Many of us evangelicals know the inner discontent we grew up concerning the stripped down, austere, narrow understanding of the atonement we were taught day in day out in church, Sunday school and youth camp. This forensic substitutionary penal view of the atonement gave us an introduction to the atonement, opened up a narrow doorway into a life with God, but in the end left us empty as to how this relationship with God called atonement drew us into a complete and totally new way of life. As George Lindbeck once commented at the Wheaton Theology Conference, "the penal substitutionary view of the atonement was better than nothing," but it was severely lacking as a metaphor for understanding what God has done for us and all of creation in and through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Many have tried to write fuller treatments of the atonement that address the inherent weaknesses of evangelical theologies of the atonement. Evangelicals have even made valiant efforts (see most recently here). But Scot McKnight's treatment in A Community Called Atonement is monumental in its accomplishment to address this lack in the N. American church. His latest book, part of the Emergent Village's Living Theology series edited by Tony Jones, is monumental not so much because it covers new ground in the field of atonement studies. Nor is it monumental because it covers the atonement with historical/theological/Biblical Studies depth (which it does!) with a keen awareness of the current hermeneutical debates (which it does), and provides a way to think more holisticly and expansively about the atonement (which it does!). The monumental accomplishment of this book is that it does all that IN A FORMAT AND LANGUAGE WHICH IS EMINENTLY READABLE FOR THE AVERAGE THEOLOGICALLY INTERESTED READER. For me this is an extraordinary accomplishment which exhibits McKnight at his best. This is a tool to help all of us pastors teach the great doctrine of what our God has accomplished for the world in Christ in ways that invite our congregations into the extraordinary life of redemption and reconciliation with God and the world made possible in Christ's life, death and resurrection and exaltation as Lord over the universe. It gives us the basics to teach the whole atonement as an invitation into a way of life and what God is doing to reconcile the whole world to Himself 2 Cor 5:17-21.

In this book, you will find concise treatments of all the history and theories of the atonement and their basis in Scripture. You will find how these various theories are understood via images/metaphors, unfolded via the stories they tell, and how they are worked out in communal life via the various practices. But the unique contribution of this little book is McKnight's insistence that the atonement must birth a peculiar kind of community. It is almost as if, for McKnight, ecclesiology becomes the centrepoint of the outworking of the atonement worked in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For some of us closet Hauerwasian's, this is a breath of fresh air. On page 75 McKnight says "… Atonement cannot be restricted to saving individuals. When it is, it destroys the fabric of the biblical story. The fabric is the community of faith, and atonement is designed to create community …" For a long time there has been a reticence in the emergent community to give too central a place to the church as the instrument of God's justice in the world. For me this is incompatible with the postmodern recognition that society is fragmented, we have no longer a single meta narrative by which to communicate and talk about salvation never mind justice in the world, and we therefore must work out who we are in embodied communities that infect our neighborhoods. I think McKnight's book builds a theology of the atonement which makes this point stunningly clear with a breadth that cannot be denied.

Get the book! It will be a resourse for the preaching of the entire Story of the atonement in Christ that in turn can transform your church into a missional participant in God's Mission to redeem the world through Christ.

I sometimes find myself in the uncomfortable position of critiquing the megachurch in public settings (hopefully gracefully, theologically and for the purpose of the furtherance of Christ's kingdom). I often get a response that goes something like this: I know many souls who came to Christ because of the mega church. I know many local groups gathering in the neighborhood who are doing all the things you talk about and they are part of the megachurch. The local megachurch gives more money to the causes of social justice than any other evangelical church I know. And a litany goes describing all the good things God is doing at the mega church.

I have no doubt, and I believe with all my heart, that THERE ARE GOOD THINGS, AMAZING THINGS, INDEED KINGDOM LIFE CHANGING THINGS, GOING ON IN THE MEGA CHURCH. And I also believe that not all mega churches are the same.

