tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-111871862009-02-20T19:56:42.997-06:00some thoughts, questions, concerns and ideas of a pastor wrestling with issues of postmodernism and emergence while attempting to remain faithful within the context of the church existingSirnickdonnoreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11187186.post-31449276455035470442007-12-23T23:11:00.000-06:002007-12-23T23:17:05.805-06:00

Dark thoughts have clouded our minds. For centuries, thanks largely to the Augustinian tradition that has so influenced evangelicals, we have been taught that God chooses a few who will be saved and has decided not to save the vast majority of humanity. God is planning (in his sovereign freedom) to send most of those outside the church to hell, and he is perfectly within his rights to do so.

Sirnickdonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11187186.post-29611512984292029362007-11-29T17:08:00.000-06:002007-12-02T22:24:00.495-06:00

As is often the case, I think that the Christian community is taking the wrong tack on the issues raised by the film The Golden Compass. Groups are springing up all over Facebook and my Christian college encouraging Christians (as usual) to boycott the film, to keep their children from the film, to warn others to do the same.The book, they allege, is an atheist plot to teach kids that they should

Sirnickdonnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11187186.post-9416854046381277892007-11-03T12:31:00.000-05:002007-11-03T17:02:59.657-05:00

Last week I spoke at the "all-school devotions" at my school, which is a private Christian university of the sort that dot the Midwest like a pox.I basically proposed three models which stem (I propose) from three different understandings of the Kingdom of God. The first was the reclusive/substitionary model, which presumes that we have to keep ourselves as untainted by the world as possible so

Sirnickdonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11187186.post-51168086154459373342007-10-23T11:14:00.000-05:002007-10-23T11:59:30.606-05:00

Part of me is baffled by the overwhelmingly negative and fearful accounts of postmodernism in general that come from the conservative church sector. It makes no sense to me because the same sector that labels postmodernism the refuge of secular liberals labels the post-enlightenment liberal Christianity (e.g. Bultmann and his ilk) that postmoderns are (rightly) incredulous toward as secular

Sirnickdonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11187186.post-51695548738863744252007-10-09T15:56:00.001-05:002007-10-14T10:42:42.955-05:00

Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness and pride of power and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear rather than [doing] too much. Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more than they are doing now. Christians

Sirnickdonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11187186.post-52854646651422058512007-10-09T15:25:00.000-05:002007-10-09T15:26:46.347-05:00

This is how it works: You read a statement, a paragraph, an essay, a chapter, a book, a play, a movie*, or what-have-you. And then, no matter what it says, no matter how mundane or how preposterous, you say this: "If this is true, then what?" For instance, I just came across the line "Christian spirituality has developed as six traditions, each emphasizing certain themes: Contemplative,

Sirnickdonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11187186.post-56683456909549454372007-10-07T17:17:00.001-05:002007-10-07T17:25:04.219-05:00

What is the central teaching of Christ and the New Testament?Well, it really depends on whom you ask.I hear two main answers in the circles I run.1. "Justification by grace through faith as a result of the death of Christ on the cross," usually accompanied by a lot of legal and monetary language.2. "The announcement of the Kingdom of God," usually accompanied by a lot of narrative and ethical

Sirnickdonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11187186.post-43922289928931388202007-10-01T23:34:00.000-05:002007-10-02T00:11:51.074-05:00

"The church is not the custodian of the culture - of any culture. The church is the custodian of her own narrative." Orthopraxy is acting and living in ways that are true (or appropriate) to the ongoing story of the Kingdom of God. In Pauline terms, it is putting off the old humanity and putting on the new one, living as a new creation, living in light of the resurrection. In light of this, the

Sirnickdonnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11187186.post-58194747076309442822007-10-01T14:24:00.001-05:002007-10-01T23:39:37.354-05:00

The emerging church is often characterized solely on its rethinking of Christian story (which is taken as an affront to orthodox Christan belief, to the Bible as God's word, etc.) and on its hesitance to state its beliefs definitively. From those speaking within the church existing, all doubts, fears, concerns and attacks toward the church emerging focus around "belief-issues." Common accusations

Sirnickdonnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11187186.post-57068855650294454952007-09-28T14:40:00.000-05:002007-09-30T21:26:37.392-05:00

I've been hearing a lot of talk about the importance of orthopraxy, or right practice, alongside orthodoxy. I hear that orthodoxy without orthopraxy is dead (James 2.17), and at the same time that orthopraxy without orthodoxy is blind.I wonder, however, how valid this distinction and setting side-by-side of belief and practice is. Not to mention the suffix. The emphasis is clearly modernist,

Sirnickdonnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11187186.post-15136276887253550652007-09-25T20:01:00.000-05:002007-09-26T20:53:37.518-05:00

I have fallen into the habit lately of insisting that Christian talk is best expressed in terms of redemption rather than of salvation. As such, it occurs to me that it might be helpful to explore some meanings of redemption, bearing in mind, of course, that I speak as one deeply entrenched in North American western dogma, and feeling no need to speak in particularly theological terms, as

Sirnickdonnoreply@blogger.com0