Just finished reading...

...Why We're Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be). This excellent little book is probably the best common language introduction to the whole issue of the emergent/emerging church that I have come across. The authors, Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck, are a pastor and parishioner from a URC church in East Lansing, Michigan, and approach the subject from a sympathetic yet biblical viewpoint. Their analysis benefits from significant quotations from key emergent thinkers, citations from other, deeper critics, and a genuinely humble acknowledgement that some of the problems with church as it has been as cited by emergent voices are real and need attention. As I read, I was grateful for the documentation of citations--so often I would want to either check in a source I had read and available, or wanted to note the source to see if what they shared was a fair representation of what was being said in the original. I believe that, on the whole, fairness prevailed. I might quibble that Donald Miller, especially in his book Searching for God Knows What backs away a bit from some of the extremes of Blue Like Jazz, and shouldn't be lumped in with other emergents, but what they said he said was true. I'm not emergent--I'm too old (unless I were a founder type like McLaren, or their favorite theologian like McKnight, or their favorite "futurist" like Sweet), don't wear the right glasses, and don't drink Guinness (or any beer for that matter!!!). Now DeYoung and Kluck have written a great volume that states the more substantial reasons I don't wear the label. If you have any desire to figure the question out for yourself, especially if you've read McLaren's books, any Doug Pagitt, or loved Blue Like Jazz and wonder what the fuss is about, read this book!