{"id":192,"date":"2007-09-23T10:52:46","date_gmt":"2007-09-23T10:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/unconverging.html"},"modified":"2007-09-23T10:52:46","modified_gmt":"2007-09-23T10:52:46","slug":"unconverging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/unconverging.html","title":{"rendered":"Unconverging"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For those of you following the Emergent\/Missional church in the US (which probably isn&#8217;t too many of you, but ah well..), <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/bobhyatt.typepad.com\/bobblog\/2007\/09\/battle-of-the-m.html\">this is interesting: <\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>So Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Seattle has now officially <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.desertfather.com\/2007\/09\/22\/making-history-in-the-triangle\/\">called Rob Bell<\/a> of Mars Hill Michigan (along with Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt) <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/lifepointe.typepad.com\/travisjohnson\/2007\/09\/convergent-conf.html\">a heretic<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/lifepointe.typepad.com\/travisjohnson\/2007\/09\/convergent-conf.html\">And here:<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Then, <a href=\"http:\/\/theresurgence.com\/md_blog\">Mark Driscoll<\/a> spoke.\u00a0 Excellent stuff.\u00a0 I watch Mark&#8217;s Vidcast every week.\u00a0 If I could pick a church as a backup church to attend other than <a href=\"http:\/\/moviechurch.info\/\">Life Pointe<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/marshillchurch.org\/\">Mars Hill Church<\/a> would probably be the place.\u00a0 In watching, listening, and reading his stuff, I&#8217;ve had a mental picture that he is a 6&#8217;4&#8243; trucker looking guy.\u00a0 I guess he&#8217;s about 5&#8217;6&#8243;?\u00a0 So, my mental picture of his persona was off a bit&#8230;though he still comes off truckerish, engaging, funny, abrasive, and insightful.<br \/>\nWith that said, he has HUGE words for the Church.\u00a0 He talked about:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the difference between the three streams of the emerging church (the relevants, the Emergents, and the confessional contextual calvinists).<\/li>\n<li>how that Brian McClaren, Doug Pagitt, Rob Bell are basically sell outs when it comes to Scriptural integrity.\u00a0 He presented a strong case and held nothing back.\u00a0 Interesting stuff.\u00a0 Without a doubt, this is the most direct, I&#8217;ve heard Mark address these issues.<\/li>\n<li>He specifically cited their views on the Atonement, views on homosexuality,rabbinical study, their influences, and theology.<\/li>\n<li>There were some very vivid conversations and references to the virgin Mary <em>[from Amy: I think he means, specifically, the Virgin Birth]<\/em>\u00a0and McClaren&#8217;s new organization, &#8220;Deep SHIfT&#8221;.<\/li>\n<li>Most importantly, he spoke of how there is a generation of people on the scene now who have no historical knowledge of the Church and how we must engage them.<\/li>\n<li>If we fail to do so, the Church will continue to compete for an ever shrinking circle of angry children of liberal or fundamentalist religious people.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Brian McClaren&#8217;s new book is out in a couple of weeks &#8211; I&#8217;ve read it and did a brief review of it a few weeks ago, but I&#8217;ll have a more detailed look when it&#8217;s published. I&#8217;ve read through Rob Bell&#8217;s book on sexuality:<em>\u00a0 <\/em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Sex-God-Exploring-Connections-Spirituality\/dp\/0310263468\"><em>Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0<\/em>and wasn&#8217;t exactly blown away by it. Not nearly as &#8220;radical&#8221; as the buzz would have you believe, and, most fascinating to me, no treatment of procreation. And you know, if you&#8217;re treating the connection between sexuality and spirituality, that small matter of how, in sex, God works through our interconnected lives and bodies to, you know..make new human beings&#8230;might be important.<br \/>\nA lot more here, at the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/emerginggrace.blogspot.com\/2007\/09\/open-discussion-convergent-podcast.html\">Emerging Grace blog<\/a> &#8211; she has listened to the podcast of Driscoll&#8217;s talk, outlines it, and asks for comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For those of you following the Emergent\/Missional church in the US (which probably isn&#8217;t too many of you, but ah well..), this is interesting: So Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Seattle has now officially called Rob Bell of Mars Hill Michigan (along with Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt) a heretic. And here: Then, Mark Driscoll&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Unconverging - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/unconverging.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unconverging - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For those of you following the Emergent\/Missional church in the US (which probably isn&#8217;t too many of you, but ah well..), this is interesting: So Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Seattle has now officially called Rob Bell of Mars Hill Michigan (along with Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt) a heretic. And here: Then, Mark Driscoll&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/unconverging.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-09-23T10:52:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"awelborn\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Unconverging - Via Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/unconverging.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Unconverging - Via Media","og_description":"For those of you following the Emergent\/Missional church in the US (which probably isn&#8217;t too many of you, but ah well..), this is interesting: So Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Seattle has now officially called Rob Bell of Mars Hill Michigan (along with Brian McLaren and Doug Pagitt) a heretic. And here: Then, Mark Driscoll&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/unconverging.html","og_site_name":"Via Media","article_published_time":"2007-09-23T10:52:46+00:00","author":"awelborn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/unconverging.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/unconverging.html","name":"Unconverging - Via Media","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-09-23T10:52:46+00:00","dateModified":"2007-09-23T10:52:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/unconverging.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/unconverging.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/unconverging.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Unconverging"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/","name":"Via Media","description":"Amy Welborn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a","name":"awelborn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","caption":"awelborn"},"description":"Amy Welborn was born in 1960, the only child of a now-retired professor of political science, a teacher-librarian-artist mother,deceased since 2001, was a teacher, librarian and artist. The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}