Are there any new emerging proposals for preaching? Jim Belcher, in
Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional
examines the theory of Doug Pagitt. (I blogged about that book with Doug when it came out, and since then I've done more thinking about his proposal.)
The questions I have are these: Do you think there is a problem with preaching in the traditional model? (We need to hear from you.) What are the problems? Is it what Pagitt calls "speaching"? Is there a way forward? What needs to be done?
Do you think Doug Pagitt's preaching proposals are typical or uncommon or rare among emerging types? Or is it unique to Doug and Solomon's Porch? What proposals are you hearing about emerging preaching?
But this post is about Belcher's proposal for preaching a Third Way. Belcher criticizes traditional preaching through a few stereotypes: he calls it "moralistic preaching" and it produces either Pharisees or or dispirited dropouts.
Is there a Third Way for worship? Jim Belcher, in
Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional examines this question and contends there is a genuine third way beyond the traditional and the emerging.
What is your church doing to recover the ancient worship traditions? What are first steps for discovering our roots?
Jim's own experience might well express the whole issue: "I longed for the experience of God's presence and desired the restoration of liturgical elements of worship. I had grown weary of the thinness of contemporary worship, which seemed so lifeless and often done by rote. But I didn't want to return to the traditional style I grew up with ..." (124).
So what does he want?
So, what about the gospel? Is there a Third Way for the gospel? Isn't the traditional gospel the real gospel? Jim Belcher, in
Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional, poses this question by examining the gospel in Brian McLaren.
Jim Belcher says the problem for the emerging criticism of tradition is that the gospel is reduced to forgiveness and eternal life; the critics of Brian say he has reduced the gospel to social justice, and therefore resurrected the social gospel. Belcher says the problem is there is reductionism on both sides and he proposes a Third Way.
I do have a critique here, and I wish Jim had provided as much critical evaluation of a traditonalist -- one that really does spend too much time seeing the gospel as fire insurance and leading too much to concern with life after death and not enough with life in the here and now.
So, I'm wondering if you readers have any really clear examples of the gospel reduced in that direction? I'm not asking for names so much as sterling examples.
The most serious issue about the emerging church, at least in the eyes and minds of its critic, is is relationship to postmodernity. The standard criticism of "emergent" is that it is "relativistic" and "denies the Truth" and has a "bankrupt epistemology." These are serious words, especially if they are true, which they aren't -- at least most of the time. Jim Belcher, who has a PhD and during which time he worked hard on postmodernity, has examined this very question in chp 4 of his important book
Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional.
He defines his terms well, shows that he has seen that there are nuances on both sides, and finds yet again a third way. His way can be seen in Nicholas Wolterstorff. But, here are the terms:
How do we find a "third way" when it comes to
theology? Doesn't it seem that we always trip over one another on theology? I am so glad and happy with how Jim Belcher approaches theology, speaking as many of us do of "mere Christianity," in his new and important book:
Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional
. (Our last post looked at the
emerging movement's critique.)
Belcher is proposing a "new ecumenism" that is really the "old ecumenism" but is not the 20th Century's "liberal ecumenism." For unity to exist there requires two primary elements:
trust and a
two-tiered approach to theology. But this means there are some who don't fit in. I'll get to this shortly.
Who then are the Third Way thinkers and writers? The other day I accidentally posted this and then took it down when I realized it, but Andy Rowell (see below) caught it first and contributed a wonderful set of links...
Adam Hamilton's Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Thoughts on Religion, Morality, and Politics is a perfect blog book. I would love to see a host of evangelical churches using this book for group studies and discussions....
What is America like? Are we generous or are we the spoiled brat in the global village? How Christian are the Christians in politics? Third Way thinking addresses these issues, and Adam Hamilton's book sketches ideas for us to think...
Adam Hamilton, in his book, Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Thoughts on Religion, Morality, and Politics, has a few chps on political or hot-button issues, including situation ethics, abortion, homosexuality and war. I don't want to...
Most of the time I hand off anything about science to "RJS" but the next two chps in Adam Hamilton's Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Thoughts on Religion, Morality, and Politics are about Galileo and evolution and...
Categories: Bible,
Third Way
A friend of mine recently said that theologians can say just about anything about anything about Jesus but to say something fresh or innovative or out of the ordinary about Scripture is to invite trouble. I suppose what is said...
The Third Way is like the sweet spot on a golf club -- when you hit the ball on the sweet spot you avoid the ball wandering either left or right. This analogy is from Adam Hamilton's book, Seeing Gray...
The Third way knows the difference between essentials and non-essentials and lets the Way be shaped by the essentials. In the second chp of Adam Hamilton's Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Thoughts on Religion, Morality, and...
There is a Third Way, and this post officially kicks off a series of occasional reflections about the Third Way. The Third Way approach to the orthodox Christian faith is one that gets beyond the fighting and between the fighters...
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