The Emerging Church Movement

[OneLight]

The emergent church movement is a wide movement. It is difficult to make sweeping generalizations about it (just like the evangelical movement).

I agree. Something that I do like about the Emergent Church is that it appeals to those who would normally not feel comfortable in a traditional church, such as Punks and other sub-cultures.

Church is not a place to go to make people comfortable and have their ears tickled by telling people what they want to hear. Church is to preach Christ and Him crucified. Church is a place where the preacher's responsibility it to preach the truth of the gospel, such as the difference between sin and salvation. If you are a seasoned sinner the sermon should make you squirm, not feel good about just attending.

Sorry to spoil the fun, but in my own opinion, people should leave a church meeting feeling humbled, not exalted. People should leave a church meeting wanting to get closer to the God wants to forgive you for your guilt and your burden of being heavy laden down by sin. Church is there to tell you there is no other way you can have eternal rest with the Lord without repenting of your earthly life style and turning to the only way to get the father is through Jesus Christ, who gave His life so you could live. Anything short of that is not good enough.

People don't have to go to church to find out how to be a good husband, wife brother sister or a good son or daughter, When you have a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ, all that will come naturally.

From what I know the post modern emergent churches are leading people astray by half truths and deception, by offering alternative ways of gaining eternal life.............wrong.

I miss those messages! I've been going to a church that, for the first 2 hours is worship and the last half hour talking about what God is going to do in the future. Not once have I heard anything about sin ...

[Grace1479]

Church is not a place to go to make people comfortable and have their ears tickled by telling people what they want to hear. Church is to preach Christ and Him crucified. Church is a place where the preacher's responsibility it to preach the truth of the gospel, such as the difference between sin and salvation. If you are a seasoned sinner the sermon should make you squirm, not feel good about just attending.

Sorry to spoil the fun, but in my own opinion, people should leave a church meeting feeling humbled, not exalted. People should leave a church meeting wanting to get closer to the God wants to forgive you for your guilt and your burden of being heavy laden down by sin. Church is there to tell you there is no other way you can have eternal rest with the Lord without repenting of your earthly life style and turning to the only way to get the father is through Jesus Christ, who gave His life so you could live. Anything short of that is not good enough.

People don't have to go to church to find out how to be a good husband, wife brother sister or a good son or daughter, When you have a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ, all that will come naturally.

From what I know the post modern emergent churches are leading people astray by half truths and deception, by offering alternative ways of gaining eternal life.............wrong.

I agree on all of this. I want to go out of a church and know God spoke to me today about things that's still not right in my life, or how to build an even better relationship with Jesus. I hope you get what I'm trying to say. I used to go to church to see what I can get out of it and out of God (in a selfish sense, in regards to the message). Now I'm going to church to see how much of myself I can give to God in Worship.

[GymRose]

The emergent church movement is a wide movement. It is difficult to make sweeping generalizations about it (just like the evangelical movement).

I agree. Something that I do like about the Emergent Church is that it appeals to those who would normally not feel comfortable in a traditional church, such as Punks and other sub-cultures.

Church is not a place to go to make people comfortable and have their ears tickled by telling people what they want to hear. Church is to preach Christ and Him crucified. Church is a place where the preacher's responsibility it to preach the truth of the gospel, such as the difference between sin and salvation. If you are a seasoned sinner the sermon should make you squirm, not feel good about just attending.

Sorry to spoil the fun, but in my own opinion, people should leave a church meeting feeling humbled, not exalted. People should leave a church meeting wanting to get closer to the God wants to forgive you for your guilt and your burden of being heavy laden down by sin. Church is there to tell you there is no other way you can have eternal rest with the Lord without repenting of your earthly life style and turning to the only way to get the father is through Jesus Christ, who gave His life so you could live. Anything short of that is not good enough.

People don't have to go to church to find out how to be a good husband, wife brother sister or a good son or daughter, When you have a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ, all that will come naturally.

From what I know the post modern emergent churches are leading people astray by half truths and deception, by offering alternative ways of gaining eternal life.............wrong.

You are absolutley right Eric but people are not going to go where they feel like dirt or can't relate in anyway either. There has to be a balance between true acceptence of ones uniqueness and truth.

[OneLight]

You are absolutley right Eric but people are not going to go where they feel like dirt or can't relate in anyway either. There has to be a balance between true acceptence of ones uniqueness and truth.

Can you elaborate on the last line when you say "acceptance of ones uniqueness and truth"? I think I understand what the uniqueness is, but the two make we wonder if I really do.

[GymRose]

By truth I mean keeping the absolute truth of the Bible and the Beliefs, faith etc.......... Teaching Christian truth according to the Bible.

