It was a couple summers back and I had gone to visit the church Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis. I was excited to go because I had seen a special on TV about some churches that had been reaching the post modern community in unique ways and their church was one of the ones highlighted. I clicked with the things their pastor and church folks were saying about community and their church. Also I was on a quest to find other like minded Christians in ministry that our little old church could associate with. After emailing back and forth with Doug Paggit, the church pastor, I was thankful to be well received and welcomed to spend a week with them. To add to the great timing, their church was hosting the Emergent Summer Institute. I had heard of Emergent, knew that Doug was one of the main voices of the “association” and wanted to know if I would find a home there.

Long story short (in other words, I’ll share more later on some other blog in the future), Emergent was not for me or our church. There were multiple theological concerns on a critical level to even consider such a match. I enjoyed my time with Doug, with the folks of Solomon’s Porch (especially a new found friend named Luke), and several others from the church and Emergent but for the most part, I could not and still don’t understand the extreme, watered down view on key issues that I can not support.

I don’t think that hurts their feelings too much. I stuck out like a sore thumb there. The first night was a group discussion on homosexuality (see my post on that if you want to know my stance). It was a GREAT talk! The question of “Is homosexuality a sin?” was agreed upon putting to the side and talked about the relational, emotional, and cultural challenges within the talk. I loved it! However, about an hour into it, I said something to the effect of “I see where everyone is coming from and really appreciate it. I wonder though, how would you match up your beliefs to the Scripture?” I could have sworn that I had dropped the “F” bomb. The 80 or so people went deadly silent and stared at me like “Oh great, one of those guys.”

OK, that said, there was something (actually a few things) I loved about that group of people that the conservative church could learn from…..communication without judgment. Don’t get me wrong, Emergent could learn alot about how the truth of the Scriptures needs to be part of the talk as much as if not more so than “It just seems to me…..” but the level of love, grace, sincere listening, and an attitude to talk instead of just being right is something the traditional church needs more of.

Now that could bother some Christians reading this blog. However, I think if you talk and listen to your close friends who used to go to church and have walked away from the faith, I have a strong feeling they will more than likely agree with me than you on this point.

Here’s where the Jedi Error part comes in…..the second night I was there, I was settling in for the night at the hotel with the TV on. On the movie channel was Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. This is the movie showing Anakin going from the good to the dark side of the Force. As I watched it, it became clear one of the major problems of the traditional church. Much like the Jedi council, we are not open enough to partnering with people on the struggles of the faith.

Let me explain better, when Anakin had concerns, struggles, anger, frustration, fears, and the like, he went to the Jedi masters to ask them how should he handle it. What do I do about the fear of losing my secret wife? What did he get? Oh, Anakin…….you need to let that stuff go. Sit down, stop dancing with the temptation, and someday you’ll understand when you’re mature like us.

However, the evil chancellor was more than ready to hear the concerns, offer quick fixes, and seem to be caring and loving. Who would you partner with?

In the same way, there are some serious challenges towards the Christian faith. There are some things that are hard to not struggle with as we grow in our faith and the world tries to invade us. I know that God is strong enough and the Word sound enough to handle such challenges but people need others to partner with them in this search, not judge them because they are searching. When we do that, we are trying to produce clones instead of children of God and people get hurt and tossed aside.

Maybe if we listen to those who are struggling and admit to them our own struggles, then people will trust us more to let us lead them to Christ and His answers. I’m not a big church basher……she is none the less the bride of Christ. However, if I am honest with the challenges, then others can believe I’m being honest about the answers.

OK, maybe I’m babbling now. If you are interested in this topic, I did a message on it awhile back. Soon it should be on the on-line pod casts in the links to the right.  I’ll try to get it up and running for ya. For now, I just wanted to introduce the thought.