For those of you following the Emergent/Missional church in the US (which probably isn’t too many of you, but ah well..), this is interesting:
So Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Seattle has now officially called Rob Bell of Mars Hill Michigan (along with Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt) a heretic.
Then, Mark Driscoll spoke. Excellent stuff. I watch Mark’s Vidcast every week. If I could pick a church as a backup church to attend other than Life Pointe, Mars Hill Church would probably be the place. In watching, listening, and reading his stuff, I’ve had a mental picture that he is a 6′4″ trucker looking guy. I guess he’s about 5′6″? So, my mental picture of his persona was off a bit…though he still comes off truckerish, engaging, funny, abrasive, and insightful.
With that said, he has HUGE words for the Church. He talked about:
- the difference between the three streams of the emerging church (the relevants, the Emergents, and the confessional contextual calvinists).
- how that Brian McClaren, Doug Pagitt, Rob Bell are basically sell outs when it comes to Scriptural integrity. He presented a strong case and held nothing back. Interesting stuff. Without a doubt, this is the most direct, I’ve heard Mark address these issues.
- He specifically cited their views on the Atonement, views on homosexuality,rabbinical study, their influences, and theology.
- There were some very vivid conversations and references to the virgin Mary [from Amy: I think he means, specifically, the Virgin Birth] and McClaren’s new organization, “Deep SHIfT”.
- Most importantly, he spoke of how there is a generation of people on the scene now who have no historical knowledge of the Church and how we must engage them.
- If we fail to do so, the Church will continue to compete for an ever shrinking circle of angry children of liberal or fundamentalist religious people.
Brian McClaren’s new book is out in a couple of weeks – I’ve read it and did a brief review of it a few weeks ago, but I’ll have a more detailed look when it’s published. I’ve read through Rob Bell’s book on sexuality: Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality and wasn’t exactly blown away by it. Not nearly as “radical” as the buzz would have you believe, and, most fascinating to me, no treatment of procreation. And you know, if you’re treating the connection between sexuality and spirituality, that small matter of how, in sex, God works through our interconnected lives and bodies to, you know..make new human beings…might be important.
A lot more here, at the Emerging Grace blog – she has listened to the podcast of Driscoll’s talk, outlines it, and asks for comments.
I actually meant the “virgin mary” though it was in reference to the virgin birth. Ultimately you have to listen to the audio to see what I’m talking about. I’d try to repeat it but, it would be totally taken out of context and misunderstood…not trying to skirt what was said. I simply would do an injustice to what was said and I don’t won’t to come off as vulgar.
fri… Driscoll was raised Catholic
If you can successfully divorce sex from procreation, if you can convince a generation of youth that you can talk about a Christian view of sexuality without talking about children, then sex no longer has to be between one male and one female then, right?
As Catholic, it is *extremely* important for us to understand this new movement within American Christian circles.
Thank you, Amy, for your continued posting.
Peace.
And the emergent church was going to be so different from the established boomer status quo church of their parent’s generation but what have we? More Protestants protesting and splitting up. Next decade, or sooner, it will be the remergent church. I know a number of Catholics who follow these men on a regular basis. For me, hey, there’s a reason (or twelve) that I left that behind for the Church Jesus instituted (which is imperfect enough…). ::thrive! O
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