Scot McKnight, at his popular Jesus Creed site, writes —
One more other thing: I’m convinced one of the most untapped sources of evangelical theology and ministry today is the Restoration Movement, sometimes called the Stone-Campbell Movement, and known to others as the Christian Church and the Churches of Christ. My experience confirms to me time and time again that these folks are quietly at work in the USA in gospel work.
I never thought I’d live to see the day …
(McKnight is the author of The Jesus Creed and The Blue Parakeet.)
Sooorry Baptist church…but it looks like the Churches of Christ are having the BEST WEEK EVER!!!
Christian Churches too . . . well maybe second best week after being named fastest growing religious group (after Mormons that is) 🙂
I am guessing that comment came in part as a result of the Lipscomb preaching lectures he recently attended. Glad he said that. There is so much good in the churches of Christ.
Let's not break our arms patting ourselves on our backs. 😉 I think the bigger compliment is that we've been seen as "quietly at work in the USA in gospel work".
To be fair, it is the Christian churches that are growing, not churches of Christ. Did I miss something? And, while growth in numbers is one measure of success, it is not a measure of orthodoxy as Joe reminded us by mentioning the Mormans.
As for McKnight, he is a great theologian and gifted writer but I am uncomfortable with this fairly new crop of thinkers and writers who are a bit fuzzy on the authority of Scripture and in some cases saying the church has as much authority as Scripture. Sound familiar? (Catholic..)
I am far from being a legalist but we don't have the option of ignoring the parts of the Bible that flies in the face of our designer theology. Some of these emergent guys insist that hermeneutics is weighter than the Scriptures we are trying to understand.
Sorry, but I don't think gloating is in order because of what Scott McKnight said.
Hey folks, it's ok for someone to say something nice about us occasionally. Why are we more willing to hear bad news than good?
You want to change the world? Start by finding some part of that world that is good, and nurture it so it will grow.
Life is dynamic. Scot McKnight is learning…just as we are learning. He doesn't have it all figured out. We have something of value to share with the world, and Scot McKnight may learn something from us. He may have already learned something that changes him. You know…the Lord is always at work. Maybe Scott noticed something that was good. Maybe he will look deeper.
Scot McKnight may learn something from us. He may have already learned something that changes him.
Jay has already pointed out that McKnight has had nothing but praise for Everett Ferguson's Baptism in the Early Church:
/2009/04/28/once-in-a-lifet…
While this is flattering, it refers to another era of our heritage. The come early stay late WW II generation is dying out if not mostly dead already. The "effort" that so surrounded the almost violent domestic church plantings of the 30s-60s by convincing denominationalists they were in error is gone.
Just like the other traditional religionists we have very little to offer our post modern America no matter how much we delude ourselves. We need more books like the "Case for Christ" and "Evidence that demands a verdict" and more thinking and theology that actually answers the questions that people are asking not the ones that people asked 50 years ago or the ones we think they should ask.