criticism of the emerging church
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
Proverbs 27:6 (English Standard Version)
Darryl Dash has some wise things to say about the coming storm that will likely be precipitated by, among other things,
- a lead article in the number one Christian periodical,
- DA Carson's new book - Becoming Conversant with Emergent, and
- Reclaiming the Center, edited by Millard J. Erickson, Paul Kjoss Helseth and Justin Taylor. (You can read chapter one of this book here)
But the conversation does not have to be a fight; it can be a dance - a beautiful dance of thesis/antithesis working its way toward a greater grasp of truth, a more profound experience of community, and even a closer relationship with the One Who knows all truth.
This can occur when those who disagree
- remember that a gentle answer turns away wrath,
- lean toward the other rather than away,
- seek very hard to listen,
- ask non-rhetorical and genuinely curious questions,
- do the very difficult spadework of working to understand the presuppositions of the other,
- believe the best about the other rather than the worst,
- and, most importantly, be willing to provisionally consider that the other may be saying something of value - that they might even be able to correct.
If these things are done, the coming storm might yield a beautiful harvest.
3 comments:
Great thoughts, Stephen! :)
seeking to understand what each group is trying to "protect" or "safeguard" is also a helpful piece.
thanks for the post ... I guess, for someone on the other side of the ocean - i.e. Malaysia, I like what you are proposing. And yet, I realize as in any storm like it or not - a lot of energy will be involved in often just trying to understand. Controversies often are very tiring. I really enjoyed the days when "emergent" was kind of under the radar. I guess, I've been a little naive to think it would stay like that for long :-)
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