book review vol. four

That's right, I finished another book. I actually finished this one a few days ago and am just now getting around to reviewing/ discussing it for you. It's called "A New Kind of Christian" and it's by Brian McLaren who is often labeled as the poster child for the Emergent Church Movement.

What is the Emergent Church Movement you ask? Well I was wondering the same thing. I asked a few people I know who are smarter than me, and they all told me to read what the Emergent Church had to say about themselves so I could form my own opinion. This wasn't the answer I wanted to hear especially when I realized that nearly everything on the internet that is produced by the Emergent Church is very vague and seems to beat around the bush. I did learn in my journey to understand this movement that this book, "A New Kind of Christian" was the one to read to get things figured out. So I gave in, I had to settle for the hard way of learning, actually reading the book.

A lot of people have asked me what I thought about the book, and what I think about the Emergent Church Movement now that I have read the book. I usually tell them something along these lines: First, it must be known that as opposed to a book on theology that would be set up in some sort of organized fashion, this book is written as a novel, the conversation between two believers. So all of the different beliefs of the Emergent Church were cleverly presented in a fictional form. I feel like the entire book was dedicated to presenting ideas that most Biblically-sound evangelicals would blatantly reject, but because said ideas are presented so cleverly, it allows us "moderns" (as opposed to "post-moderns") to chew on the ideas. I wish I could elaborate on some specifics, but I honestly can't remember them very well because of how they were presented. I do know that some of the issues that rubbed me wrong (I think...) were the interpretation of Scripture, doctrine of Hell, and view of other religions.

I actually think that this is a pretty good book for people to read, no matter what they think or have heard about the Emergent Church. For one reason it will allow you to base your opinion on what one of the Emergent Church's front men says about the movement (albeit vague). It will also allow you the ability to contemplate some of the questions that the Emergent Church is raising. My wiser friend, Ryan Couch said of the Emergent Church that, "they raise a lot of really good questions, but some of the answers they come up with are [insert hesitant smirk/shoulders raised/head slightly to the right]." I think that's a pretty good way of looking at it.

I'll end this long post in saying that regardless of what your thoughts on the Emergent Church Movement are, please do not be hateful towards people who have differing opinions. It is possible that one of you is right and one of you is wrong. It is also possible that both of your are right or both of you are wrong. Those are the only four possibilities, but the tendency is to be hateful towards people on the "other team," and it is frankly quite disgusting to see and hear Christians hating on each other.

(note: I anxiously await your comments on this post, and stay tuned to another post on the emergent church)