Nonetheless I still contend that we must question the nature of Kingdom work being furthered through the megachurch phenomenon of evangelicalism in America. There are important questions that need to be asked concerning a.) how the structures/rituals of megachurches form Christians into passive observers, consumers of entertainment and gospel information, b.) the inherent structural encumbrances which are enormous hurdles to overcome in actually being the living, organic "body of Christ" in the sense that the pages of the NT call us to, and c.)the challenges structurally to overcome in simply maintaining a leadership that is in integrity with what it means to be a servant in the sense that our Lord himself calls us to. All of this I have written extensively on in the book The Great Giveaway. I have no intention on rehearsing the arguments in that book.

None of these issues are negated in their importance by the fact that "GOOD THINGS ARE HAPPENING AT THE MEGACHURCH!" Again, I have no doubt that "GOOD THINGS ARE HAPPENING AT THE MEGACHURCH!" My two cautions regarding all the "GOOD THINGS ARE HAPPENING AT THE MEGACHURCH!" is"

a.) Let us not extrapolate from some good things happening in individual lives, or in a number of small groups in the M-church's neighborhood, that these things are happening across the entire spectrum of the 18-20,000 people coming to the megachurch. For as I contend in the first chapter of The Great Giveaway, a legitimate question to ask of all the activity generated by the mega church, say 15,000 people coming every week, is how much of this is actually Kingdom activity. Is the mega church of 20,000 really a embodied Christ-people of 1,000 with a lot of other activity going around it with its concurrent huge costs in finances, staff and facilities? There are studies that suggest something close to this (read this) If so we ought to ask for whom and why are we spending all this money and activity? As I said in the Great Giveaway, we may "… be building something akin to a Hollywood Western movie set - its exterior looks real, big and impressive, but what is actually there is a lot less than meets the eye."

b.) Let us recognize there is an unintended tendency within the mega church to make what's happening in isolated parts of the mammoth organization seem a lot bigger than it actually is. This then generates the buzz necessary to raise (divert?) huge funds towards building things bigger. An isolated 15, 20 stories of individuals being saved and initiated into baptism (great stuff in themselves!!) gets produced in a video production of Disney style excellence complete with music and plasma screen hyper-reality (the famous baptismal videos), wowing the emotions and sense of everyone in the 15,000 seat audience. The effect is to make it seem like this is happening everywhere? The effect is to make it seem like this is much bigger than it actually is? Where in fact the same, maybe more per capita, salvation-baptisms are happening in much smaller social bodies having spent a lot less in resourses and activity? The same holds true for local small groupings of megachurches and their work in the neighborhoods. For mega churches take a few great stories of things happening, and highlight them via a produced video. It makes it seem this is happening everywhere throughout the megachurch. The truth however may be that the mammoth size of the mega organization works against the engaged mature leadership necessary for this to happen in the neighborhoods. It takes organic engaged leadership for this to happen and only so much of this can happen in a church of 10,000. What about a mega church which gives 4 million to social justice but has spent 85 million in the last three years on a building. Sure it's great that a mega-church gives 4 million to social justice causes. But stacked next to mammoth other budgets, is this really as significant as its sounds?

In truth, anything that happens positively in the mega church gets caught up in the magnifying effects of the mega machine, and makes it seem 100 times bigger than it is. But what if we took 15 or 20 thousand people gathered in smaller church bodies across N. America, spending much less time and energy on facilities, salaries, management, and add up all the salvations, engagements for Christ's justice, WHICH WOULD BE BIGGER? I want to plead for some sanity in the way we think about success in the N. American church context.

After traveling and talking around the country for 2 years, my tentative conclusion is: per capita, per person, per dollar spent, the really significant impact for salvations, justice and outreach are exactly here in these organic, non-produced, non attractional missional communities emerging all over N. America. I am not asking that all mega churches cease existence. I am just suggesting that denominations and seminaries not get mesmerized by mega-strategy when assessing missional strategies going forward.

