So I was recently able to get away for the weekend and escape to a cottage in Parry Sound on Georgian Bay... the weekend away was refreshing and necessary, but I'd have to say the most enjoyable part was beginning a new book, "Why We Love the Church" which was co-authored by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck (the same authors of "Why We're not Emergent").
I got through about half the book in the couple days I was away and continue to motor through, enjoying every second of it.
I really admire these guys for proudly standing firm amidst young people jumping on the emergent band-wagon and poking holes in traditional church. It's popular these days to be against the status quo... to be defined by what we stand against instead of what we stand for is a hallmark of postmodern Christianity sweeping through the younger generations. I really enjoy reading the perspectives of two young guys, both in their thirties (which makes them younger than half the authors on this blog, haha)-- who have a heart to heal the flaws in a church they love rather than abandon it and let their jaded perspectives guide their faith.
What I am enjoying most about this book is how it responds to the overused, common arguments against organized religion and the church as an institution. They don't let people get away with sweeping statements against the church, for example: “It’s more than a little ironic that the same folks who want the church to ditch the phoney, plastic persona and become a haven for broken, imperfect sinners are ready to leave the church when she is broken, imperfect and sinful.”
DeYoung and Kluck do not allow emergent authors to glamorize the early church, the New Testament church, or any of the sort of grass-roots church ideas emergent authors tend to idealize. I believe it's Ted who asks the question: haven’t these people read 1 Corinthians or the early chapters of Revelation?
I also love their critique on the mindset of many disgruntled church-quitters. It's more about their image than their attitude. Appearing rebellious and unique in a movement that is taking Christianity by storm. Kluck writes in one of his early chapters: "A search on a popular Christian bookseller’s Web site revealed no less than sixty-two items with the word manifesto in the title and hundreds containing the term revolutionary. There are revolutionary books for teens. Ditto for stay-at-home moms. There’s a book about how Jesus was a revolutionary communicator, and how you can use His revolutionary communication skills in your home/business/church. The question then becomes, If we’re all revolutionaries, are any of us an actual revolutionary? Being a revolutionary used to mean that you overthrew a government; now it means that you’re a courageous enough visionary to have church on a golf course or in someone’s living room."
As much as I'm laughing while reading the book, DeYoung's chapters really challenge those who have given up on the institutional church, by going to the Word and interpreting what our roles as Christians and as the church ought to be, according to Jesus, Paul and the disciples... After reminding us that when the disciples asked Jesus if he was going to establish his kingdom on earth Jesus not only told them no, but told them that wasn't their responsibility, DeYoung writes: "There is no language in scripture about Christians building the kingdom. The New Testament, in talking about the kingdom, uses verbs like enter, seek, announce, see, recieve, look, come into and inherit... We are given the kingdom, and brought into a kingdom. We testify about it, pray for it to come, and by faith it belongs to us. But in the New Testament, we are never the ones who bring the kingdom... The kingdom grows to be sure, and no doubt God employs means (like Christians), but we are never told to create, expand, or usher in the kingdom..."
He continues: "I have a hard time hearing the gospel in the emergents missional critique of the church. At best, the gospel is about a relationship with Jesus, at worst it is nothing but a personal life-transforming experience... it is possible to put a good face on all these euphemisms, but this is not a clear gospel.
When I hear of people getting sick of church, I almost always see at the same time a minimizing, or growing indifferent towards, or ambiguous alternatives to doctrines like substitutionary atonement, justification by faith, the necessity of repentance, total depravity and the centrality of the cross and resurrection."
The book admits there are problems in the church, with the church and with Christians, but both authors are great at following the "I'm quitting church" thought to its logical conclusion and showing how trecherous the road is.
I'll keep you posted.
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