In one bite I can pretty much tell whether or not I like a new casserole. That bite is obviously not the whole casserole and it may not have all the casserole ingredients in it. However, it is usually enough to know whether or not the casserole is good. Hold that thought and we'll be back to the casserole analogy in a bit.
I am a very slow reader. Therefore, I seldom tackle a whole book. I read a couple of blogs, I read articles and essays, I read the Bible a few verses or chapters at a time. But I rarely try to read a book. It is even more rare that I finish a book.
So it is that my knowledge of the emergent church movement is like taking one bite of a casserole. I've only read a minuscule bit of its literature and only interacted with a few of its proponents. That was all it took for me to gag. However, even though I don't like it I've tried not to offer criticism of the "conversation" since I don't have a big picture understanding of it. Since I do not have the desire or the time to read enough to get that kind of understanding I have tried not to say much about the movement (or whatever it is). Several weeks ago, however, I saw a review for this book:
Sorry for the terrible picture. The book is Why We're Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be), co-authored by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck. DeYoung is a pastor and Kluck is a writer. The review really piqued my interest and I wanted to read the book, but I'm not in a position right now to spend any non-budgeted funds (either at home or work). Then, thankfully, about four weeks ago I got a card from Mardell's offering free copies of the book to local ministers. How cool is that? God is so good.
I managed to read the whole thing in just a couple of weeks and I enjoyed it immensely. I was impressed by the authors' humor, their research, their theology, and their style. These guys really did their homework. They literally read multiple thousands of pages of material as well as attended conferences, worship services, and did personal interviews to prepare themselves for this book.
DeYoung and Kluck alternate chapters. Along the way they explain various emergent ideas and then compare those ideas to traditional, orthodox, biblical Christianity. Often they also compare emergent culture to the larger culture. They admit that not every emergent notion is bad. In fact I think their overall treatment is quite fair.
Now that I have heard what these well informed guys have to say I feel much better about gagging on the emergent church. In fact, I can see how it would be possible, should the influence of certain emergent proponents continue to grow, for this group's belief system to become so unbiblical that it eventually fits into a category of religions like Mormonism or Jehovah's Witnesses. These groups want you to think they are included in biblical Christianity, but they do not qualify.
Therefore, this is an important book and I heartily recommend Why We're Not Emergent to most of you. If you have already aligned yourself with the emergent church (or the emerging church if you are someone who makes a distinction between those terms) then don't read this book. The logic will be lost on you and as Kluck admits, "Those who aren't inclined to the emergent/emerging thing will probably support most of what we've written, and those who call themselves emergent will find a million reasons to find fault with it. The idea that people read much of anything and have their minds changed by it is less and less realistic to me. People usually just dig in."
Then who should read this book? If you're an orthodox Christian whose heard of the emergent church and want to begin learning about it this would be a great place to start. If you are interested in theology in general you might like this book. If you know someone who has had their feelings hurt by a Christian and you have concluded that the western church is a monster that needs to be deconstructed you should read this book. If you think evangelism is more about what we do than it is the message of the gospel you should read this book. If you believe that post modernism is so widespread that it has grossly changed the way the average person thinks and functions in the real world, then you probably should read this book (and this article). If you are not sure what you believe about Jesus, then you should definitely read this book, and keep a Bible close by.
So, thumbs up to DeYoung and Kluck. If any of you would like to read the book I'll be glad to loan it to you.
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