For Christ and His Kingdom

Up/rooted is gathering over at the Vine Thursday night 7 p.m. to discuss the relationship between emerging church and evangelicalism. I think evangelicals of all types are taking notice of the emerging church/missional church and its variations. It's rise to prominence owes in part to the rejection of the evangelical church by many sons and daughters of (Boomer) evangelicals. Jon at Up-rooted asked us to talk about this question: What real or perceived shortcoming (singular on purpose!) in evangelicalism do you see the emerging church responding to, and what are the strengths and weaknesses of that response? Scot McKnight and Wayne Johnson (from Trinity Evangelical Div School) will be chiming in along with myself on this question. Here's what I'll be talking about.

A We're in/You're Out Mentality
One weakness in evangelicalism I believe the emerging church is responding to is: evangelicalism's excessively rationalist approach to truth and salvation that birthed a stubborn "we're in/you're out" mentality. Like I said on the churchandpomo blog, there has been an impulse in evangelical fundamentalism towards a.) an intolerant judgmental exclusivism, b.) an arrogant, even violent, certainty about what we do know, and c.) an overly-rationalized hyper-cognitive gospel that takes the mystery out of everything we believe.

Many of us grew up with this. This was most expressed in the way we made hell the selling point of the gospel. We said those who do a.) and b.) are pardoned from their sin and escape hell. Those who do not do a.) or b.) are going to hell. We built an apologetic and a mindset that defended this to try to prove to people outside the church they are doomed. It came off arrogant, coercive, unloving, and indeed antithetical to the very nature of the gospel. In a world of democratic pluralism, the gospel's witness became shut off, dispassionate and downright sectarian. It became impossible to represent such a gospel as "good news."

McLaren talks about this in New Kind of Christian when he says:

If we Christians would take all that energy we put into proving we're right and everyone else is wrong and invested that energy in pursuing and doing good, somehow I think more people would believe we are right. p. 61

If you ask me whether I believe there is a hell I will tell you yes. To me the reality of hell is real and it is evident in the evil and destruction of souls I see here on earth all the time. If you ask me whether I believe that the salvation God has worked through the person and work of Jesus Christ has direct consequences on our eternal destiny as persons, again I will tell you yes. But if you ask me whether this singularly defines what it means to be saved, here is where I would say no. For our eternal life is the end of a life lived in His salvation (Rom 6:22), not the goal in and of itself. And so let's not put the cart before the horse. The good news is that God has come in Christ inaugurating his salvation in the world. In Christ (and His Kingdom) there is now forgiveness of sins that is sets loose grace and forgiveness among us and to the world. In Christ (and His Kingdom) there is reconciliation with God that breeds a new reconciliation among us and to the world.(2 Cor 5:18-20) In Christ (and His Kingdom) there is a healing that has begun through the cross among us and to the world. In Christ's Rule there is indeed a new politic, a way of being, living in the life of God made possible in Christ's life, death and resurrection that takes shape among us and into the world. Behold all things are made new. (Rev 21.1.; 2 Cor 5:17). Our calling is nothing more nor less than to invite the world into this incredible new life.

A Separation of Personal Justification from Social Justice
A second weakness that I believe emerging churches are responding to (giving a healthy corrective against) is the individualizing tendencies of evangelical ways of thinking and being Christ's church. Our churches are organized to meet the spiritual needs of individuals and our salvation is incredibly individualistic. Perhaps the most stereotypical way this comes out is the way we have made Jesus into a personal Savior dangerously sounding like Jesus is in the same category as my personal barber, personal trainer or dental hygenist (BTW I don't have a personal trainer). And of course the danger is salvation becomes all about me. I know it didn't start out this way in evangelicalism, but it was latent in the structure of our soteriology. And so we have almost romanticized our relationship with God, created a narcissitic experience of it, and end in itself. And churches become all about preserving, and maintaining and nurturing this experience in their parishioners.

But the gospel is not about getting something, it is about participating in Something, God's work of reconciling the whole world to Himself ... and yes we do have a relationship with God which becomes personal .. between me and God .. but it is inseparable from His mission. As I said in an article I wrote for Allelon:

imagine what it would be like in our churches, if there were no such division (between personal justification and social justice). If we were not invited to go forward as individuals to receive a packaged salvation from God that gets us off hell, but instead came forward to become part of something, what God is doing in the world through Jesus Christ - the reconciliation of all men and women with Himself, each other and all of creation (2 Cor 5:19), which BTW inextricably must still include my own personal reconciliation/relationship with God.

