Saturday, October 6, 2007

Take that Dr. Gunter

In April, I went on a three-day rant about the fear that exists in the Church of the Nazarene about the Emerging Church. Here are the links:

Ugh! (4/17/07)
People of the Night (4/18/07)
Revising and Extending My Comments (4/19/07)

Today, I received in the mail my copy of Preacher's Magazine. The article on page 34 roused by interest. In was written by Dr. Henry H. Knight, III of St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City. His article is entitled "John Wesley and the Emerging Church." I do not believe Dr. Knight is Nazarene, but the article is published in an official publication of the Church of the Nazarene. I would like to quote a few lines from the second paragraph. Perhaps Dr. Nina Gunter will read this so as to alleviate her inordinate fear of all things emerging.

"I believe Wesleyans should welcome the emerging church... Wesleyans should support this new movement because the purposes and values emerging churches seek to embody--their vision of discipleship, church, and mission--is highly congruent with those of the Wesleyan tradition."

Wow. I never thought I would read anything so "heretical" in an official publication of a church stuck in 1953.

2 comments:

Roy said...

Evidently she isn't on the editorial review committee yet.

James Diggs said...

good stuff. I agree that the emergent church is very compatible with the Wesleyan tradition. You may be interested in more conversation about this at www.emergentnazarenes.com

peace,

James