This post is in response to the article Fast Friends or Future Foes: The Emerging Church and Southern Baptists by Dr. Mark DeVine. This article was brought to my attention by Cory at Church Communications Pro via this post.
Fast Friends or Future Foes: The Emerging Church and Southern Baptists (PDF Document)
I would like to respond to a specific quote from the document:
“Fixation upon exacting precision in the articulation of an ever growing list of doctrines wastes energy better spent obeying God’s commands and following the way of Jesus. On this score, the emerging critique of evangelicalism mirrors many historic movements (e.g., monasticism (Francis), Methodism (Wesley), pietism (Spener), the Navigators) in which the life of the church and the walk of believers had, in the eyes of would-be prophets, fallen so far below formal confessional commitments that only moral (not so much doctrinal) repentance could rescue deliver believer and church from the judgment of God” (page 7 – Dr. Mark DeVine, Fast Friends or Future Foes: The Emerging Church and Southern Baptists, link to post with original document).
I found Dr. DeVine’s comparison between historic movements within the Christian church and what is currently happening in the emerging movement to be compelling. In addition to moral repentance, some of the roots of United Methodist Church found in the teaching and practice of John Wesley include: a balance between the evangelical and social gospel, understanding of a believer’s movement toward Christian perfection, and a way of understanding God’s free and unmerited love for humanity (grace) in a way that recognizes God’s action in the life of an individual before, at and after the moment that one realizes and receives that love. Some of these emphases carry parallels with some of the themes within the emerging movement. I believe that the United Methodist Church is well suited to respond to the emerging movement in a way that bears fruit for and in God’s kingdom.
Rev. Andrew Conard 