Thanks for taking the poll yesterday. Sorry for pigeon-holing you into a modern construct - squeezy and cheezy and painful to try it on but sometimes you have to do your best to communicate to people who live in different worlds.
Speaking of pigeon-holing, here's a passionate apologetic called Emerging Church - A Response To Our Critics that I wish the critics would read.
" . . . Don’t try to pigeon-hole me into your contrived lexicon of religious whackos – I won’t fit there.
. . . To me, “Emerging Church” is simply “Authentic Church.” It’s the Church of Jesus Christ and of the Apostles. It’s the true and straightforward appearance of the Body of Christ in the earth, on a mission to bring the earth to faith in Jesus.
. . . When I speak about “Emerging Church” I'm simply referring to the reality that much of what we've been taught, much of what we do, much of our church “practice” has been polluted, tainted, mutated from the original template as revealed by Jesus Christ and His Apostles, and recorded in the Word of God.
. . . Further, when I talk about “Emerging Church” I'm referring to the quest to rediscover, to go back to the roots, the origins of spiritual worship; to find an authentic expression of Christ’s Body in the earth.
. . . So when I speak of or represent “Emerging Church” I’m not talking about a departure from classical, biblical, evangelical thought or doctrine. I’m talking about a departure from the religious traditions that man has laid on the skeleton of the church to create (in some instances) the monster of religion that looms in our current society. Greg Austin. taken from Emerging Church - A Response To Our Critics.
Also read Greg's challenge to the emerging church:
Emerging Church 1
Emerging Church 2
Emerging Church 3
Emerging Church 4
Emerging Church 5
Emerging Church 6
Emerging Church Defintion
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