Again, McLaren is speaking to this when he says in an article:

The term missional asks this question: what is the purpose of the church? To enfold and warehouse Christians for heaven, protecting them from damage and spoilage until they reach their destination? Or to recruit and train people to be transforming agents of the kingdom of God in our culture? The missional church understands itself to be blessed not to the exclusion of the world, but for the benefit of the world. It is a church that seeks to bring benefits to its nonadherents through its adherents.

Weaknesses of the Emerging Response
The question from moderator of the up-rooted session asked each of us to also talk about a weakness in the emerging church response. I'll try to post on this after Thursday night but real quick, I would say that the strength and the weakness of the emerging response to evangelicalism' judgementalism has been the wide embrace of descontructive theology. For deconstructive philosophy/theology certainly gives us the skills to diagnose our narrow mindedness, the lost voices we have shut out, our contextualized imprisonment, the ways we have imprisoned God in the rationalized controlling structures of certain Reformed Western rationalities. Yet it fails to deliver for the truth is always "yet to come." It inevitably leaves the gospel disembodied. As I have argued elsewhere, there are resourses in McIntyre, Yoder, Hauerwas to be embodied communities, communities of hospitality, open communities of witness here and here."

In relation to emerging church's response to the false evangelical dichotomy between personal salvation and social justice, I think the missional mantra - that God is already working, let us just join up with Him wherever he is working - sometimes ignores that God is not working everywhere. There are powers in rebellion against God. We fail to deal with Foucault's great insight : that worldly power is this homogenous totality that engulfs, absorbs indeed incorporates all resistance within it. So in essence, we start out working for justice against the dominant Symbolic order and end up supporting it, helping to spread its injustice even more. The discourse totalizes us. In short the emerging church is right when they say "NO JESUS WITHOUT JUSTICE" but naïve to think we can know JUSTICE WITHOUT JESUS. And I by no means mean that all works of justice and mercy require a gospel tract to be handed out. This is quite simply NOT WHAT I MEAN. But I'll have to explain this later for those who haven't read this blog or my writings on this subject before.

If you're around Thursday, come on over and join the conversation.

Some Links on Some Theological Issues I View as Crucial For Emerging Missional Church

1. The New Perspective - Scot McKnight's posts on the New Perspective on Paul here. Thanks Scot for summarizing the issues and debate surrounding the New Perspective. Though you may not agree with the entirety of the argument, I believe it is essential for all emerging pastors to understand the New Perspective if we are to go beyond a soteriology (understanding of salvation ) that is locked singularly into the dominant Western Lutheran reading of the apostle Paul.

2. Tithing - Tithing may be Biblical but Not Christian. Graham Old does us a service here in summarizing how the tithe might miss what giving is about for the Christian community. He's pulling from Yoder and the year of Jubilee idea in the Old and New Testaments. I view this as fundamental to fostering a new culture of justice in communities of Christ.

3. Abraham Kuyper's view of the Relation between Creation, Falleness, God's Work in Culture and Redemption. Richard Mouw gives us a helpful summary here.(thanks to Darryl Dash for the link). Since much of missional theology has its impulse from this strand of Reformed theology, it is important to understand. Richard Mouw's recent book He Shines On All That's Fair is the best little book out there on this. My question, given the fragmented nature of postmodern discourse (the loss of metanarratives), and the post modern sense that the dominant Symbolic discourse (of politics and power) always engulfs resistance incorporating it into its cause, can the classic notion of Common Grace still maintain traction in the new thoughtworlds of postmodernity?

4. Why There Can Be No Division Between Confessing Jesus and Doing Justice. Dan Bell offers this concise piece of theological explanation for the kind of preaching/teaching that should drive this issue in the emerging church.

5. More Reflections on the Need for Missional Orders. Alan Roxburgh writes more on the need for missional orders in our time, spiritual formation into mission. At Life on the Vine we're in the process of developing our own missional order for missional life in the suburbs. Look for more in the weeks ahead on this blog.

