Emerging Into What?

Over the last several years I have watched with growing trepidation the nascent movement called “emerging church.” It’s hard to characterize, since there’s no central leadership or mission statement or organizational structure. In fact, as a movement of self-conscious “postmoderns, ” most of those who identify with it deliberately eschew stuff like that. Among the people associated with it are Brian McLaren (A New Kind of Christian, Generous Orthodoxy), Leonard Sweet (Post-Modern Pilgrims, SoulTsunami), Dan Kimball (The Emerging Church, Emerging Worship), and Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz, Searching For God Knows What). Two of the most high profile names associated with the movement are Rob Bell (Velvet Elvis), pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, and Doug Pagitt (A Christianity Worth Believing) of Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis. While authors and leaders such as these say some things worth hearing, there are also a lot of questions about their commitment to biblical orthodoxy and their willingness to pander to the culture.

Those questions were raised for me again this week when I saw that Bell and Pagitt had taken part in something called InterSpirituality Day in Seattle, organized by something called Seeds of Compassion, a Seattle-based, New Agey kind of organization led by an “emissary” of the Dalai Lama. Among the other participants at this event were the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Ingrid Mattson of the Islamic Society of North America, Roman Catholic nun Joan Chittister, Bishop Steven Charleston of Episcopal Divinity School in Massachusetts, Hindu philosopher Pravrajika Vrajaprana, Sikh philosopher Guru Singh, Zen Buddhist master Roshi Joan Halifax, and Steven Shankman of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Just the Christian names on the list ought to give one pause.

According to the Seeds of Compassion site, the morning session of Tuesday’s event focused on this:

In today’s complex culture, with problems such as media overload, social pressure, short attention spans, isolation and fear, how do we bring awareness of spirituality and compassion to our children in the first years of life? [Emphasis in original.]

This leads naturally to the questions, “whose spirituality?” and “in what forms?” and “spirituality related to Who or what?” In an age when most people claim an interest in “spirituality,” its becoming easier and easier for events like this to offer something squishy, fluffy, content-less, and harmless sounding, that in fact leads to a kind of mindless syncretism. Is this really what emerging church leaders like Bell and Pagitt want to be associated with? Apparently, according to the Christian Post:

Held in one of the most unchurched cities in the country–Seattle–the dialogue drew over 7,000 people who heard the diverse panel speak about nurturing compassion in a religiously pluralistic world.

While each religious leader alluded to their personal faith, from Buddhism to Christianity, there was little emphasis on their core beliefs and more talk on spiritual connectedness and the universality of being compassionate–a dialogue that seemed appropriate in a city where many say they are “spiritual” but not necessarily religious.

“When somebody wrongs you … there is, next to revenge, another option – which is not to hand back the pain; which means, you’re going to have to bear that pain,” said Bell, also a best-selling author.

“It is going to feel like a death, but it is going to lead to a resurrection. It is going to feel like a Friday but a Sunday is going to come,” he added. “That is what changes the world – when somebody chooses not to hand it back.”

What changes the world is refraining from revenge? Gee, I thought it was the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that changed the world. Silly me.

The Seattle Times quoted him this way:

Rob Bell, an evangelical Christian, said those who have been wronged can choose to act in revenge or they can choose to bear the pain and forgive. Bell is founding pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Mich. (which is not affiliated with Seattle’s Mars Hill Church).

It will feel like a heavy burden at first, he said. “But then a resurrection will come. … You will inevitably become a better person on the other side. This is what changes the world.”

However you parse it, it sounds like a works-righteousness, we-can-change-the-world approach, one that would have fit in very well with the general tone of the gathering, but which bears little resemblance to biblical Christianity. It’s a pity–Bell and Pagitt had an opportunity to witness to the gospel in Seattle, but instead apparently chose the way of political correctness and mushy “spirituality.”