Book Review "Why We're Not Emergent"

This book was written in a way that held my attention.

I am not an academic scholar so just wanted to mention a couple of things to me.

The writers are very open about their strong reform theology.

1. In reading the book I believe that their contention with emergent/emerging church is that it is not reformed and does not hold to a reform definition of God's "sovereignty".

I believe that the post-modern emerging/emergent church is weak and desperately needs to find some help. It was/is built on its opposition to foundationalism but has not found any real meaning. I was hoping for a critique that offered something more than a defense of traditional reformed theology.

2. I found their critique of the emergent authors to be substantially lacking. one example page 35 Kevin is writing about God being knowable and he criticizes Brian McClaren and builds his case with an illustration of husband and wife. He says that he can't love his wife without knowing her and writes several paragraphs about how important knowledge of facts are to love. It is well written but logically weak. My children each were born with love for their mother and quickly developed love for me. They knew nothing about the facts of who I was/am. Even as they grew and learned minute details about me and "knew me" it was almost nothing of who I was and yet they still loved me.

I was disappointed with the hasty conclusions that if I can't love my wife without knowing her then I can't love God without knowing him. It is a logical fallacy that I have taught my children in elementary school.

Even if the conclusion is correct the logic is flawed. In just the introduction and first chapter I found repeated examples of this logic.

3. on page 40 He uses a quote from John Calvin and then builds a logical conclusion as if John Calvin is a final authority and there is no argument of legitimate opinion that disagrees with John Calvin.

My conclusion an interesting read. If you are reformed you will feel affirmed that you hold a great theology. If you are seeking for answers to emergent church and are not considering reformed theology you will be disappointed with the lack of substantive discussion.

for a friend

1. Alysen likes to drink wine
2. Alysen likes to take her dogs to the dog park
3. Alysen likes to watch movies with her friends
4. Alysen likes to do silly lists on facebook
5. Alysen likes to meander through art galleries
6. Alysen likes to play dominoes
7. Alysen likes to study breeding factors for goldendoodles
8. Alysen likes to cook gourmet meals with her husband (lol)
9. Alysen likes to tip cows
10. Alysen loves to watch sports of any kind all the time.

Helping Each Other Live Debt Free

Last month I finished reading Tom Sine's "The New Conspirators". Toward the end of the book there is a chapter about the challenges to each of the "wealth classes" in the world. I don't personally know any of the world's "super-wealthy" (although after last week I am sure there are fewer of them), and I am not sure I really know anyone with even moderate wealth. I was very interested in what he said about the middle class, the lower class, and the world's poor.

The section on the middle class identified debt as a hindrance to being part of the Kingdom Conspiracy and suggested that the church needs to look at a plan to help the middle class quickly shed their debt and expand their ability to help the poor.

Our small body of Jesus had already had an initial conversation about debt reduction so we had a second discussion and several families have banded together to rid ourselves of debt. In less than 3 years we will only have house payments and in approximately 8 years all of us will have our homes completely paid for.

Beauty

Last week a friend invited me to a football game. I was part of a small crowd at this stadium (there were only 65,000 of us instead of the normal 80,000+). I love football, and I love hanging out with my friend, but this event turned spectacular when I didn't expect it.

First the invocation was done in Hebrew by a local Rabbi. It was a blessing on the children of the world and it got to my heart. I thought about how much money was represented by the tickets, the refreshments, the appropriate colored clothing and all the other expenditures. Then I thought about multiplying that times all the college and professional stadiums hosting games that day and wondered what would happen in NCAA and the NFL really decided to bless the children of the world and donate a small portion of the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent last weekend. (I am not asking anyone to give up football. I love football and as much as I enjoy Christian writers trying to take back manhood, I reject their notion that everything will be alright if we get rid of football and just send all the men and boys into the wilderness for a weekend).

That was only the first part of the unexpected blessing. The football in the first half was mediocre at best (I enjoyed being at the game with someone who has an outstanding understanding of the depth of strategy in the game). The half time started with the home team (our team) having a band play with three people competing in a vocal competition. The concept of a marching band playing for pop vocals seemed like a shaky idea to begin with and from my seat in the stands the execution of the idea was worse than the idea itself.
Things changed radically when a second band took the field. It was the "Marching 101", the marching band from South Carolina State University. If you have never seen them perform you have missed something of beauty.

The following link is a home made video with poor sound quality but gives you a small taste of what I was able to experience.
http://showbandcentral.vidiac.com/category/Non-HBCUs/0/5db8d792-804a-4542-9de9-99ae000d852e.htm


This week the value of music has reverberated through my soul.

The Shack

I have been reading a book aloud to my family. The book is "The Shack" by William P Young. It is the best novel I have ever read. Even if you never read novels, I would recommend that you read this book.

I don't want to ruin the book but I want to give you a couple of hints.

1. The main character has a tragic event that radically changes his life.
2. Eventually it leads to an encounter with God.

This book may rock your stereotypes and challenge your theology. It is well worth the risk.

For more information check out the Missy Project at www.theshackbook.com