Essentials
The question of essentials is still to be answered. Here are my five essentials.
1. Admit that you are part of the problem. That though you try, you live in the darkness and are causing more problems than you are solving. If you will, an admittance of sin in your life.
2. Welcome Jesus Christ (the Son of God, virgin birth, death and bodily resurrection, risen Savior, et al) as truly a bridge from death to life. He is the one who can set you free from sin and allow you to live a life.
3. Become part of the solution. Feed the hungry. House the homeless. Visit the prisoner. Set up an economic engine for the poor. Heal the sick. Raise the orphans. Care for the widows. (note three and four are not the same)
4. Share with others the path from death to life.
5. Use the Bible (Holy Scriptures, authoritative, et al) as a powerful tool for understanding God's will for your life.
UPDATE [9/19]: What I think has been missing from the Gospel has been Step 3, which I would call "Living the Life of the Kingdom." As the life is lived, we call people out of darkness and into a life, the light. I feel like we've been calling to people to a doctrinal stance and a hope for a life in heaven becasue the world is spiraling into a hell storm.
Don't misunderstand my "Life of the Kingdom." It isn't a fabulous easy life. It is a difficult life, noble, excellent, compassionate and fierce about ending injustice in the world. This is the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus longest sermon, which says nothing about doctrine or heaven. It talks about the Kingdom.
posted by Brian at 2:58 PM
4 Comments:
I like your essentials Brian. Our church uses the Apostles' Creed. I find that it tells the basic story of our faith without being divisive on all the gray areas and various denominational controversies.
For those who are not familiar, the Apostles' Creed dates to at least the 2nd century, and is as follows:
We believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into death. The third day He arose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
We believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
Amen.
Brian,
I totally agree with you about #3. I, too, am "heartsick" at the injustice, materialism, and lack of compassion in the Church. I would never substitute strict adherence to doctrine over living a life that emulates Christ's. I believe both are important, two sides of the same coin. Unfortunately, I believe the Emergent Church is sacrificing one for the other. Both extremes seem wrong to me. In the end, it is my concern that out of sincere desire to "set up" God's kingdom on earth, those who adhere to the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith will be viewed as more and more aberrant and fanatical, and what might that lead to? In New Age circles, they are already talking about a "cleansing" that needs to take place for us to have true peace on the earth. In other words, the "fanatics" must be done away with. How far will people be willing to go to see this ideallic, inclusive "kingdom come"?
"heartsick"
Heartsick,
Thanks for the note. Two points, one for me at least, and I think in the Emergent church, we have no desire to set up God's Kingdom on Earth. We believe God desires to set up His Kingdom on Earth (honestly much of the Bible appears to show faith as a person's willingness to follow God in a step that would set up the new Kingdom, though the finality of it all appears to be something new or least only appearing as all else disappears -- been reading a lot in Hebrews, Ezekiel and Revelation).
We are not trying to create anything, but only to follow Jesus in His quest for justice in the world, which is not by the sword, but by the sacrifice of the church. It is a noble and excellent life. It is living in the light. It is beyond repentance from all alcohol and smoking. It is repentance from a "fat cow of Bashan" decadent lifestyle.
Point 2: I have been openly critical of the Emergent church because I haven't seen much action in the area of global injustice except a lot of talk. That is why I'm much more interested in Bob Roberts and glocal.net. He has a church in Keller, TX, a Dallas suburb.
If I could be allowed a third point, it would be that much of the problem is whether one is using a modern lens or a postmodern lens. Somehow I ended up being fairly postmodern in my thinking, but my gorgeous and extremely intelligent wife said to me this morning, "People (she may have meant me) have to understand that Heartsick, George, and I are young moderns." Good point. Since I believe America and already Europe will be significantly postmodern nations in the next few years, if not already, what McLaren brings isn't a misleading direction, but the beginning of an understanding of how to be Christian in a postmodern world. The good news for moderns is that with a renewed Christian interest in the world, most of the developing world (like 2/3's of the world) is just coming into modernity. The Emerging church may have some impact on the postmodern west, but I wonder if it will have any impact on the modern world and maybe that is why it hasn't been very impactful (at least as far as I know) globally.
This is also the reason I think it is essential for us to become global Christians because it helps to see past our lenses.
I have been openly critical of the Emergent church because I haven't seen much action in the area of global injustice except a lot of talk.
What exactly is it that you're hoping Emergent will do? Again, their not a denominational structure with piles of cash to put into global service projects. In fact, their National Coordinator, Tony Jones, is only on a 2/3rds salary right now because they don't even have enough money to pay him full support.
But as far as they are able, Emergent is getting involved. They work closely with Sojourners/Call to Renewal, and all the social justice projects they're involved with. And actually, Tony Jones just emailed me yesterday inviting me to be the Emergent representative at an Urban Ministry dialogue hosted by SCUPE, the folks who do the biennial Congress on Urban Ministry.
Frankly, I think they're doing everything they can right now considering that the emerging church is really defined as a conversation and not as some kind of institution. If the conversation can then motivate people who are in charge of institutions (such as our churches) to get passionate about social justice and start doing the actual leg work (like we're doing in Haiti), isn't that valuable in itself, even if Emergent doesn't currently have the resources to actually do the projects themselves?
Even if "a lot of talk" is all Emergent has to offer right now, maybe that's where it needs to start for some people and some churches. I came from a church where even the "talk" (about social justice) wasn't really encouraged.
Just my .02...
-Mike
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