I am attending the Envision08 Conference next week. Those of us who will be blogging from there were invited to start some pre-conference discussion. Specifically we were given some links to documents and events such as:
DOCUMENTS
* An Evangelical Manifesto
* The Holiness Manifesto
* The Emergent Manifesto of Hope
* A Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future
EVENTS:
• Everything Must Change
• Justice Revivals, Seven Ways to Change the World & Pentecost 2008
• Church Basement Roadshow
• EnVision
What are the points of intersection between all these elements? I will use the terms evangelical and emergent loosely without getting into precise definitions of either. A few brief observations:
There is a renewed interest in the concept of biblical justice. In my experience, talking about social justice used to peg one as a liberal mainliner or was perceived as a watered down version of the gospel. In many discussions with and within the evangelical community “Social Gospel” was considered a diversion from the true business of preaching the gospel and thus considered an abandoned liberal idea.
An example from my teen years; I grew up in a Reformed Church in America congregation. Although not considered Evangelical with a capital “E” I doubt there were very many major differences in doctrine between the two groups. Since we shared a Dutch heritage with the Afrikaners in South Africa, the issue of apartheid came up often in denominational gatherings in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Rarely was this ever talked about in our church, except for one Sunday. I remember our pastor, a brilliant man, decrying the fact that the apartheid issue was dwelled upon at a recent Synod meeting. “What in the world do we have to do with South Africa?” he lamented. “Our job is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
No one even blinked at what many of us would now consider an almost absurd statement. I get the feeling that statement would receive a very mixed, if not angry, response from an evangelical audience today.
The implication was that the gospel was limited to atonement and afterlife issues and had nothing to say about apartheid. Growing up with little exposure to liberal mainline Christianity, I viewed mission as mostly limited to converting others to the Christian religion. Relieving human suffering was part of it, but not primary to the purposes of the gospel. That would have strayed into the area of salvation by works.
In reading the Evangelical Manifesto, the Holiness Manifesto etc., it is obvious to me that the once prevalent view I grew up with has changed dramatically in evangelical circles. Across the board there is renewed interest both in social justice and in seeing it as integral to the gospel message. Obviously, this emphasis on the here-and-now or incarnational/missional aspect of the gospel is a touchstone of emergent communities as well.
As many have observed, it seems the old dichotomies of evangelical/conservative/Republican/atonement and mainline/liberal/Democrat/justice are no longer meaningful categories. This is no longer just being claimed by emergents who are critical of evangelicalism but in manifestos coming out of evangelical groups who are sometimes critical of emergents.
The same could be said about other concepts like community and environmentalism. Is the dichotomy laid out in Tony Campolo’s “How to Rescue the Earth without Worshiping Nature” even an issue for many of these "new" evangelicals today? Judging by the manifestos, probably not that much.
This intersection and convergence has the potential to be truly “good news.”
More to come.
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