More on the Emerging Church

I just found an excellent article on the Emerging Church last night and there were several things in it that resonated with me. First of all the main issue is not style but substance. There are many different types of churches out there that conduct their services in their own style. For the most part I don't have issues with that. I may not want to go to church at some of them but I would still consider them my brothers and sisters in the Lord. The issue I have is about substance. In other words, what are the doctrines they hold to? Do they hold unwaveringly to the essentials of the Christian faith? That's the main issue I have with the Emerging church as they are for the most part defined by leaders such A Brian McLaren who do not hold to the essentials.

The ironic thing is that some people out there in support of the Emerging Church like to compare it to the Jesus movement in the 60's and 70's. In the sense of style I guess there are some similarities but that's where it ends. The largest movement that came out of the Jesus movement was Calvary Chapel. This was a movement led my Chuck Smith and his wife who reached out to the drug addict hippies of the day with the gospel. They didn't water down the gospel at all in doing this and many of these hippies are now pastors of thriving churches today. The main thing that Calvary Chapel is known for is bringing people back to the bible. The Emerging Church is more known for telling us that they don't know if the bible is God's word and if we can really know anything at all.
Take a look at the article as it really gives a good picture of what I truly believe is a very confusing and deceptive movement.

Here's the article:

http://www.str.org/site/DocServer/Essential_Concerns_Regarding_the_Emerging_Church.pdf?docID=1441