unTrue Confessions about the Emerging Church

Sydney diocese tend to be a by-word in Anglican circles for a kind of headbanger Reformed ultra-puritanism that embarrasses the rest of us who might take the label evangelical [though I'm finding it increasingly hard considering the connotations it is acquiring by association with such people as Sydney evangelicals]. I recently was directed to this article and was outraged by the calumny:

“This is not biblical theology,” says Canon Jim Ramsay, Director of Sydney Diocese’s Evangelism Ministries. “It’s a shaking of Christian orthodoxy.” Canon Ramsay says the emergent movement is a reaction to the polish of the mega churches – the famous Rick Warrens and Willow Creeks of the modern American evangelical scene. While he says there may be aspects of the movement that are helpful in understanding the postmodern mindset, the lack of solid theological criteria make it effectively ‘dress-up religion’.

While I admit that there is no one doctrinal test, my impression is that most EC types are Christianly orthodox. We just don't find that the traditional evangelical cultural mindset can contain very helpfully the re-expressing of our faith in post-modern terms. The reason for that has been very clear to me for at least ten years. Evangelicalism, as represented by Sydney diocese and Reform, is simply modernist through and through and don't realise how much cultural captivity they live in because they assume they are right. They distract attention from the work of re-enculturation of the gospel in western culture by throwing stones at others.

Furthermore, to say it is not biblical theology; words almost fail me. But what I have tended to find in EC'ers is quite a bit of wrestling with scripture. It's just that it is the bits that Reform and the like tend to miss out. Or it's doing it in ways that they find uncongenial. But hey, ask these guys about the way that the writer of the letter to the Hebrews uses scripture and watch them squirm. Some of us are very committed to scripture, to the gospel and can sign up to the doctrinal bases of the Reform types. It's just that we think that it is a great adventure in missing the point. Hankering after the 17th century heyday or the 'righteous for truth' days of the Ritualist controversies is in fact missing the connection points and will be contributing to decline over time. That said, at the moment there is some growth in evangelical churches in the UK and Sydney, I'm told. Of course this does reflect the other reaction to postmodernism: entrenchment in firm identity groups. I fear that this is a culturally temporary thing to be a fashion accessory but never really making an impact. That way lies a future of Amish-like irrelevance [no disrespect meant to the Amish who I'm sure would agree that cultural 'sympathy' is not their forte]. I just wish they could see how wedded to the Enlightenment project they really are.
sydneyanglicans.net - True Confessions of the Emerging Church:
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