Why We're Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be | Kevin DeYoung, Ted Kluck

Why We're Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be | Kevin DeYoung, Ted Kluck | An Eye Opener

books:

String quartets Four Pumpellyite and cl... When Brazil Was Mo... Why We're Not Emer...

	Why We're Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be Kevin DeYoung, Ted Kluck Moody Publishers, 2008 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 61 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

?You can be young, passionate about Jesus Christ, surrounded by diversity, engaged in a postmodern world, reared in evangelicalism and not be an emergent Christian. In fact, I want to argue that it would be better if you weren?t.?

The Emergent Church is a strong voice in today?s Christian community. And they?re talking about good things: caring for the poor, peace for all men, loving Jesus. They?re doing church a new way, not content to fit the mold. Again, all good. But there?s more to the movement than that. Much more.

Kevin and Ted are two guys who, demographically, should be all over this movement. But they?re not. And Why We?re Not Emergent gives you the solid reasons why. From both a theological and an on-the-street perspective, Kevin and Ted diagnose the emerging church. They pull apart interviews, articles, books, and blogs, helping you see for yourself what it?s all about.

for more information click here

A theological look at Emergent and Emerging

One of the benefits in reading this book was the authors took the time to quote large portions of the movement's leaders such as (Rob Bell, Dan Kimball, Tony Jones, Spencer Burke, Brian McLaren, and several others) and their writings to fully explain what emergent/emerging is, in this way, it gives the reader a more balanced and fair look at the movement being critiqued by Deyoung and Kluck.

In laying out the problems theologically, Deyoung and Kluck make 3 excellent observations in Chapter 1 - Is God Knowable?,: 1) the authors state that Emergents question whether we can have any real, accurate knowledge about God to begin with. They write emergent leaders are allowing the immensity of God to swallow up His knowability, and say; "The first problem with the emergent view of journey is that it undermines the knowability of God. (p.35). 2). "With the emergent view of journey is that it suffers from a confusion of categories," and also makes the well observed point, that "Emerging leaders equate uncertainty with humility. (excellent refutation by the authors is made on this emergent/emerging position). (p.39). 3)."The third problem with the emergent view of journey is that it establishes doubt as the essence of faith." (p.49). Both emerging and emergent seem to have a lack of confidence in the Scripture.

Our foundation as protestants since the reformation has always been on the Bible being foundational, from which is built upon first Christ (1 Cor. 3:11, and the apostles and prophets writings from the Bible, the non-repeatable foundation of the apostles and prophets that have been preserved for all times in Scripture. (the Bible) is the foundation for truth for the church. (p.82). This is what every Christian should, and what devoted followers of Christ do stand firm on.

The authors do an indepth observation at who and what the emergent and emerging leaders ae writing on blogs,and putting in print,in order to understand the movement. (pg.23) They have identified who the main emergent leaders are, and those who's voices are highlighted as bringing forth what aligns with (some) of the views in the emerging conversation. If you can get through some of the 'heavy reading' and philosophical bickering, this book could offer some key insights on what the emergent and emerging church actually is, and why there are many problems with it theologically. Keep Standing Firm on the truth revealed in Scripture.

for more information click here

An Eye Opener

A teacher in the middle school Bible department where I work loaned me this book earlier in the school year. Why We're Not Emergent is a critical examination of the emerging church. Regardless of what camp you fall in, I highly recommend this easy to understand book that covers a somewhat fluid topic. I thought reading about the popular unorthodox views of the emerging church movement might make the conservative in me scream, but the writing styles of DeYoung and Kluck are a nice balance of the worlds of academia and entertainment. The crux of this book is that Christians must know the Truth. A proper understanding of what the Bible truly says is centered on the gospel - the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus is not just our buddy and a nice moral teacher; He is the the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5), the judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10:42) and our great God and Savior (Titus 2:13). It is essential that we dive deep into the Word in order to have a biblical understanding on doctrines such as salvation by faith alone, the substitutionary atonement at the cross and the sovereignty of God. Having a solid biblical worldview will us to reach out to the weary and burdened with God's love in word and deed with grace and truth.

for more information click here

gives you a critique of emergent authors

This book is a quick read and enjoyable, but after I read it I didn't remember too much about it. It points out the errors of some emergent ministries. Nothing earth shattering, but maybe because I was already familiar with a lot of the authors they mentioned. If you don't know anything about the emergent movement this would be a good primer.

Wasn't so thrilled...

I wasn't the biggest fan of this book for a few reasons:

1. It was arguing a point I had previously studied and came to many of the same conclusions on. So it was kinda like beating a dead horse, for lack of more creative terms.

2. I felt that the book was repetitive. Often times, the authors revisited similarly themed arguments. I know there may have been small differences, but c'mon.

3. Sometimes I did not like the authors' choice of words. I got the "Look how smart I am, I use big words" feel every once in a while. I prefer a less formal writing style/tone, so that's prolly it.

I really liked:

1. The well thought out arguments which expose many flaws in the emergent movement.

2. The authors were definitely well studied.

3. This would be a good book to start with for those who have not studied much in this area.

Hope this actually helps someone!

for more information click here