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)

I have no doubt that the emerging church and mainstream evangelicalism have something to learn reciprocally. I do doubt that this conversation will occur without pain. Unfortunately, when we are at our worst, we might have a tendency to absolutize and "demonize".

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.