Emergence

This post is taken from the Emergence Group page on Facebook... join us HERE.

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Hey everyone... this is more a therapeutic release than anything else... but maybe it will clear up a few things.

Everywhere I go, when I mention the fact that I am a pastor at a multi-site of Jacksonville Chapel called "Emergence", I get one of two responses... either people don't react because they haven't been a part of any church and have no baggage, or people give the "look" and wonder if we're weirdos who light candles and stare at it, thinking we've found some sort of "other Jesus".

Let me take a moment and clear something up...
Emergence is not Emergent. Or maybe it is... who even knows what that means anymore?

Here's the deal...
A few years ago, a group of church leaders got together to figure out what was "wrong" with the church. A lot of people were leaving or never even showing up to give it a shot. The reason was not because they didn't like Jesus. The reason was that they didn't like what the church had made of Jesus. This group of people looked at things like suit wearing, inauthentic, money grubbing, self-concerned, self-righteous people and decided to change the church. They called this new kind of church the "emerging" church--because it emerged from the old way of doing church.

Time went on, and even that group of original re-thinkers began to have disagreements. Many of them felt that changing the way church was done was good... and stopped there. Some decided it would be best to get rid of organized church altogether and just meet in homes--the way the early church did (though those people are misled, for the early church still met in large group gatherings, except when it would get them killed).

There was a small group (only growing larger now) that decided it wasn't enough to only look at the things done in the church in a new way. This group decided that theology had to be re-thought, too. They looked at stuff like the truth of the Bible and minimized its truth. They looked at the work Jesus did on the cross and twisted it to mean nothing more than a moral lesson. And, while I am certainly generalizing here, these people formed a group called the "Emergent Village". Emergence is nothing like those folks... and while they may be nice guys, they've got it all wrong.

So, here's the deal. Everywhere I go, even at events I attend on behalf of the Chapel, I get introduced as a pastor at the Chapel's "emergent" service. That has a lot of baggage. Friends of ours, even to this day, wonder if we teach the Gospel. *sigh*.

If you'll take my word for it, know this: Jesus is God. He died on a cross, paying the price for your sin and mine--because He loves you. We don't deserve it... in fact, I pretty much stink at life most of the time... and I'm happy to be honest about that. Without Jesus, there is no hope for this world--no matter who decides they are awesome enough to not need God.

Emergence IS, and will always be a place where we believe the Bible is 100% true... where we know Jesus is Lord and Savior of the world. If it weren't, the Chapel would kick our sorry butts right out of there.

If you won't or don't want to take my word for it, go to www.emergencenj.org and listen to one message... then decide if we're emergent, emerging, emergent-like, wacky, or what-not. Better yet, come out to one service and see what you think. I'd be happy to hear your thoughts.

For the record, we know the name needs to change--we just don't know what to change it to yet. Any ideas?

OK... now I can sleep tonight :)