THAT evangelicalism. That's the big breakdown point right there between a lot of evangelicals and a lot of emergents. My guess is that there's quite a large number of evangelicals out there who don't identify with the type pin-pointed in Witherington's article or with the type critiqued by much emergent literature and at the same time there's a whole bunch of emergents who don't identify with the type pin-pointed by Carson in his book or (dare I say it) with Brian Mclaren and EmergentYS.

Read these confessions of "burnt out" or "burning out" emergents:

[emerging church burnout|http://www.alancreech.com/2006/07/emerging-church-burnout.html]
[why I am no longer emergent|http://12ddm.blogspot.com/2006/07/why-i-am-no-longer-emergent.html]

listen carefully to their heartfelt stories and then consider this question:
Is this the end result of throwing out too many babies with the bathwater?

Mark Driscoll, former co-speaker with Brian Mclaren, during the early years of the Emerging Church movement, and pastor of Mars Hill in Seattle, has published a paper in the Criswell Theological Review entitled 'A Pastoral Perspective on the Emerging Church'

It makes for some interesting thought-provoking reading. Here's the link to the [PDF file|http://criswell.wordpress.com/files/2006/03/3,2%20APastoralPerspectiveontheEmergentChurch%5BDriscoll%5D.PDF]

I think one thing a lot of us more theologically conservative emergents would like the rest of the emergent community to ackowledge is that we also have bones to pick with the 'religous right' or the 'fundamentalists' or whatever you want to call them. To prove it here's a post by a Reformed blogger airing his thoughts on the conservative church:
[The Gospel Driven Life - The Lost Post|http://mrlauterbach.typepad.com/gospeldrivenlife/2006/06/the_lost_post.html]

Pilate once asked Jesus a fundamental question, and it's a question that many are asking whilst scratching their heads and trying to ponder the emerging movement: 'What is truth?'

Well, here's a great little essay by emergent pastor (not quite in the mold of Mclaren, but emergent nonetheless) Darrin Patrick the pastor of 'The Journey' in St.Louis
[What is Truth| http://journeyon.net/html/pages/resources/essays/on-truth]
Click the link and have a read...
You can read more of my stuff at [...daylight|http://www.stephenmurray.wordpress.com]