Book Review: The Emerging Church

Here are some of the more interesting (to me, at least) ideas and excerpts from Dan Kimball’s book, The Emerging Church. Like other book reviews... I could have gone on forever, but I want to keep posts somewhat reasonable in length.

“Being sensitive to seekers is not a style of worship! It is loving lost people enough to try to relate to them on their level (whatever that is) so Jesus can save them. It begins with not expecting nonbelievers to act, think, or feel like believers until they are.” -Rick Warren

“Can the church escape the happy-song-silk-plant ghetto and minister to a cheese-intolerant, spiritually self-sufficient culture?” -Sally Morgenthaler

“Living in a world of terrorism, ethnic cleansing, and racial-ethnic religious hatred, they (postmoderns) feel that strong beliefs and values are dangerous. We would be wise to affirm their desire for peace. May we gently show them how Jesus takes this very course in the religious world of his day, and how the cross is a message to the world, saying, ‘It is better to suffer violence for your beliefs than to inflict violence. This is the way of God’s kingdom.’” -Brian McLaren

“People increasingly long for the mystical and the spiritual rather than the evidential and facts-based faith of the modern soil. The way people respond and think is more fluid than systematic, more global than local, more communal than individualistic.” -Dan Kimball

“Jesus and his teachings will not seem as strange or repellant to non-Christians as will the Christian subculture we have created. Emerging generations are actually very interested in Jesus, but many times Christians get in the way.” -Dan Kimball

“A disciple of Jesus is one who practices his presence and arranges his or her life in such a way as to live as Christ would live if he were them. A disciple is one of those who have trusted Jesus with their whole life, so far as they understand it. Because they have done so, they want to learn everything He has to teach them about life in the Kingdom of God now and forever, and they are constantly with Him to learn this. Disciples of Jesus are those learning to be like Him.” -Dallas Willard

“We should not teach that discipleship is simply a set of things to do. Otherwise discipleship becomes works-oriented… If we are striving to be disciples of Jesus, then we must be in relationship with him. Practicing his presence through prayer is vital as we ask for the Spirit’s help. We need to remember that the disciplines of an apprentice are only a means. The Holy Spirit is the one who changes, grows, and sanctifies us.” -Dan Kimball

“Expecting all Christians to have a certain type of quiet time can wreak havoc in a church… We sometimes assume that if others do not experience the same thing, something must be wrong with them… God wants your worship, according to the way He made you. That may differ somewhat from the worship of the person who brought you to Christ or the person who leads your Bible study or church.” -Gary Thomas