Emerging Church “Motivational” Posters and Response

Thanks for highlighting these Hemant. As I said in my post about them, I think Christians need to decide which set of posters they’d rather have representing their faith: the mocking, mean-spirited ones, or the ones that illustrate a way of grace, understanding, and inclusiveness.

I’m encouraged to find more and more Christians who would choose the second set and are repulsed by the attitude behind the first set (no matter how humorous they may be). Frankly, I’m grateful for the anti-EC posters, they do a great job of highlighting the contrast between these two ways of being a Christian, and I doubt that many people who compare the two sets will be attracted to that intolerant form of Christianity. By serving as the perfect foil, people like Phil Johnson and Ken Silva actually do a great service to the emerging church movement. The more people see what we are reacting against, the more will come over to our way of following Christ.

Hi Hemant – thanks for the link. I think these posters really demonstrate that there are very different ways of being a Christian (which is both a good and bad thing imo…)

Okay, I too must admit ignorance. What is this “Emerging Church”, and were the first set of posters meant to be taken sarcastically?

Thanks, Mike C.-I really like your website, it gives me a lot to talk about with my Christian friends. Even though you didn’t write that article with atheists in mind, I’m pretty sure I understood where you all are coming from, and what exactly it is that you’re emerging from:) My husband and I had an argument just 2 days ago with someone who identifies herself as a Christian but mainly hasn’t put much thought into her worldview. The basic premise of our argument was that Jesus never had a big nice building to preach in, and concerned himself mainly with feeding the hungry and helping the sick and disenfranchised(so the stories go, anyways), and how very little of that gets addressed in any of our local churches . I have attended services with friends in various congregations, thinking for my kids’ sake that it’s the thing to do, but nothing relevant ever got covered, and I left every time thinking what a sweet, easy gig that preacher has! Unlike us public school teachers, he can be seen as an expert without ever picking up more than just the one antiquated volume from his childhood and he’s set for life. I will really need to check out the authors you’ve sited, so thanks for giving me even more to add to my already unmanageable reading list.

Mike Clawson said:

“By serving as the perfect foil, people like Phil Johnson and Ken Silva actually do a great service to the emerging church movement. The more people see what we are reacting against, the more will come over to our way of following Christ.”

Indeed, just as we’re supposed to do ala Isaiah 6:8-10. And unfortunately the accelerating apostasy within the American Christian Church will cause many people to jump on the broad road that leads to destruction.

Tragically, I’ve no doubt that people will defect over to “your way” of following a Christ of their own imagination just as you in the emerging counterfeit Christian church movement have (see-2 Corinthians 11:4).

“Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so” is just putting a lie into the mouth of little kids. They DON’T know that. And neither do their parents. At most, their parents choose to pretend to believe it, or actually believe it, but they do not KNOW it. We talk about physical rape, but the rape of a mind in this way is much more intimate, much worse. Brainwashing through coercive singing (the kids have no real choice but to mouth those words). Pretty transparent tactic.