Manor Park Evangelical Church|Serving Christ and the Community in St. John's

Around ten years ago, a girl in the church I pastored up north went to London to study theology. She did well and ended up staying and working in London. But her telephone conversations with me over these years puzzled and disturbed me more and more.

She wanted to know what I believed about Roman Catholics, and I explained that I believed that while there were believers in Roman Catholic churches, the system as a whole, by deed and word, taught salvation by works as well as a number of other unbiblical teachings. She believed I was being far too judgemental and what was wrong with smoke and candles and all that jazz?

I couldn't fathom out where Jane was coming from and asked her what church she was involved in. She called it 'sacred space' and when I asked her what they did when they met together, she explained that there was no structure at all to the meetings, even down to when they met. They would decide where and when to meet next time each time they met. The meeting was often in a home and anyone could lead it and bring anything to it they wished. They might like to light a candle, sing a song, read a poem, read something out of the Bible, give a little talk, share an experience.

I was puzzled until she suggested I buy Brian McClaren's book, 'A new kind of Christian.' And as soon as I read that book, everything began to fall into place and I realised that Jane who had been converted and brought up in a conservative but by no means strict or 'fundamentalist' - evangelical church had knowingly or unwittingly become a member of the emerging churches (EC).

And so began my journey to try to understand what EC was, what we might learn from them and what we ought to be warned about.

Click here to continue reading the article in a PDF document.

If you liked this article and would like to share it on your social network, please click one of the following accordingly...

Resources