Just a hodge-podge of things floating through my life and brain lately...
~The painting of my kitchen is just about complete! My adorable 21-year-old, Justin, spent much of his last week at home (in between golfing)before returning to college, immersed in the task of stripping, priming and painting my kitchen cabinets. They were just wood with a kind of veneer that was really looking awful. They are now a lovely off-white. Doug and I spent the bulk of last Saturday painting, and it's all done except for some touch-ups and the wallpaper border.
The kitchen is still kind of in disarray because the job isn't quite finished, but it's going to look SO pretty! The "palette," as they say on Trading Spaces, is a light sage green and a pale buttery yellow. The border is absolutely gorgeous...it's various kinds of fruit that harmonize with the green and yellow, but with cranberry and even purple accents.
Can't wait till it's all done, but Doug and I both have been EXTREMELY strapped for time, what with school starting this week, etc.
~Our young friend Chad is living with us now. Chad is the son of friends of ours who moved back to Ohio last year. But Chad wanted to come back and do his senior year at Berean with all the friends he had gone to school with for years. So we cleaned out the basement bedroom, which we had been using as storage, and made a cozy little home for him for the next nine months. He has a part-time job and plays every organized sport, so I don't think he'll even be around a lot...but he's a pleasant kid with a great sense of humor. So, for the next several months, he'll kind of be our surrogate Justin.
Some opinions on "The Emerging Church"...
I've gotten some feedback from my post yesterday on the "emerging church"...a movement I admit I know VERY little about.
Dianne writes in my comments section: "Of late, I find myself wishing we could clear away from the church all things that obscure its original purpose. Like you too, I come from a traditional (Baptist) background and while that's comfortable, how much what we're so comfortable with is really what Jesus intended when He established the church? I tend to think 'church' was intended more as an embodying or way of living out what Christ taught, rather than what we've made it today. We go to church, build churches, etc., but aren't WE the church? I don't know . . . just things I've been pondering too."
I e-mailed my friend Phil Johnson, whose opinion I truly respect although I don't always agree with him. Phil is the executive director of John MacArthur's radio ministry, Grace to You, heads up the Spurgeon Archive, and is a respected teacher and writer in his own right.
Phil's take on "the emerging church" is decidedly negative: "The so-called 'emerging church' is not merely about changing the way we 'do' church; it's about a fundamental world-view shift and a wholesale revamping of (not only church,
but) _everything_ historic Christianity has always stood for and fought for.
"In short, the 'emerging church' is an attempt to adapt Christianity to post-modernism. Post-modernism is fundamentally even more hostile to Christianity than modernism was. So I would see the 'emerging church' as an abandonment of true Christianity, certainly NOT an improvement on historic Christianity."
As you can see, Phil isn't known for mincing words. But other people whose opinions I also value would definitely disagree with Phil.
Phil and Baptist Bible Tribune editor Tom Harper provided me with links on the issue,(both pro and con), and I plan to do some further study on it when I have some spare time so I can form my own opinion.
1 comment:
mind if i jump into the "emerging church" thing? :) - there is a segment of people who only see the negative side of postmodernism, and there's lots of negative to go around. but one of the positives being brought to the table as the culture-at-large changes (not just an -ism taking philosophical root) is that unnecessary baggage can be deconstructed away. some of that deconstructing needs to take place in the church. another positive is the value of relationships and conversation - while there's a downside of "no absolute truth" (i think it's really more like "our ability to know truth absolutely is suspect"), there's also the upside of respecting that your experiences, including religious ones, have an inherent truthfulness in them, and that your story is meaningful and impacting as it's shared in community. there's room for story, which seems to fit Jesus' story-telling examples all through the gospels.
"Postmodern" is happening, and the church can fight against it as it has other cultural shifts through the centuries, or it can be at the forefront and rewrite the rules to make the world a safer place to share Christ in a way that's compelling and brings real change. that's my $.02-plus :)
Post a Comment