One of the most dangerous and deceptive
movements to infiltrate the ranks of Southern Baptist life has been the
Emerging/Emergent Church Movement.
Not since the stealth tactics of the CBF
have we seen a movement operate so successfully below the radar of rank
and file Southern Baptists.
Marked by their fascination with
alcohol, their commitment to theological ambiguity and their embrace of
religious rituals steeped in eastern mysticism, this movement has made
its greatest inroads in the area of “church planting.” And we are now
beginning to see the evidence of what’s to come.
In my home state, the Missouri Baptist
Convention is on the brink of a near civil war – and at the heart of our
struggle has been the blatant dishonesty of those who are determined
that Missouri Baptists will embrace this new postmodern approach to
ministry.
The most recent evidence of the clash in
Missouri came on January 28th when on the front page of the
Sunday edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch there appeared
this article, titled: “Beer and the Bible -- It works for one growing
St. Louis church but its got Missouri Baptists hopping mad.”
The story is about one of our new
churches in St. Louis called the Journey, which received a $200,000 loan
from the Missouri Baptist Convention and has what the Post Dispatch
called a “beer ministry” in a local downtown bar. Another so-called
ministry is the churches’ “film night,” where secular movies are viewed
and discussed – movies that are often rated “R.”
What makes this all the more significant
is that the Journey was exalted by the top leadership of the Missouri
Baptist Convention as a model for church planting and its pastor is
hailed as a modern-day “Caleb.”
And while this may sound like a local
church issue or a state convention issue – it is not. It is a critically
important issue facing the entire Southern Baptist Convention. Let me
explain why.
The pastor of the Journey Church is
Darrin Patrick and he serves together with Ed Stetzer from the North
American Mission Board as co-chair of NAMB’s Young Leaders Task Force.
Interestingly, these two men also serve
together on the board of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network (Patrick
actually serves as vice president and Stetzer as a board member).
The president of Acts 29 is Mark
Driscoll, best known by his peers as ‘Mark the cussing pastor.”
Driscoll, who claims to be theologically conservative, pastors the
non-denominational Mars Hill Church in Seattle Wa, where this past New
Year’s Eve, his church hosted a “Red Hot Bash.” Those who attended were
encouraged to dress “red hot,” and those planning to drink were advised
to bring their ID’s.
I mention Driscoll because he is
scheduled to appear in chapel at one of our seminaries, and one of our
cherished professors from another seminary will be preaching at
Driscoll’s church later this year.
These ‘young leaders’ [Patrick, Stetzer
and Driscoll] are being hailed as the great church planters in America
and through what they call their ‘Acts 29 boot camp’ they are training
young church planters across the SBC. But the question we need to ask
is: Exactly what kind of churches are they planting? Let me give you a
glimpse.
The pastor of one particular Acts 29
church plant in the Northwest United States stated in an interview with
the San Diego Reader.com that: ‘Beer is one of our core values. We enjoy
it and like to drink it.’ The article continues with an increasingly
common argument among young emergents: “We want to go where people are.
We don’t expect people to come to us. In [Pacific Beach], people are at
the bars, parties, and drinking beer, so this is where we go.”
But it actually gets much more
serious. One of our new pro-alcohol emerging church plants in
Springfield, Mo., recently offered to those making a contribution to
their church a copy of a book by Brian McLaren, the undisputed leader of
the far-left wing of the Emerging Church Movement. McLaren is best known
for his statements calling for a 5 to 10 year ‘moratorium’ on any
‘pronouncements’ against homosexuality and his statement rejecting the
substitutionary atonement of Christ.
On the website of this new church plant
in Missouri, the pastor bashes the name ‘Christian’ stating that he
doesn’t want to become ‘known as a bad tipper, judgmental jerk, or a
nationalist warmonger.’ He concludes by stating:
By that token, I believe Jesus would be
a terrible Christian. I wouldn’t be surprised one bit if he chose never
to show up in church on Sunday, or had a beer at a frat party, or
frequented a gay bookstore. And you know what the Christians would
say? ‘This man doesn’t honor the Sabbath’ or ‘This man hangs out with
sinners.’
In Missouri, most of our people have no
idea what emerging or emergent means. But they do understand the
implications of ‘CBF.’ And what I have found is that the left and right
wings of the Emerging Church Movement and the left and right wings of
the CBF are near mirrored images of each other.
In fact, leaders within the CBF are now
saying that the emerging/emergent movement is a great fit for CBF – and
the CBF is currently building relationships with the emergent movement.
CBF is now developing four web pages on their website devoted to the
emerging/emergent movement.
One CBF leader, a church planter from
Atlanta named Jake Meyers, has noted the best way to describe the
emerging church movement is ‘beer, candles and theologian Soren
Kierkegaard.’ (More clearly stated: Beer; ancient and mystical rituals;
and an openness to theological liberalism.
Interestingly, this CBF leader (Jake
Meyers) serves on the coordinating group of Emergent Village, the
far-left wing of the Emerging Church Movement where Brian McLaren serves
as chairman of the board. According to Emergent Village, they have
everything from a Texas Baptist pastor to a New England lesbian
Episcopal priest.
Also serving on the board of Emergent
Village is Chris Seay, an emerging church planter from Houston, Texas
who was one of the featured speakers at the Younger Leaders Summit in
Nashville, hosted by LifeWay’s Jimmy Draper in 2005 [and in 2006 was led
by NAMB’s Ed Stetzer.]
And while I am certainly perplexed as to
why a board member of Emergent Village was a featured speaker at our
Younger Leaders Summit, I am equally concerned about the particular
group of younger leaders we seem to be pursuing for leadership positions
in the SBC.
For within this group of young SBC
leaders are those who strongly oppose the SBC’s long standing position
on alcohol; and those who now want us to move toward embracing the
charismatic practice of speaking in tongues; and those who are now
telling us that CBF really wasn’t that much of a problem; and those who
are now calling for a ‘revolution’ to move the SBC back to what they
call the “center.”
Dr. Mohler has stated that: ‘The
Emergent Movement represents a significant challenge to biblical
Christianity.’
And he’s absolutely right, but the
greater immediate challenge may be to convince certain SBC leaders to
stop lending the credibility of the SBC and its institutions to a
movement that is dripping with error – and thus sending out an uncertain
sound.
The seriousness of the emerging/emergent
movement and the degree to which it has infiltrated the SBC warrants a
full and thorough investigation. And I would argue that the
investigation needs to start at the North American Mission Board, and
most specifically in the area of church planting.
As we refer this motion to LifeWay, I
would ask that the Executive Committee express our deep and serious
concern about the emerging/emergent movement and request that LifeWay
honor this request for a full and thorough investigation.”
