Comments on: 9Marks Journal: The New Evangelical Liberalism

By: UGG Boots

UGG Boots — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:07:52 +0000

I found this article useful in a paper I am writing at university.

Thanks

Bernice Franklin

By: bandsxbands

bandsxbands — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:00:51 +0000

I truly believe that we have reached the point where technology has become one with our world, and I am fairly certain that we have passed the point of no return in our relationship with technology.

I don’t mean this in a bad way, of course! Societal concerns aside… I just hope that as memory gets less expensive, the possibility of transferring our brains onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It’s a fantasy that I daydream about almost every day.

By: Danny

Danny — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 01:53:58 +0000

Richard,
I agree. The article was very disappointing. It’s the only one I read. To say that the “missional” mindset is essentially a gateway drug into full fledged liberalism is a joke. I think(maybe), the author was referring to McClaren and his ilk…I hope so. Lots of good solid Bible teachers are referring to themselves as missional churches.

By: Richard Yale

Richard Yale — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:37:18 +0000

Just read “Is the God of the Missional Gospel too Small” and found it profoundly disappointing. Without quotations or even names of those critiquing I wonder if he is really engaging the actual thought of missional thinkers of a variety of stripes, including Guder, Van Gelder, Roxburgh, Fitch, Hirsch and the like, or is he just criticizing at caricature of “missional” pastors that he knows. Missional thought grounded in a deep understanding of the missio Dei is far more profound than just a turn to “social action”.

There is in missional thought a critique of all our received ways of being the church. Are they truly Gospel, or have they been affected by the historical contexts in which they have been formed? Then answer is yes. I wonder if much of the neo-Reformed entrenchment and arguments against all manner of things missional is a reaction rather than engagement with the genuine insights of missional thinking. It seems they have mistaken the form that Reformed polity and practice have taken since the reformation as the “biblical” paradigm. I think they need to take their own positionality within history seriously and enter into conversation with the entire Christian tradition. Calvin did not say “Christianisme, c’est moi!”

Instead of engaging the material and thought they seem to shout “Liberalism!” and think the argument is over.

Rob Bell and Brian McLaren do not a missional movement make.

Thank you. Screed over.

By: kelly

kelly — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:17:48 +0000

Great articles that go way below the surface on the issues they discuss. The authors are also careful to write the truth in love. That’s hard to do, but they manage it well.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:56:56 +0000

Really good stuff, Steve! I had a key leader listening to Yale lectures online thinking, “This is insightful.” I went on the sight (It was crap) & cleared it up, but I was troubled that I had to show him that it was crap. The warm fuzzy and hazy Brian McClaren stuff is deadly!