The fourth "right" presented by Jonathan Brink is that the Emerging Church is "Commitment To The Footsteps Of Jesus." As one that has studied the Emerging Church in great detail, I believe that Brink is right regarding the Emerging Church. The movement honestly seeks to live in the "footsteps of Jesus." Walk like He walked. Live like He lived. Speak like He spoke. Teach what He taught. Believe what He believed. And do what He did.Brink writes:
The emerging church is committed to the footsteps of Jesus. Many are calling this a missional incarnation of the Gospel. It’s not just the speaking of the Gospel, but the embodiment of it. But what this really means is that we’re taking up what Jesus said and did as a teacher and trying to follow that. And as simple as this may sound, it has a surprising way of putting us at odds with what we’re currently doing as a larger body, specifically in the United States. When we look at what Jesus did and we compare it with what we do, it creates a strange dissonance that is unfortunately unresolvable for so many people.
The movement, then, raises a good point by challenging the current Evangelical Church for being lazy whenever it comes to social concerns such as poverty, war, injustice, and others. Christ cared about these issues and to ignore them is to ignore much of Jesus' teachings.
The problem is, however, the Emerging Church is guilty of the same sin that they accuse Evangelicalism. They accuse Evangelicals of ignoring social evils, while at the same time, I want to argue, the Emerging Church is ignoring the gospel. In fact, one cannot have a correct view and concern for social issues like Jesus unless they have a proper understanding of the gospel.
The Emerging Church was born in it's acceptance of postmodern thought. They looked at the culture and concluded that the West was no longer modern. Therefore, "modern" theology made the Church irrelevant. And so they sought to shape their theology in light of postmodernism and that has resulted in the same skewing, only on the opposite end, they are accusing the modern Church.
The Emerging Church is becoming increasing social minded in a way that is leading them to adopt the social gospel. The more I interact with the movement the more convinced of this I become. Throughout many of the writings, for example the writings and theology of men like Rob Bell and Brian McLaren, the gospel is ignored or at the very least put on the back burner and there is a great emphasis on the social aspects of the gospel.
Christ, then as the argument goes, has come to end injustice, end poverty, defend the helpless, and feed the hungry. The problem with this is that if Christ came to do those things, He utterly failed. The cross is more than Jesus standing against empire, injustice, or whatever, it is the climax of redemptive history. It is God coming down to man and bridging the gap that man had created between man and God.
Furthermore, I find the argument that the modern Church has failed to focus on social issues to be wrong. Throughout America, especially where Christianity is most influential, there are a number of charities, outreach programs, social ministries, food banks, etc. Although the Church could do more, I do not buy that the Church is ignoring social issues.
I further want to make the argument that to begin with social issues before the gospel is not Christianity. A Christian must begin with the soul before they begin with the flesh. We must not enter the prisons or the overpasses to liberate social sins, but to lead men to repentance. The primary concern for Christians is not food, clothes, or social justice, but the gospel. Christ died so that men might be saved from their sins against God, not from society's sin against them.
I applaud the Emerging Church for raising concern for the forgotten. But I am concerned that as a result, they have forgotten, better yet abandoned, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that is rooted in their basic assumption and adoption of postmodernism. A postmodern gospel becomes the social gospel for a postmodern generation.
That is not following in the footsteps of Jesus. That is following in the footsteps of cultural applause. I want to end poverty, but I'd rather empty hell.
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Part 5 - Change (Coming Soon)
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