Tony Jones in his book "The new Christians" says that the underlying reasons for the emerging churches popping up from the old denominations is to "save their own faith". Yes they reach people who traditional churches do not, but that is not really the reason. George Barna went and polled people who left other older religious groups to start community or non-denominational churches where they would be if they didn't form these new churches, 87% said they would stay home before returing to their previous older denomination.
Helez:
i know exactly what you are talking about. I worked at a church when i was younger that has since closed down. It was exactly as you say a dream had died. They just wanted to wait until the last person died and close the church.

Dear Jay,

I have very much enjoyed reading your articles on issues facing the churches of Christ. I have long struggled with the fact that I see fruit in the lives of those outside of the church of Christ. I don't know how to attribute that to anything other than the power of God transforming lives. Scripture says good fruit cannot come from a bad tree and we will know his disciples by their love for one another.

One of the challenges to me has been to reconcile this with the things we teach. I have read the positions of a lot of people on baptism and is it necessary for salvation. All I can come up with is that God said to do it and maybe it is not the most important thing to understand it all. As I have read, the debate reminds me a lot about the arguments over faith and works. I seem to go in circles with it. The only certain conclusions I can reach is that faith is important, works are important, grace is important, baptism is important.

As I have read and prayed for God to help me with this I have come to see how all the confusion develops. I can see how a person raised in certain faiths can see baptism as a work and how it seems to them that we are trying to add to what Jesus did on the cross.

One friend of mine from another faith asked me if we thought there was "something magic" in the water. Another conclusion–Judging whether someone is a Christian based on our understanding about baptism may also keep us from learning from them and may keep them from learning from us.

One thing I have come to believe is that I don't trust in my own or anyone else's understanding of scriptures. I trust in God alone. I will to the best of my ability, as honestly as I know how, try to do what God asks of me and trust in his amazing grace to save me despite whatever errors I have made. I know that sometimes there is rebellion in our hearts that we are not even aware of — that has definitely happened in my life. But from my experience, God gives us all what we need to learn and to humble us if that is the case.

Also, I appreciated your thoughts about the sin of not paying our preachers a living wage. I have seen first hand the heartache and pain of a preacher's wife unable to buy her children pretty basic necessities and living well below the standard of almost everyone else in the congregation. Sad, sad, sad.

In your article, you said teaching about grace was the answer to this problem, and I couldn't agree more. We are really missing something very important about grace. I believe teaching about grace would greatly help ALL of our relationships in life!!! Marriages, parents and children, work, friends, everything!!

Thank you for having the courage to challenge the way we think. All glory to God in the highest!!

"Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, " says the Lord Almighty. Zech. 4:6

I certainly agree with Barna and Wuthnow if what they mean is the denominations are dying. The idea of organizing around minuscule disagreements in doctrine seems to be comatose and near death.

Rather than new denominations, I think we'll see a lot of what's already happening: experimentation and conversation. It's not a bad thing although it's disorienting.

We need to get over the idea that someone will invent the perfect way to do church and we'll all get on board. It won't happen in my lifetime — or my children's.

I wish I could offer more comfort… usually I hear something along the lines of "I don't know what will happen to The Church in the next few years." My only response is that Jesus himself promised that hell would be overcome by the church. It seems to help a little, but I'm afraid some of them don't quite believe it.

In liminality, it is natural to have some segments moving farther in a given direction than others. Usually the ultimate consensus destination ends up not being the most extreme of the trial destinations.

Being "doctrinally static and entrenched" is not inherently a bad thing. I hope we are static and entrenched about the resurrection of Jesus, about atonement, about Jesus being Lord. There are other things that belong on that list. But our list has been far too long.