6. Women in the Emerging Church. Here Julie Clawson talks about the lack of visible women leadership in the emerging church. I'd include diversity in there too. In at least two other other collaborative groups I have attended this past year where the awareness of postmodernity was important to the group's identity, the same issues existed. It's a problem for groups like emergent, not that they are not addressing it. But its beyond that. And so I have hopes that emerging and missional churches will lead the way in forging new forms of justice and reconciliation racially and in gender. I have some theories. But Julie speaks well about it and offers some good suggestions at the end.

7. And allow me to add 2007 Emergent Theological Philosophical Conversations Podcasts with Jack Caputo and Richard Kearney moderated by Tony Jones. They are well worth the listen. A great intro to Deconstructive Thought and Theological Exporation, an important position that must be reckoned with. An excellent job of putting this together by the Emergent Village organization.

Some Blog Posts on Disturbing Statistics that make you think the emerging/missional church critique is really important.

1. For those of us who remain evangelical, these are Brutal Statistics Concerning Our Witness because of the Kinds of People we Have become in the eyes of Others. I have hopes the emerging missional churches can counter these trends.

2. Pastors Burning Out from Michael Kruse. The forms of church leadership that we have been propagating are simply impossible to fulfil. They doom the pastor and the church to disaster. I believe emerging and missional churches are leading the way in thinking differently about church leadership,

3. I don't like to criticize and point fingers at pastors, but this list of pastors concerning how much money they make and how they spend it is stunning. I am sure there are special circumstances in some cases. But some of the names on the list surprised me. Thanks to Richard Cleaver for the link. Can emerging church leadership be different?

I have always had my feet in both evangelicalism and the emerging church/missional church conversations. From the beginning I have resonated with the questions emerging church thinkers were asking and the missiologies/ecclesiologies the missional thinkers were advocating. And yet I have also tried to maintain my relationships and my ecclesiastical accountability within evangelicalism, not only my own denomination but also evangelicalism as a whole. I believe I was born here and I should not go out and try to choose (in some sort of consumerist way) a denomination that suits my tastes. I was born into this tradition (I think we can call evangelicalism and certain denominations a tradition) and I should work for renewal and transformation within it. This is why the upcoming topic at Up/rooted North on September 20 is an important one for me - “Questioning the Answers: the emerging church critique of evangelicalism.” I look forward to being with Scot McKnight, who most of the emerging church crowd already is very familiar with as well as Wayne Johnson from Trinity Evangelicals Divinity School in Deerfield. Wayne is astute and open to understanding the emerging church and postmodernity. We'll be asking what is the most profound and substantive critique the emerging church offers evangelicalism, and what contribution in terms of doctrine and/or practice has the emerging church made for the benefit of the evangelical church. This should be a good time. There will be lots of conversation. Will Prof Don Carson show up?

Below is the announcement posted at the up/rooted blog. Sorry about my ridiculous mugshot but I blame this amateur photographer whose name will go unmentioned over at the seminary where I teach.

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Up/rooted-ers, have we got an evening for you: not just one thinker on the emerging church, but three! Up/rooted.north will be hosting a panel discussion called “Questioning the Answers: the emerging church critique of evangelicalism” on Thursday, Sept. 20^th at 7pm at Life on the Vine in Long Grove, IL.

You’re invited to this open and provocative panel discussion of the emerging church’s critiques of evangelicalism, and thoughtful consideration of the way forward. Our panel will consist of:

Scot McKnight, professor at North Park University and prodigious blogger and author;

Wayne Johnson, professor and director of the MDiv program at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School;

Dave Fitch, professor at Northern Baptist Seminary, pastor at Life on the Vine, and slightly less prodigious blogger and author.

Each panelist will respond to a particular emerging church critique of evangelicalism (think issues of authority, church structure, worship, preaching, role of Scripture, etc.) and we’ll get a chance to engage with them in open discussion of these crucial issues.

Come and engage these thinkers, teachers, and pastors and each other as we gather together around the emerging conversation. Hope to see you there!