Jesus Cropped from the Picture

Jesus Cropped from the Picture

The Great Tradition provides the foundational support from which individual expression should be measured. Allegiance to Jesus starts with what God wants his “celebration” to be, not what the individual Emerging wants (see Chapter 6: Worship as Celebration). Potential Cults The Emergings’ commitment to following the life of Jesus will not, by itself, provide enough foundational support to keep them rooted in orthodoxy. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), Christian Scientists, and Jehovah’s Witnesses exemplify how a simple affirmation of Jesus or Jehovah is insufficient to keep a group anchored to historic Christian faith. Therefore, each Emerging church must “tie down” its theology to the Great Tradition or they will go the way of liberalism or become a cult that is an enemy of the very Jesus they are now trying to follow. Emergings are especially vulnerable to heresy because they center their theology around an open conversation . Training the Next Generation It is unclear how the Emerging Method will pass on its faith to their children. As a movement of young and middle-aged people, they may not have considered how to conduct Christian education for their children. Until children develop to the point where they can reason and reflect, they are unable to “enter a theological conversation,” which is a key to the Emerging Method.

Children can experience life in the Christian community but they also need to be told what Christians believe. The Emergings’ hesitancy to

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