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Title: The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations
ISBN: 0310245648
Author:
Dan Kimball
Publicate Date: 2003-03-01
Publish: 2003-03-01
List Price: $16.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $4.28
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $2.42
Amazon Merchant Price: $12.40
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| Customer Review: |
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1: A Book for the Cool Kids.
Offers some important foundations to outreach to the postmodern generation and gives a helpful insight into exploring models of ministry beyond traditional Sunday mornings. BUT the focus was largely on reaching those who are simply a tad counter-cultural. "If you are an artist and have a tattoo, you're in." But what about ministry for the real world hard-living young adults who take real effort to spend time with?
I got tired of Kimball boasting about his open-minded interactions with young adults and upholding his own pious routines for us all to admire.
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2: Heeresy
Dan Kimball wants to edit The Bible and tear out a few pages.
Revelation 22:18-19
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
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3: Good read
Most of my commentary on this text would simply echo the pros and cons of the other reviews.
It is a general intro. to the praxis of emergent ecclesiology.
The book was most helpful for me in laying out how other churches are doing the emerging thing.
The book was least helpful in Rick Warren's defensive and sometimes critical sidebar blurbs - the other voices and perspectives were interesting and welcome, but Warren's were a bit more jarring and dissonant. If I want a Rick Warren book, I'll pick up a Warren book. Despite Warren's denial of the fact in the Foreward he wrote for this text, his ministry is modern and aimed at boomer moderns - why was he included in this text by Kimball?
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4: So close to being a great book...
This is quite a challenging book for any traditional pastor. In fact, I think the material presented within would be quite challenging even for pastors of more modern churches. But challenging in a good way. I would encourage every pastor to read this and work through the material within, but maybe read a book like Stott's Cross of Christ or Noel Due's Created for Worship first to get your priorities straight.
The need for having a firm Biblical foundation before reading this book is great because though the ideas and concepts are quite engaging and exciting, some of them can be easily carried out in excess and without the proper motivation, setting, and emphasis.
Kimball also has a habit of generalizing and stereotyping which sound convincing but aren't necessarily true. In addition to that, his criticism of the Seeker movement is rather passionate, but in the end his model is very similar, for it is also focused (on one level) at attracting people to church, though since this attraction is played out in a postmodern setting it looks, feels and behaves quite differently than the modern Seeker movement.
What I think is good about this book (as I thought the same about his corresponding Emerging Worship) is that Kimball raises issues and difficulties facing the church at present. These issues must be dealt with, but not necessarily the way Kimball demands they be. The primary problem with his solutions is that not every church is in California, and nor are all the high school and college age church members completely up to their heads in postmodern thought. Pastors and ministry leaders should read this book not because it has all the answers, but they need to see if the issues are relevant to their body of believers as well as if any of the solutions proffered by Kimbal might be able to minister to their people in their respective settings.
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5: Not a Postmodern church
Dan Kimball's book is not a Postmodern take on the modern church, but simply a new formula for the seeker-sensitive church to adopt. Dismissing any problems with the "seeker" way of carrying out the Great Commission, he sees it time to simply change the game plan. Unfortunately academic terminology is used to "dress-up" his view as he changes the meanings to respected words such as "postmodern" and "deconstruction". Dan Kimball's book is not propaganda; it just uses the same techniques.
Kimball uses the term "deconstructing" to describe the part of the book where he highlights the problems with the modern church (the book only addresses seeker-sensitive style church). Although "deconstruction" is an actual word, its meaning varies. As a philosophical term, it is very difficult to define. Kimball seems to use this word with authority, but also confuses the word with the term "destruction". Kimball fails to recognize the difference between the two.
This would also bring to light the second part of the book "Reconstructing". He puts the philosophy that he just destructed back together. His idea is to put it back together in a different way that would make more sense. But since he never fully "deconstructed" the idea, he puts his idea of church together the same way in a different form. An example would be building a house of cards, watching it fall, and then building it again in a different form, yet never replacing the cards with sturdier materials.
The seeker-sensitive church model comes from a Modernist way of thinking. A Postmodern view on the seeker-sensitive church would not be a good one. Although some would say the truth hurts, and is necessary for growth, some are blinded to it. Kimball also demonstrates one's inability to remove oneself to get a complete view (Kimball doesn't mention any styles or beliefs other than the seeker, whether they suffer from the same issues or not).
Maybe it is not formulas that the seeker-sensitive movement is using, but the fact that they are using formulas at all that is causing the problem.
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