If you're in Joburg and aren't doing anything at 4:15pm on Saturday after, a guy called Gary Gilley is speaking on "A Response to the Emerging Church" at the Biblical Worldview Conference hosted at my old church, Honeyridge Baptist. Gilley studied at Moody Bible Institute as well as Cambridge Graduate School (USA). He is a Calvinist who is a strong proponent of expository preaching, so wikipedia says. He's written a few books - one with the rather catchy title of "This little church went to market" (which I haven't read, but am hoping it's about the CEO-type churches which are run more like businesses than communities of the people of God - here's the link to his first article on it).

If you want to hear what he will say before he says it, read part 1, part 2 and part 3 of his articles on "The Emerging Church" - all written last year.

In his review of McLaren's "The Secret Message of Jesus" he writes:

With this perspective of the kingdom it should not surprise us that Jesus did not come to be a redeemer but a model, a model of love (p. 147, 153). McLaren’s well-known imitators of this model are most instructive. They include: Martin Luther King (pp. 147, 154, 157-158, 169), St. Patrick, St Francis, Teresa of Avila, Desmond Tutu, Mother Teresa, Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela (p. 78, 125, 169). Not a single one of these would meet the biblical criteria of a true Christian but they constitute McLaren’s roster of lead citizens in the kingdom of God.

It should not surprise us that McLaren lists Dallas Willard, N. T. Wright, Howard Snyder and Tony Campolo among those who have influenced his thinking (p. 209).

Wow. It doesn't get dodgier than those guys! My word, Martin Luther King?! St Francis?! Desmond Tutu? Nelson Mandela? Tony Campolo?! Who would want to be influenced by those people?! Much better we are influenced by people who meet the "biblical criteria of a true Christian" - which obviously Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela don't. Maybe that little thing that Jesus said is rather inconvenient - and clearly doesn't apply to someone like Mandela:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
- Jesus, Matthew 5:9

But, don't write off what he says because of this paragraph. He mentions Pete Rollins (my hero!) from Northern Ireland in one of his articles, showing that he's at least thinking outside of the North American context. He engages with mystery, truth, philosophy and deconstruction in his articles. His accusation (as far as I can see it) is that the emerging church is changing what the essence of the Gospel is - and that's a weighty charge. So if you make it along to Honeyridge on Sunday, please come back here and leave your impressions in the comments.

[UPDATE!]:

Tim Cantrell asked me to post the following as a (for now) reply to all of my posts:

"If this is truly a 'conversation', then I encourage all inquiring minds to come this Saturday to hear a public response on these issues. Dr. Gary Gilley (who has done in-depth research and writing on the Emerging Church, and has recently been invited into dialogue with McClaren himself) will be speaking on "A Response to the Emerging Church," at 4:15pm at Honeyridge Baptist Church. This Saturday, 25 Aug., no booking required; don't miss it!

I only got this from him yesterday - some more warning would've been good (and I can't be there, since I'm helping with setup for the mission@wits). I guess this is pretty last-minute, since on the conference page on his site the talk title still isn't mentioned.

Technorati Tags: Gary Gilley, Honeyridge Baptist

Apparently the only way to meet the "biblical criteria of a true Christian" is to be a hard-core Calvinist. If you're Wesleyan, Catholic, or any other variety, well, it just doesn't count. I'm not impressed

Posted by: Richard H 24 Aug, 2007 - 15:54:52

I went to Gary Gilley's seminar. I wanted to engage, and respond to Tim's invitation.

I will write about it in detail on my own blog. All I can say is that was an abysmal presentation (from a style perspective) and disgusting (there is no kinder word) from a content perspective. AND, in contradiction to Tim's invitation to converse, there was no interaction, no Q&A - only a biased one-sided barrage of dubious data!

Disappointing and a wasted opportunity.

Posted by: Graeme 27 Aug, 2007 - 23:04:55