I just finished reading an excellent paper by Brett Kunkle from Stand to Reason on the Emerging Church Movement (ECM) presented at last weeks Evangelical Theological Society. While I consider myself a participant and friend to the Emerging Church movement at large, I too see reason to be hesitant towards all of what men like Brian McLaren, Doug Pagitt, Tony Jones, and Spencer Burke are saying.
Mostly, I am interested in the ECM and more particulary Emergent Village because of its successful capability to capture and engage ecumenical theologians from all theological spectrums. As is the case, and as you would all agree, you can look favorably upon something and still be hesitant to adopt all of its principles. While I would agree with 80% of ECM literature and teachings, there are a few logical conclusions (which this paper brilliantly presents) to be weary of.
This paper, presented by Kunkle is handsdown the most sincere, balanced, and fair critique to the ECM I have read thus far. Normally, any talk of the ECM within evangelical gets relegated and reduced to discussions on the nature of truth, thus presenting a rigid and knee-jerk reaction to the ECM (which, to some agree, I cannot blame them). What bothers me is the widespread inability to offer any form of Christian charity towards those in the ECM (if you are interested, please visit apprising.org to see how not to engage in the conversation).
With all of this said, I encourage all of you to visit read this brilliant 15 page paper. It is excellent.
