Over
the years, the emerging church has garnered a variety of reactions, seen by
many as a drift away from the historic Christian faith. It has grown to a large
movement, comprised of a variety of unattached groups of various beliefs across
the world.
It is true that much in the emerging church has liberal
Christian and charismatic streams coming together under a mottled New Age spirituality—although
that is not so new anymore. Especially
the “Emergent Church” is a specific organization, that has veered in that
direction.
This digression from the Christian faith has been fostered
by a postmodernism that maintains there is no fixed truth: we all carry our own
truth with us. The idea that intuition is the source of truth is fertile soil
for accepting one’s belief about God as relevant as anyone else’s!
However, the common thread in all emerging churches, whether
espousing evangelical or New Age views, is seeking ways to engage the postmodern
culture with the faith, and disillusion with a church that seems increasingly
out of touch and irrelevant to the culture.
So it’s unfair to label all
emerging churches as departing from the faith. Do they distort the truth to a
package the culture will accept? Or are they endeavouring to address the historic
Christian faith in terms a postmodern culture understands.
The first denies the faith, the second retains its
integrity. Let’s be discerning and not reactionary!