Acceptence of uniqueness, I mean we are all created with such diverse personalities. Like you might like a style of music but it doesn't really do much for me or even down to our homes, you might like contemperary where I like oldworldly that sort of thing.

I have heard of some churches here (never been to one, so this is hearsay) that don't have worship as in music in their service because alot of men have stated they wouldn't go to church because they feel weirded out about standing there singing..... But their teaching and prayer is grounded in the Bible.

Hope that helps clarify.

[OneLight]

Flipping through the channels while trying to find other news except the election results, I was stopped by the word God. As I listened to this man speak, it sounded so wrong, even though he continued to use God in his message, but then he stated that God could be Allah, Jesus, or any other god within us! His name was Wayne Dyer, and was speaking about dou (hope I spelled this correctly). Man, this teaching was so wrong. Here is something about him that comes form his own site,

"Dyer holds a doctorate in educational counseling from Wayne State University and was an associate professor at St. John

[OneLight]

By truth I mean keeping the absolute truth of the Bible and the Beliefs, faith etc.......... Teaching Christian truth according to the Bible.

Acceptence of uniqueness, I mean we are all created with such diverse personalities. Like you might like a style of music but it doesn't really do much for me or even down to our homes, you might like contemperary where I like oldworldly that sort of thing.

I have heard of some churches here (never been to one, so this is hearsay) that don't have worship as in music in their service because alot of men have stated they wouldn't go to church because they feel weirded out about standing there singing..... But their teaching and prayer is grounded in the Bible.

Hope that helps clarify.

Yup! That helps! The two put together as you did sounded so ... New Age! Thanks for explaining.

[GymRose]

Oh NO !!! Please don't New Age me ....... Definetley not New Age but I suppose I do think outside the box being somewhat of an eccentric so I may say things in a different way......... Just my uniqueness .

OFF TOPIC : About your other post, have you started a thread somewhere on that......... I had a dream the other night that was bizzar but it was about people preaching and it sounding so wrong.......... If you have put it somewhere else I'd love to know where so I can post in it. As I read your post the image of that dream came back so vividly.

[OneLight]

OFF TOPIC : About your other post, have you started a thread somewhere on that......... I had a dream the other night that was bizzar but it was about people preaching and it sounding so wrong.......... If you have put it somewhere else I'd love to know where so I can post in it. As I read your post the image of that dream came back so vividly.

I had one thread about Christian Mystics. Is this what you are looking for? I'm sure there have been other threads that discuss who are the false teachers or false prophets.

[WillingToDie]

The emergent church movement is a wide movement. It is difficult to make sweeping generalizations about it (just like the evangelical movement).

I agree. Something that I do like about the Emergent Church is that it appeals to those who would normally not feel comfortable in a traditional church, such as Punks and other sub-cultures.

Church is not a place to go to make people comfortable and have their ears tickled by telling people what they want to hear. Church is to preach Christ and Him crucified. Church is a place where the preacher's responsibility it to preach the truth of the gospel, such as the difference between sin and salvation. If you are a seasoned sinner the sermon should make you squirm, not feel good about just attending.

Sorry to spoil the fun, but in my own opinion, people should leave a church meeting feeling humbled, not exalted. People should leave a church meeting wanting to get closer to the God wants to forgive you for your guilt and your burden of being heavy laden down by sin. Church is there to tell you there is no other way you can have eternal rest with the Lord without repenting of your earthly life style and turning to the only way to get the father is through Jesus Christ, who gave His life so you could live. Anything short of that is not good enough.

People don't have to go to church to find out how to be a good husband, wife brother sister or a good son or daughter, When you have a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ, all that will come naturally.

From what I know the post modern emergent churches are leading people astray by half truths and deception, by offering alternative ways of gaining eternal life.............wrong.

It's not about "feeling comfortable" and "having your ears tickled", it's about going somewhere where they feel they will be accepted. I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but the Christianity that shows up in the media is not the most accepting and loving entity. Regardless of whether or not this portrayal is accurate, this is what they see.

Two things, from personal experience, I think are relevant here:

1)From my conversations with people of other subcultures, several of these individuals (if not many) have been hurt by "Churches" and would not set foot in a "traditional church". Is it not a good thing that there are "non-traditional" churches that allow these people to hear the Gospel?

2)A good friend of mine went to a Baptist Church for a period of time. She went regularly, but non one would speak to her. Not even the children. Why? Because she had multiple piercings, as well as several tattoos.

So, with that in mind, this is the sense in which I meant "comfortable" in that they feel they can be accepted.