Church morphing: truth or interpretation?

I was sitting in Marcus’ living room. He had grown up in a German Grace Brethren Church (my denomination). This young man is a building contractor, the lead elder in a lay-led church; his vision includes seeing simple churches scattered across the region of Germany surrounding his church!

Marcus had just shared with me about the work that God was doing in his life, obviously a fresh filling of the Spirit! And he turned to me with this question: “Does one need to be dispensationalist in order to be Grace Brethren?”

In 2008, the Grace Brethren will be celebrating our 300-year birthday! For the past few decades the predominant interpretive system among our pastors has been dispensationalism, but over the last three centuries the Grace Brethren have simply focused on biblical truth, relationship and mission. So in light of history, I shared, “No. We adhere to biblical truth, not an interpretive system.”

Alexander Mack founded the Brethren movement in 1708, not all that far from Marcus' home in Germany. Mack was a pietist, strongly committed to Scripture.

You will have recognized that an epistemological* question arises, n’est-ce pas ?! If truth exists, can I understand it? And between truth and understanding lies one’s interpretative system (everyone has one).

Thanks to his empirical methodology, Sigmund Freud recorded some rather interesting observations about dreams. He said, “Dreaming is evidently mental life during sleep.” “We see that dreams are not disturbers of sleep, as they are abusively called, but guardians of sleep which get rid of disturbances of sleep” (Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, 107, 158).

Salvador Dali "Sleep" 1937

Fascinating stuff. But Freud pushes farther wanting to interpret the dream and so developed an interpretive grid based upon sex. Predicated upon “evolutionary truth” (197), Freud logically deduced that work became “an equivalent and substitute for sexual activity.”

He opines, “If the hypothesis I have here sketched out is correct, it would give us a possibility of understanding dream-symbolism… and why in general, weapons and tools always stand for what is male, while materials and things that are worked upon stand for what is female” (206).

A professionally trained female auto mechanic in Kenya (www.un.org)

Okay, now how many of us would agree with Freud’s starting point and the resulting interpretive system? We would all agree that dreams are real, but even psychiatrists differ on what dreams mean based upon varying interpretive systems. Similarly, truth exists, but our understanding of that truth will differ based upon the interpretive system used.

Brent Sandy, in his insightful book, Plowshares & Pruning Hooks: Rethinking the Language of Biblical Prophecy and Apocalyptic, quotes John Stott saying, “The hallmark of authentic Evangelicalism is not the uncritical repetition of old traditions but the willingness to submit every tradition, however ancient, to fresh biblical scrutiny, and, if necessary, reform.” Brent goes on to say, “Sadly,… many people have inadvertently domesticated God.” Our interpretive systems can also domesticate His Word.


Brent points out that the raw truth of the Bible must have primacy over and evaluate even our interpretive systems. In a reference to C. S. Lewis’ Aslan, Dr. Sandy asserts (207), “The intent of the prophets is to let the lion roar”!

"Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good." Mr. Beaver to Lucy

SO WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH CHURCH MORPHING?

As local churches move from modernity to postmodernity, young leaders must be encouraged to interact with the unadulterated Word of God. “Sola scriptura” (Scrpiture only) and “ad fontes” (back to the source documents) are the need of the moment.

To be continued…

* epistemology basically deals with the question, how do I know what I know.

Church morphing: is truth the ONLY issue?

A friend sent me a CD of John MacArthur speaking on “What’s so dangerous about the emerging church?” He begins by saying, “The bottom line, I think, in the movement is that it is a denial of the clarity of Scripture; it is a denial that we can know what the Bible really says.” At least in this interview, MacArthur made “truth” the only issue in the inherited / emergent church “conversation.”

(Next up: the often overlooked difference between Scripture and our understanding of Scripture.)

But talking about his leadership style, one emerging churches advocate said, “We are kingdom minded. If someone wants to start something, I approve it, providing the person is a part of the community and it doesn’t go against Scripture. We encourage people to be creative.” (Emerging Churches, Bolger & Gibbs, 293). Hm-m-m, sounds like a rather high view of Scripture!


Tim Boal introduces helpful nuance into the debate by distinguishing between the "emergent" and "emerging" positions on Scripture. He observes that among emergent group spokespersons (McLaren & co.), "There has been an increasing tendency to replace a belief in absolute truth with an understanding of truth as perceived or experienced in community… It appears the emergent group has followed this path from its once solid starting point.”

In this conversation, we must remember that adoption of philosophical postmodernism inexorably leads to the loss of absolutes.

In contradistinction to the emergent movement, Tim says, “The emerging church differs from the emergent church within evangelical circles in that it primarily focuses on the forms and experiences of the local church community and how these contribute to or diminish true community. Many young evangelical leaders support and promote the idea of absolute truth.” (“Getting Real About the Emerging Church”, Tim Boal - June 2007)

I found this helpful and have adopted Tim's terminology. I concur with those emerging churches people who say that relationship is vital AND truth is absolute.


I believe (this is after all a question of faith) that all truth emanates from the infinite-personal Creator God. Jesus, God the Son, declared: “I am… the Truth” (John 14:6). And He who is the truth declared, “Your Word is truth” (John 17:17). I believe therefore that:

* Revealed truth is objective — God has revealed truth both historically in Christ and propositionally in His Word.

* Revealed truth is knowable — as rational beings created in God’s image, we have the ability to know God’s revealed truth.

D.A. Carson’s “Becoming Conversant With the Emerging Church” is much more nuanced than MacArthur’s treatment of the subject. Carson adroitly deals with the “truth” issue. One could even get the impression from his book that it is the ONLY issue in this “conversation” between modernist and postmodernist expressions of church. But in an off-the-cuff remark, he notes one of the great motivators that fostered the emerging churches movement: a strong sense of mission.

Carson states, “It is something inherent in the movement itself. The attempt to break out of what is perceived to be the holy huddle of traditional evangelicalism is driven, at least in part, by a concern for evangelism, in particular the evangelism of a new generation of people who are shaped by postmodern assumptions.” (Carson, 52) I would say that it is accurate to say that in general the emerging churches movement has “the goal of reaching the completely unchurched” (Carson, 39).


One emerging churches leader says his church is “refocusing to become a community that is intentionally missional.” Bolger and Gibbs go so far as to say, “Emerging churches… their structure is missional in nature”!

Another emerging churches proponent says, "'This may seem pretty basic and obvious, but so many people just don't get it. We are definitely all missionaries and evangelists. There are some who are more gifted for this stuff or have more of a focus on it, and they are the people who encourage and lead us in this area, but we’re all involved.' For emerging churches, to be a follower of Jesus is to live as a missionary” (Emerging Churches, Bolger & Gibbs, 271, 107, 58).

Yet another emerging churches leader talks about this movement as a new reformation of the church, “Imagine that! A reformation built around mission and relationship…” (Carson quoting Chris Seay, 24).

Tom Julien has long preached that the 300 year focus of the Grace Brethren fellowship, to which I belong, has revolved around biblical truth, relationship and mission. I believe these time-tested, anabaptistic emphases provide reliable guiding principles for leaders to follow as they lead local churches into the postmodern, pre-whatever future.

What if local churches, rather than focusing on one or two of the above issues, espoused a tripartite focus, the emphases of the inherited AND emerging churches — the truth of Scripture, community and mission wedded in dynamic tension. Imagine that!