Self-Critique Preferred

Somebody, although I can't quite recall who it was (probably Andrew Jones or Stephen Shields), mentioned late last year that 2005 would mostly likely be the year that the emerging church would start to come under criticism.

And whoever it was has my vote for "prophet", because that's certainly become the case. From D.A. Carson's "Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications", to a certain infamous anti-emergent site whose methodology would make even the most hardened heresy-hunters flinch, 2005 has become a year for the emerging church to be challenged publicly.

While a good critique can sharpen all of us -- and we'd have to be pretty arrogant to assume we don't need to be critiqued -- the best critique so far has come from the inside.

Jason Clark, of Emergent U.K., wrote a great summary in August 2004 (well in advance of the current critiques) that echoes my own thoughts, likes, concerns, etc.

Love/Hate the Emerging Church is an excellent self-critique. I submit that we need to be more proactive in critiquing ourselves, and doing our homework, rather than waiting for others to critique us and then simply react to them.

"Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." (Acts 17:11 NIV)

I think it's worth pointing out that there are TWO noteworthy characteristics of the Bereans:

1. They "received the message with great eagerness" -- they weren't cynical, suspicious, or arrogantly convinced that they didn't need to hear what Paul was saying, and
   
   
2. they "examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true" -- they tempered their eagerness with honest biblical research

If we adopt only part 1, we'll be eager but gullible. If we adopt only part 2, we'll be diligent but dour. We need a balance, even in being Bereans. We'd like to avoid becoming the subject of the picture below. The caption reads "It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others". (courtesy of Despair.com).