Thanks for commenting.

I hope you noticed that this part was my addition “[MK - in addition, Emergent is centered around a specific site/organization]” That’s me saying that and not Piper.

I’m a little confused about your statement about “most emergent churches.” How can you tell when a church is Emergent? (That sounds like a lead-in to a punchline… but its not. I’m sure the guys over at Pyro could fill that in with 100 great punchlines.)

I’m fine with not over-defining these terms and I would say your analysis of Piper’s concerns is true. He’s probably more concerned with the lack of a coherent doctrinal statement among the Emergent churches. But I guess that’s why we go by Baptimergent, Anglimergent, and Fundamergent – in the case of the new movement expected to emerge from the co-writing of MacArthur and McLaren.

Your last sentence is bang-on “Piper and Driscoll really only care about creating reformed/Calvinist Christians, and to me that’s too bad.”

All one needs to do is witness the outpouring of Calvin-gushing this week on the various blogs… and I say this as a multi-point Calvinist myself… but there was something very near to idolatry going on. And Calvin himself probably would have said “Shut up already.”

I heard of someone who, upon meeting Piper in person for the first, blurted out “I’m a Piper-ette!” to which Piper replied, “I’m very sorry to hear that…”

I respect Piper a great deal, but I think he perpetuates a common misunderstanding here about Emergent — he fails to distinguish between the Emergent Village network, which is a diverse cross-section of Christians from a variety of theological and ecclesiological traditions, and your run-of-the-mill emergent Christian. Piper’s assertion is that emergent Christians are allergic to precise theology. In my experience, the opposite is true. Emergent Christians care a great deal about theology (the “doctrine,” which Piper strangely equates to the Jell-O in the famous “nailing Jell-O to a wall” analogy). Most emergent churches have statements of faith. (I’m not sure I can think of one that doesn’t!) The Emergent Village network, however, does not have a statement of faith, precisely because it represents a wide cross-section of Christians from a variety of theological and ecclesiological traditions.

So while I agree that Piper “gets it” more than MacArthur and others, I still think he’s missing the point. It’d be more honest if Piper were to say that he has fundamental disagreements with where emergent Christians are willing to go theologically, which is really what he’s alluding to when he lifts up Driscoll for being “very vigilantly biblical [and] reformed.” Piper isn’t really interested in creating more “emerging” or “missional” Christians. Piper and Driscoll really only care about creating reformed/Calvinist Christians, and to me that’s too bad.

Good to hear from you! Help me out on the mission.

Would love to come to Seattle. The closest I might get this year is Calgary… but that’s still 12 hrs away.

I’ll make it there yet.

Glad your helping tear down perceptions of Piper as an old cog…

See here for Driscoll’s full explanation of his understanding of the emerging church: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58fgkfS6E-0

When are you coming to Seattle?

-Joel