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ol
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ul
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THE ERROR OF

EVANGELICAL/EMERGENT
EGOTISM

I’m So Glad I’m a Part of the Family of . . .

Greg Austin

www.GregAustin.org

Years ago I met a disciple of Hare Krishna on Alamo Street in
San Antonio, Texas. He was excitedly preaching his “gospel,” and I attempted to
engage him in conversation regarding the claims of Jesus Christ. He quickly
informed me, “We can’t talk: You can’t even understand the language I speak. I
am so far superior to you in the exalted Lord Krishna that it would be like a
Ph.D. trying to explain the theory of relativity to a Kindergartner.”

Not only was my Krishna friend wrong, he was glaringly and
egotistically wrong.

Today’s church is difficult to confine by any single, simplistic
definition, because so many appendages have appeared within the body. Some
of these are artificial limbs while others are life receiving and life
giving. A challenge is to see and to know the genuine by its fruit.

For the purpose of this discussion, let us consider two prominent
courses, which we will broadly call Traditional-Institutional and Emergent.

Something is troubling concerning some on both sides of this
“church-coin;” those who have departed their former church forms for a wineskin
more to their liking and perhaps more of God’s making, and those who remain in
their traditional, institutional church fellowships. It is the all too frequent
puffed up and conceited attitude that accompanies their departure from old
forms or their continuation among tradition.

Regardless of the titles these forms are given, they are often
descriptions that emphasize the superiority of one form of “church” over
another form of “church.” It’s the heart and not the intellect that is revealed
in the denunciations of old or new and the sometimes-sophomoric attitudes of
superiority in our belief that we have been “elevated” in our understanding of
the right and proper church.

The buzz words, organic, simple, house, you name it “church”
almost anticipate spiritual advantage over those poor dullards stuck in the
four walls of a dead, dry denominational church.

On the other side of the house are the blanket epithets: misleading,
utter folly, New Agers! Apostates! Christ Rejecters! And on both sides of
the issue is the same not so obscure insinuation: “Poor, pathetic things. They think they know God!”

These negative overtones come from the conspicuous smugness with
which those who participate in the “traditional” church are summarily dismissed
as being spiritual simpletons, and emergents are consigned to the fires of hell
for their perceived apostasy.

The typical retort I’ve heard from emergent folks is, “They’ve (the
traditionalists) been captivated by a spirit of pride,” or “control,” or
“ecumenism,” or “They’re just dumb sheep, being led to the slaughter.”
Traditionalists can be a bit more succinct in their judgments: “All emergents
are of the devil!”

Leaders of traditional forms, especially, have been the target of
much “sanctified wrath.” The “One Man Show,” the self-important “pastor-king”
is seen bilking and fleecing his ignorant flock of spiritual fools for his
personal gain.

And while there are legitimate grounds to reject the “one man” solo,
senior pastor exemplar, and while there are indeed charlatans in
preacher’s vestments, poking fun at or worse, denigrating those who see
their calling of God to be pastoral in nature is to commit a more grievous
error than misinterpreting a biblical term. Remember, the scriptures do indeed
assert, “He gave some pastors . . .” [1]

There are multiplied scores of honest, meek and humble men and women
– pastors of traditional churches – who daily and without fanfare go about the
business of preaching the gospel to the poor; bringing healing to the
brokenhearted, proclaiming liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the
blind.

There are more than a few of these who conduct such ministry on
pauper’s wages, and do so without complaint about being provided no retirement
account, no health insurance, or having no HR department where complaints and
injustices may be addressed. They do what they do simply because they believe
the Master has desired it of them.

I ask: Is one whose life-purpose is to set at liberty those who
are oppressed [2]

so terribly wrong, to be so despised, even if he or she has been
mislabeled or misled regarding a system (but not a Savior)?

