Ouch!

If you've read my posts to date, you've probably realized I am almost annoyingly positive in my response to most of the works I've engaged. It's rare for me to walk away from a book, movie, production, etc with a predominantly negative response. Having said that, it's time for me to break my streak of positive reviews and put forth the HUGE, PAINFUL struggles I've had with Robert Webber's book "Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches". I should have known I would be in trouble from the title alone. I had not encountered anything in emergent culture that suggested "churches" had "beliefs". Rather, the predominate ethos is that individuals within faith communities have beliefs that are shaped by their experience within the larger community. Second, the structure of the book itself gave me HUGE pause. Let me tell you what I mean. The book is actually a series of articles written by five participants: Karen Ward, Doug Pagitt, Dan Kimball, John Burke, and Mark Driscoll. There is a topic for each chapter (i.e. chapter one is titled "The Emerging Church & Biblicist Theology"). Each chapter then has one of the five participants write a primary response to the topic. Each of the other four contributors then respond to the primary article. There were two disturbing patterns. First, in each section all of the white men come first and the woman of color is relegating to the end. Second, each section begins with the three most traditionally conservative men; the more progressive voices are relegated to the end of each chapter. This structure undermines any perception that this is a balanced exploration of the movement as it is set up so that the white male conservatives set the tone to which the rest of the group responds. I've finished the first two chapters and have had major concerns. It seems that Mark Driscoll and John Burke both defined their faith exclusively through the lens of Scripture. They rarely if ever factor in a personal experience of God into their theological statements. Doug Pagitt points this out when he notes that it might be helpful to start one's missional efforts not on the basis of an appeal to Scripture but by first facilitating a connection with God (76). I also appreciated Karen Ward's attempt to balance the appeals to Scripture with the awareness that it is helpful to reach people discover the ways in which God's story intersects with their own (79). There was even a moment when I had to put the book down and walk away in complete exasperation. This was when Mark Driscoll rebuted the notion that all faiths have a similar moral compass to which they appeal. Mark wrote, "... each time I am forced to remove my shoes before passing through a metal detector because there is a fear that an advocate of radical Islam may have explosives in their shoes ... [I am reminded that] the moral code of all religions is not the same" (71). I believe the group Mark meant to refer to was "terrorists" rather than "radical Islamic" folks. Nevertheless, his shocking religious and cultural insensitivities further reminded me why so many folks in this post-Christian, postmodern age have a trouble with Christians. I am sooooo glad that I did not read this book early in my process of exploration of the emergent movement. If I had, I might have aborted my studies and walked away. I only hope that others seeking to explore the emergent movement will not find this book too early in their process. I'll trudge through the rest of the book and see what glimmers of insight I can find. The best part of the experience thusfar has been the stark reminder of the major differences we face within both the movement and the body of Christ. Til next time...