July 8 meeting

On Thursday, July 8 we will meet at 7:00 PM at ESCAPE in Allen to discuss McLaren's next question: Who is Jesus and Why is He Important? You are welcome to join the conversation, whether or not you have read McLaren's A New Kind of Christianity.

May meeting recap

The discussion on the 13th was stimulating. Most, but not all, of the cohort members present had either grown up in, or passed through, churches who viewed the Bible as a constitution. We shared those experiences and enjoyed hearing from those who came from different traditions. We explored alternatives to a constitutional view of scripture, and most agreed that McLaren's "community library" analogy was very helpful.

We enjoyed having Joyce and Bob with us for the first time.

In June we'll consider McLaren's third question, the God question: Is God violent? Be thinking about it and we'll see you on June 10th!

May 13 Meeting

We'll discuss McLaren's 2nd question dealing with the authority of the scriptures - "How should the Bible be understood?" Is it best understood as a legal constitution or is it best understood as a community library? Hope you can join us in this conversation.

No Rising Tide

If you're interested, Dr. Joerg Rieger of SMU's Perkins Divinity School is delivering an address on his book No Rising Tide dealing with Christian ethics and the economy. The address is May 8 at 2:00 PM at Northaven United Methodist Church.

Sojourners Discusses Emergent

The progressive evangelical group Sojourners has hosted an online dialogue about if emergent is open to racial and ethnic diversity. Check it out.

It all started with a rather scathing article in their magazine.

Give it all a read and let us know your thoughts.

A New Kind of Christianity

At our April meeting, we'll start our discussion of Brian McLaren's new book, A New Kind of Christianity. Join us Thursday at 7 at Escape in Allen. We'll begin with a review of "What is the overarching story line of the Bible?" and go from there.

You're welcome even if you've never read a word of McLaren's writings. Hope you can join us.

What defines you as emergent?

In his recent book Deep Church: A third way beyond Emergent and Traditional, author Jim Belcher identifies 7 themes that the emergent church is "protesting" about the traditional church. In general, Belcher says emergents are protesting traditionalists':

1. Captivity to Enlightenment rationalism
2. Narrow view of salvation
3. belief before belonging
4. Uncontextualized worship
5. Ineffective preaching
6. Weak ecclesiology
7. Tribalism

So what about you? Are you concerned about these issues or do other issues define you as an emergent Christian? We'll discuss these issues at our March meeting.