Monday, October 10, 2005

And above all...not to preach


Ladies and gentlemen! The emerging church movement people have done it again. Jim Henderson has written a book entitled a.k.a. "Lost" in which he chastises the less intellectual and far out of touch non-emerging Christian community for calling people "lost". It has a much nicer ring to it if you say that they are people Jesus misses most.

This book is "evangelism for the rest of us" and focuses on encounters with "missing people" that are non-confrontational, based on everyday experiences, and non-threatening. If you read my blog on the rottweiler and the mormons I think you'll understand why I carry a baseball bat on all my witnessing exploits. Other than that, I try not to beat people up with the bible. Jim feels the same way. His thought is that we should provide an "on-ramp" for continuing conversations, being good at listening to others, and being sensitive to how the "missing person" perceives the encounter with the gospel.

There are so many things to say about this book, but fortunately for you I don't have time. Instead I want to direct your attention to a video clip from the aptly titled "Off the Map Evangelism Conference". Jim does something that could have been extremely helpful by interviewing three "lost" people. Something like this could have been a real eye opener and I applaud him for the sincere attempt to connect with people on a personal level. Like so much of the emerging movement, this book takes issue with some long held methodologies that really do need to be reevaluated, but the stench of bad theology just keeps me away. Anyhoo, check out the video and then go to Barns & Noble and read the Appendix B to the book, entitled PAY SOMEONE TO CRITIQUE YOUR CHURCH. Now, why didn't I think of that?

To see the interview click here - and remember to take the Off the Map Pledge of Kindness.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

i cant view the interview because its in a .ram format. Oh well. Tis true, tis true.

Jonathan said...

Be honest. Did you really read this book?

Anonymous said...

i could only get a little of the vid. i got all the way until the start of the interview...after the pledge. my favorite so far is the "we are not here to convert them they are here to convert us"....gosh. its so sad man. anyways, let us pray.
cmon baby

The Bishop said...

You know, I really did. I really own it. That means that I really picked it up at LifeWay one day. I was looking for a good reformed read, but since they didn't have anything like that, it was toss up between Max Lucado and one of the emergent guys.

Anonymous said...

ok lets pray...just name when and where

Anonymous said...

wow you replied to your own blog...you are indeed a bonafied, certified...LOSERRR!!!


oh and the emerging church CRAP goes from hilarious to sad to morbid once you start actually thinking about what's going on

Let us pray indeed

Anonymous said...

I really enjoy this insight to your soul. You are a precious gift, Adam.