July 19, 2006

The Emergent Church

Pastor Gary Gilley is with Southern View Chapel in Springfield, Illinois. He's the author of the book, This Little Church Stayed Home: A Faithful Church in Deceptive Times.

The emergent church movement communicates that it is concerned with how to reach the postmodern generation with the gospel because this generation is skeptical when it comes to absolute truth claims. The problem is, the emergent church itself teaches an eroding confidence in the Scriptures. It's a deconstruction process that leads to the conclusion that we can't be certain there is such a thing as absolute truth.

Interestingly, the emergent church movement opposes the seeker sensitive movement. They've reintroduced many sacred elements. The problem is, they aren't going back to the New Testament church, instead their sacred traditions harken back to ancient mysticism.

Overall, the message of the emergent church is not one of salvation from sin, but instead is a social movement that claims we are to bring justice, peace, environmental help, etc. to the world. Social concerns are an outgrowth of true Christianity but are never to be a substitute for reaching the world with the Gospel.

More Information

For more information go to
http://www.svchapel.org

For a copy of pastor Gilley's book call:
1-800-729-9829

To find a list of some Bible believing churches in your area go to:
http://www.biblebb.com/churches.htm