A cross-section of five frontline leaders in the controversial emerging church movement shed informative light on their beliefs and basic message to help us understand whether it's all about new methods or a new message or both.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
A Good Primer to the Diversity of the Emerging Church:
Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches lays out the theological foundations for five different "emerging churches." The book features five Emerging pastors explaining some of the core beliefs of their congregations. Mark Driscoll, John Burke, Dan Kimball, Doug Pagitt, and Karen Ward each contribute a chapter and responses to the other chapters. Mark Driscoll goes first. His chapter is a no-holds-barred "This is what the Bible says and that's what we believe" statement of faith. He focuses on... more info
Insight into Nothing:
Webber's book borrows a helpful and increasingly popular format for this work: five essays by different authors, which responses to each essay by the other four. It's interesting to see a brief window into the minds of a few names that are floating around in the Christian conference circles, but ultimately you're not likely to learn anything about theology by reading the book. Driscoll rehashes the old evangelical conservativism. Everything is a quote from the Bible, and women aren't allowed to be... more info
Outstanding read!:
Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches - Five Perspectives is a book edited by Robert Webber that contains theological essays by five leaders of the emerging church. Those of you who have any familiarity with the emerging church know how difficult it is to pin down anything, so this book provides a little glimpse into the theology of a few successful emerging churches. There are five essays, each followed by responses by the other four authors. The overwhelming tone of this book is one of... more info
a conversation between four persons with an interlocutor:
This book is simply not a conversation (at least not for one of the participants). Further, Mark Driscoll doesn't seem to be listening to any of the other people who contribute to this book. Driscoll's chapter seems to be a recycled piece of propaganda. His positions are "backed" by scripture references over 200 for his 15 pages. He advocates a "Biblicist" tradition that reads as a very reformed position (with the possible exception of a modified Arminianism or Wesleyanism). Driscoll's responses to the... more info
