Wounded Warrior

I feel the need to clarify a few things for my own benefit as well as any readers out there. First, if there are any readers, thank you. I feel humbled that you would find my thoughts worthy of you time, as time is increasingly growing into a limited resource. As for the need to clarify, it has come to my attention that I have been putting forth an image. I have had a few people say, (my paraphrase of their words) that I an emergent in denial. Whether this has been inadvertent or purposeful, I do not know. I think it may have been a little of both. I would like to say for the record, that I would not label myself as part of the emergent church. I am researching it as I find a lot of what they say to be intriguing, as well as pertinent to our culture today. However, there is still a lot that I find terribly frightening.

I have yet to find a clear definition of what the emergent church is. If all it is, is a making the gospel more relevant to our culture, then yes, I wholeheartedly agree. However, it seems to be deeper than that. For example, the conference that I observed from a distance, was covering topics such as the doctrine of Sola Scriptura, or scripture only, which all of protestant theology is based on. In my limited knowledge, Luther's stance was that the church needed to get it's authority from only scipture and not from outside sources, which at that moment included the tradition of the Catholic church. To revisit this doctrine is to open a can of worms (forgive the pun) that I am not comfotable opening. Our authority rests in Christ alone, in His word alone.
I am informing myself to a greater degree on the doctrine of Sola Scriptura for the sake of understanding the growing question of who has authority in the church.

Something I do value of the emergent church is comfortable place to ask questions without fear of rejection. Something I have noticed in my life and in the many years I have spent in Christian acadmia is that many are scared to question. The reasons are endless, but as it's base include fear. Fear of losing one's ministry, fear of losing credibility as a Christian, fear of even being a Christian. The church urges people to build a personal relationship, but lacks the environment in which one can go through the means of building that relationship. A relationship is more than mean dogmatic belief in a certain creed. It is being able to open up to God the doubts and fears and questions which haunt our very soul.

Though I am just starting this blog, and it's direction has not been clearly laid out, I do want this to be a safe place where dialogue can happen. The authority of this blog is scripture. I will try to appeal to scripure more often as I continue this journey into learning about the emegernt church.

Some may ask why I desire to learn about the emergent church. Why not leave it alone. To that I respond with this: there are some in the emergent church that are claiming this great emergence to have equal or greater influence on the universal church as the reformation did. To make a claim like that and not have Christian's look into it is foolish. I do not know where I stand, but I do feel and notice that the church is in a shift. I want to know what side to be standing on once this earthquake is done rumbling. And I want to know who I can trust to lead me and guide me in a deeper understanding, and deeper love of my savior.