Comments on: Book Review: The Emerging Church by Dan Kimball

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 03:21:59 +0000

I want to give you feedback, too, Roger. Referring to your article on Ambassadors For Christ led me to believe that you had written an article that was received and published by some group other than yourself, or at least larger than yourself.
I am not suggesting that you intended this. Lest you give folks the false impression though, you may want to make more clear on the Ambassadors For Christ site that it is your own creation, and not affiliated with any larger institution than yourself, Amy and Chad… unless I am mistaken. Is AFC operating under the authority of or endorsed by any church or parachurch organization outside of yourselves?
If it isn't easy to put that into the heading of the page so that people would undestand when they went to read the article, it might be worth making some small statement as you refer to an article such as, 'in this article I've posted on my other site.'

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 03:01:50 +0000

Roger I read the article. I don't agree with you. I know that to enter into a discussion with you I would have to do an exigetical study and I don't have the time for that at the moment so I will not. I would ask though, is there any Christian tradition or denomination that affirms the position you take? Are you part of a group that denies that God speaks to individual Christians. You are the first person I have heard espouse this theology.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 31 May 2005 04:41:55 +0000

I agree that the Holy Spirit leads us, the question is how. I don't intend to get much into this now, but I don't believe the Bible teaches that we are lead through listening prayer. Lectio devina is a type of listening prayer, perhaps the most formal type. I have a book I'll be reviewing on it some time this summer- The Art of Listening Prayer by Seth Barnes. I'll probably also review another book on it, like Willard's Hearing God so I can get a more representative perspective. In the mean time, I have an article, "Does God Whisper?", that touches this issue.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 31 May 2005 03:49:49 +0000

I would like to hear that. I don't know what you are specifically referring to, but I don't understand what you would oppose regarding listening prayer. You mentioned your opposition to lectio divina as well. When I was initially introduced to it, I was turned off by it because I was more interested in learning the content of scripture. I have since come to appreciate it as a form of prayer.
I believe that the Holy Spirit leads us. I hold this to be secondary and under the authority of scripture. However, I believe that practices such as lectio divina can be a valid discipline of listening for the Spirit to speak in the midst of our lives.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 29 May 2005 20:48:16 +0000

I agree. I do fear we're becoming something like a Dan Kimball fan site though Kimball fans who aren't fans of the emerging church… Maybe I'll have to do a post against listening prayer to balance this all out…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 28 May 2005 14:52:30 +0000

I'm glad to see that you have connected to someone in the emerging church that you can trust, respect, and hear beneficial things from.
It helps someone like me who has positive feelings for the emerging church movement to have someone we can commonly respect within the emerging group.