Christianity Today Direct published two articles by Scot McKnight today: “The Ironic Faith of Emergents” and “McLaren Emerging.” Couple this with Scot’s recent if somewhat cryptic blog post about a “new network” and you might see the groundwork being laid for a missional church movement that is more self-consciously evangelical. I think this is likely to be a good thing. I have to confess that I’m a bit nervous — is this just neo-evangelicalism II? Are we going to be centered tightly again on buzzwords that define who’s in and out? I’m pretty sure this will not be so. I’m guessing that this will be a way of popularizing what the best evangelical seminaries and colleges have been doing for quite a while — inculcating the value of a balanced faith that seeks understanding.
We’re waiting for more details about the new network with baited breath….
2 replies on “More from McKnight on Emerging and McLaren”
Brother, why does everyone think that we are forming an alliance that is to replicate, reproduce, or replace Emergent Village? We have no such designs to coordinate activities for the emerging movement/church. Instead, think of us as an alliance of some Christians who want to work together for missional evangelistic work. Nothing more. To think of this as Neo-evangelicalism II … wow. That’s a grandiose vision. We will not be defining who is in and who is not because we don’t see ourselves as the harbingers of the church that is to come.
And I’m not sure where you get the idea of a faith that seeks understanding.
I think we’ve made it reasonably clear that we want to work together for missional evangelism. That really is what we are about.
Hey Scot. Well, I guess I misread your blog post. You had said this in your post:
But we don’t think the worldwide emerging movement is dead; it is alive and well. We are happy to be part of it — as missional-evangelistic evangelicals who want to reach and speak and write for a postmodern generation as well as to the evangelical church at large.
I mean, that sounded to me like much more of a leadership role than just some folks who want to do evangelism together. But if it’s not — well that’s great too.