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Emerging Truth

Ryan Bell just did an excellent four-part series over at Just Pastors. His last post was on Adventism emerging. It got me thinking about how we view and deal with truth. Our traditional understanding and usage of truth is one of the key areas that needs to emerge if we are going to be relevant in a postmodern context.

What does the emerging truth look like?

1. Focused and centered in Jesus who is THE TRUTH (John 14:6).

2. Leads people to love God and humans. We use the primary hermeneutic that Jesus presents in Matthew 22:36-40 in which he declares that all the law and prophets is summarized in the command to love God and your neighbor.

3. Focused on what is true. We spend our time exploring and experiencing what is beautiful, right, and powerful about the truth. We define it in positive terms and our energy is spent on gaining a deeper understanding of what is true and not attacking nor defending against what is false.

4. Transforming and Redemptive. The truth is not a list of abstract ideas with little relevance to a daily experience with God. Instead, it reaches to the inner core of who we are and how we relate to God. It is primarily redemptive and takes no joy or comfort in condemning what is false. While it does expose error, it does not condemn those who believed it but instead seeks to redeem and transform them to a healthier understanding of God.

5. Humble. We realize that we don't possess all the truth in the world. There is still much to be learned and we will continually be seeking for a deeper understanding of what is true. We have as much to learn from those outside Adventism as they have to learn from us. Our primary goal is not to give people the truth as already concretely defined but to experience and learn the truth together in community.

What other characteristics am I missing?
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Comments

j said…
You're missing the CORE of the emergent movement- the missional church!!!

It's my favorite part :)
8:17 PM
Joe said…
Sounds Dangerous!!
9:47 PM
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