'Emerging Church Movement' - Threat to the Gospel

Leaders call 'Emerging Church Movement' a threat to Gospel - (BP): "When asked whether a person must trust Christ as dying to make atonement for sin in order to be a Christian, McLaren replied, 'I want to help people understand everything they can about the cross. ... I wouldn't say that having that understanding (Jesus dying as a substitute for sinful humanity) is all that it means to be a Christian. I think that some people might have that understanding and not be interested in following Jesus. They want Jesus' blood to pay for their sins so they can go to heaven, but they aren't really interested in following Jesus in this life.'"

When are people going to realize that questions are not "threats", and that re-thinking our pat and simplistic answers is not a bad thing? The real "threat" is allowing people to stagnate in the pews while the world around passes them by. The real "threat" is embracing "Jesus Is The Answer" while never checking to see what the real Questions are outside the four walls. I get tired of everyone throwing stones at the way church is changing and at the leaders of the "conversation".

"Mohler concludes that McLaren and other leaders in the Emergent Church represent 'a significant challenge to biblical Christianity.'"

The challenge is not to biblical Christianity - there is more love and respect for the WHOLE of scripture within this shift than I've seen in lots of other circles. No, the "challenge" is to the status quo, to the elitist and judgmental attitudes of those who've already figured it out for themselves and are now marketing it to the masses, devoid of meaningfulness and transformational power.