parables of a prodigal world

Yesterday I wrote that Kester Brewin has predicted that the Emerging Church will collapse in 2008, and that there was a post at Emergent Village that expanded on Brewin's prediction, with Brewin himself offering more details on the thought. That post has generated much and varied discussion, but this morning I noticed a shift in the tone of that discussion. Consider the following comments: Deb Jan 5, 09:43 AM Emerging Church? New ways to present the gospel? All these big new fangled words like “unpack” and “organic conversation”. Why don’t you all get on your faces and beg God to forgive you all, and forget about all these other books and start reading The Book. I don’t know how I stumbled on this thing. Does anyone on here know about The Holy Spirit? Oh and that God chooses who will be saved, not these characters like Rick Warren in Hawaiian shirts. shang di ai li Jan 5, 11:59 AM Thank you Deb you make me wonder if God knew what He was doing picking shepherds and astrologers ov...

Kester Brewin has predicted that the Emerging Church will collapse in 2008. Not necessarily the movement itself, but the movement's use of that term to define itself. Today's post at Emergent Village expands on Brewin's prediction, with Brewin himself offering more details on the thought. I would agree that the term "Emerging Church" or "Emergent Church" is, and was always meant to be, a transitional term that couldn't be used for too long. And that's a good thing. Something cannot "emerge" for too long. At some point, it must come into full view, and then we must describe and evaluate it in its fully-emerged form. But I'm also reminded of the words of Rob Bell touching on the notion of "collapse" and "rebirth" of "church," or various forms of it, and I think we should we should always keep it in the big picture of our minds when discussing concepts of "rises and falls" within various sub-se...

2008! New Year's Eve, New Year's Day have come and gone. As normalcy descends upon us, its probably inevitable to feel some sense of letdown that the world, and our lives, really didn't change much in the last two days. All the hype, all the hubbub...was it all worth it? I always get a bit of that feeling around January 2nd, don't you? It's kind of like the two disciples on the Emmaus Road, though on a smaller scale. Great expectations dashed. Or are they? I prayed this prayer this morning. And it helped. Almighty Father, maker and lover of the world. You have made all things new through the gift of Your Son, And yet You continue to promise to make all things new b y the gift of Your Spirit. Forgive us for looking past You, for marginalizing You over the past few days, Forgive us for looking to numbers, to milestones of time, for the hope of newness, Rather than looking to You, the creator of time, the basis of our hope for newness. Be always in our hearts and in ou...

As most people make grandiose New Year's resolutions for 2008, I think I'll keep it simple this year. My resolution is to be a better human being than I was last year. To do that, step one is to keep things simple. Within that general framework, take a look at my favorite blog post of 2007 . Grace and Peace, Raffi

As I mentioned in yesterday's post , Dallas Willard's " The Divine Conspiracy " is one of my all-time favorite reads, and that's despite the fact that I fundamentally disagree with Willard about his treatment of the Beatitudes. I agree with Richard Foster in that, when we consider its comprehensiveness, its accessibility, its depth, and its warmth, it is one of the greatest books of this generation. My copy is scattered with highlights and underscores of various sections. Here, then, are my Top 10 (+2) favorite excerpts from the book: 12. Unlike egotism, the drive to significance is a simple extension of the creative impulse of God that gave us being...We are placed in a specific context to count in ways no one else does. That is our destiny. 11. Some years of reflection and further experience with Jesus and the kingdom enabled his people to describe him in lofty language as "the icon of the unseeable God"...But that was not yet. It was to still uncompr...