identifying with jesus

I'm trying my first "emergent" book, Emerging Churches by Eddie Gibbs and Ryan K. Bolger. Chapter 3, Identifying with Jesus, opens with the following quote.

We have come to see that it is all about Jesus and not just a methodology. It is not about mission, not about church, but it’s about Jesus and his glory, his life. To know Jesus is not an event, a ritual, a creed, or a religion. It is journey of trust and adventure. We don’t believe in an religion anymore–including Christianity–but we do believe in following Jesus. We no longer need religion with its special buildings, dogmas, programs, clergy, or any other human inventions that displace genuine spirituality. Why do we need a name and address to be a church? We’ve come out of religion and back to God. - Jonathan Campbell

I read so much in the blogsphere charging emergents with heresy and I just don't see it. The stuff I read from "them" I either don't quite understand (I think I'm just not smart enough) or it seems perfectly fine. My issue with emergents isn't with their orthodoxy or orthopraxy, it's more with my perception that they seem to believe that they are onto something new - and I'm not sure if that's true, but it is my perception.

I really like the quote above but I would have left out the words "including Christianity" - especially since the author chose to capitalize Christianity. I could accept a phrase that runs something like, "we don't believe in religion anymore - including the forms we have built under the banner called Christianity". But the way it is written seems to say that Christianity is wrong. I firmly believe God has called us to commit to Christ, His Church, and His cause. To speak of Christianity as a whole negatively seems rebellious and I believe stems from false perceptions, i.e., confusing some of our practices with Christianity. Perhaps I might better accept this if there was some distinction offered between believing in Christianity versus living Christianity.

The next quote in the chapter emphasizes this point.

I read the Gospels over and over. Nothing I was doing on Sunday was what I thought Jesus would be doing if he were here. - Joe Boyd

This point is right on - because it doesn't say Christianity is wrong. Instead it points to our practice of what we misunderstand Christianity to be. The authors then offer their understanding which I think is exactly right but again, they insert the words emerging, postmodern, etc. unnecessarily. It seems the paragraphs would be just as true outside the context they seem to think it fits.

There is a strong and indissoluble link between the teaching of Jesus and the good news he embodied and proclaimed. His message both announced and inaugurated the reign of God on earth. The long-promised Kingdom, spoken of by the Hebrew prophets, was established in provisional form with the coming of Jesus and the outpouring of his Spirit. It is this kingdom hope that inspires emerging church leaders as they seek to realize that promise within their communities, striving for them to become servants and signs of that kingdom as they live God‘s future, which is both already here and remains to come. In concrete terms, emerging church leaders look to Jesus as the one who initiated the work of the kingdom in Israel, and their hope is to point to the kingdom through their communal practices in postmodern culture today.

It is strange how the church for so long missed the kingdom emphasis in the witness of the authors of the Gospels. The gospel, as proclaimed by Jesus Christ and as understood by the early church, was always more than simply a message of personal salvation and, even more narrowly, the way to get to heaven when one dies. Beginning about midway in the twentieth century, theologians such as George Eldon Ladd began to examine the nature of the gospel of the kingdom. The Reformed and Anabaptist traditions have consistently maintained a clear kingdom perspective. Beginning in the late 1970s, this new understanding found its way to other churches as well, influencing not only the traditional denominations but also the Vineyard. Quite dramatically, emerging churches stress the kingdom of God much more than their new paradigm/purpose-driven/seeker parents ever did.

I did the strikethroughs above to demonstrate that the words aren't necessary. As the authors themselves acknowledge, other groups, e.g., the Vineyard movement, share this same paradigm so while I appreciate them noting it as an emergent distinctive, some of the phrases seem to indicate a little bit of an elitist attitude as if they are the ones to embrace this or how it is necessary only in this new postmodern culture. I hope my perception of the attitude is wrong and I want to stress that the paradigm in question is essential throughout the world throughout all time.

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