For all you people reading Tony Jones’ New Christians, he just put the first of six youtube episode/interviews with the beloved Trucker Frank. 

An enjoyable 9.30 minutes.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHeoV4ITQ64&hl=en]

So there I was surfing the net and I stumbled upon a site entitled the “discernment resource” (www.discernemntresource.com).  How thoughtful, another watchdog site against any Christian idea that is somewhat progressive.  I read about the concerns of Rick Warren and Billy Hybels and of course the Emergent Church.   So I clicked on the first article under the emergent church and could barely get out of the first sentence.  Here it is:    Unfortunately, todays church is caught in a paradigm shift. That is, the church is moving from a modern church, where teaching fundamental Bible doctrine is the norm, to a post-modern, or transformational church in which loud, watered down, seeker-sensitive services are the order of the day.

This is what my interpreted as I read, “Unfortunately, the church is changing, because the world is changing and because both of these are made up of people, this unfortunately means that people are changing.  The church is moving from what it Jesus had meant (you know how we did church from 1950-1989 or whatever arbitrary date that is defined as the “good old days”), where milk flowed like honey and the land was plentiful, where we had our doctrine, hermeneutics and translations right.  Now we’re headed to …

Pardon the sarcasm, I didn’t really mean it.  Well … anyway, although I could go on and on about the mistakes, incorrect assumptions and flawed thinking (and please don’t blame it on the Bible), I would like to just talk about that first line, “Unfortunately the world is changing …”  It’s not unfortunate.

The world is changing because people are changing.  That writer is changing.  The world around him is changing.  This is the reality of life.  We cannot stop time, we cannot dwell too much in the past, we ought not to curse the future, but be faithful stewards of it.  It is my belief that the emerging church conversation is part of this faithful stewardship. 

My friends, fortunately, the world is changing.

This is such a church practice, invite someone, then realize there’s something “different” about them, conclude they are “dangerous” and eventually un-invite them.  

They have every right to do whatever they want, it’s their school but I am only pointing out its lameness. 

The reasoning behind it does not matter.  It’s almost irrelevant.  Unless it’s a morality or scandal then once you invited him, you must let him speak. 

I hope the leadership of Cedarville have nothing to do with the selection committee in heaven.  Can you imagine standing in St. Peter’s line, finally getting to the gate, Jesus welcoming you, saying “Well done …”.  You smile with assurance because you had never read about that in the Scriptures but anyway, you’re in.  Then all of a sudden a couple of men in suits and collegiate Cedarville ties whisper in Jesus’ ear and you’re told that you have been uninvited. 

Hmmm, not that revenge is appropriate, but maybe we can Shane on that heaven selection committee. 

As a student ministries pastor who does not preach “emergent stuff”, I am more concerned with the narrow-mindedness of the school.  I am familiar with this mentality as I graduated from Liberty University.  Though I had mostly a positive experience there, I discovered that you only learn what you are being taught, you are going to miss out on a quite a bit.  I wished Liberty was a little more open to other ideas but regardless here I am.  Thank you Holy Spirit.  ;-)

 In any event, those who sincerely seek will find.  This will be true of many attending Cedarville.  However, maybe attendance will drop by a couple because I can’t say that I can encourage any of my students to attend there.

Here’s the link from Christianity Today.

Scot McKnight blogged about it here. 

Also, Scot has a link to Shane’s response on his post.