There also are great numbers of men and women – brothers and sisters
– who find acceptance, sympathetic hearts and”rightness” about worshiping with
others outside the traditional norms of church experience. These cannot be
discounted as merely wild-eyed revolutionaries or crazed and deluded
escapees from the religious institution. There are myriad emergent people
who simply love Jesus and want to see the world transformed by His resurrection
power. They have not abandoned the faith of the fathers; “the faith once
delivered,” but they have rejected
false and man-made systems. To
cast them into a pit of suspicion or denunciation is to err in the most
grievous manner.

To be sure, there are emergent people who have indeed leaped off the
cliff of convention and who have embraced the weird, the mysterious,
and the decidedly unbiblical apparitions claiming to be guides into a
“deeper realm” of spiritual truth.

My purpose here is not to debate the merits or evils of either camp,
traditional or emergent, or to comment on the extreme fringe of either. My cry
is rather that we might all conduct ourselves in humility, in love, in
Christ-like grace; to seek to come to the unity of the faith in Christ whatever
our argument or penchant may be.

All of us who might identify with any conceivable group on either
side of the traditional / emergent issue must understand that none of us is
privy to an inside secret that the poor bums, stuck in the other,
“pseudo-church” haven’t heard, or haven’t believed, or worse, aren’t worthy of
hearing.

It happens among the avant-garde, emergent, organic, simple, house
folks.

It happens to the denominational, traditional folks.

It happens among the so-called “apostolic” and “prophetic”
subgroups.

It happens to the happily liberated who dot the landscape in
increasing numbers every day.

They’re somehow smarter, more spiritually minded or more worthy of
being “in the know” and God has somehow chosen them to be the wise ones, the
informed ones, the “right ones.” Everybody else is spiritual chopped liver.

God help us.

It’s a spirit, an attitude so foreign to God and to His heart that
it must be called what it is – devilish.

The spirit of superiority, this smug attitude of spiritual elitism
is nothing new to the world or to the church:

Our ancient brother addressed the issue as he wrote to the fledgling
and exciting Corinthian church: “ . . . it has been declared to me
concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are
contentions among you.” [3]

He is not finished: “ . . . each of you says, ‘I am of Paul,’ or
‘I am of Apollos,’ or ‘I am of Cephas,’ or ‘I am of Christ.’” [4]
He had implored in verse 10 “that there be no divisions among” them.”

Division: The very antithesis to Jesus’ heart cry to His Father, “That
they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also
may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” [5]

And now, so soon after Jesus asks for unity, Paul asks, “Is
Christ divided?” [6]

It is worth notice that Paul deals with this problem first among a
number of topics he will discuss with the church. Among these were such
difficulties as carnality, immorality – “such sexual immorality as is not
even named among the Gentiles–that a man has his father’s wife!” [7]

There were the issues of fornication, of bringing fellow believers
before secular courts, marriage and divorce, food offered to idols, abuse of
the Lord’s Supper. The pronounced lack of love among these Holy Spirit gifted
saints was (and remains today) a monumental problem in the church. There was
the issue of wrong understanding of the resurrection of the dead, and as now,
there was the glossolalia debate.

All these were “big” issues; each of them begged an answer. Yet Paul
places the problem of division among the church in first place – first not in
order of occurrence, but first in order of priority.

Until the issue of division is dealt the deathblow, none of these
other wrongs can be successfully righted.

Paul gets right to the subject of “wisdom.” This was an interesting
choice for the apostle, because he knew that at the heart of the “I am of
Paul,” or “I am of Apollos” or “Cephas” issue was pseudo-wisdom; an artificial
sense of smartness, which is, in reality, sheer stupidity and deadly arrogance.

Here are some things that come to mind today regarding the
“traditional church/new church” subject:

u I Don’t Know Your Heart, and You
Don’t Know Mine – Only God knows the human heart. Scripture makes plain,
not even you know your heart, nor do I know mine. [8]

We must rely entirely upon the Creator of the heart to interpret,
reveal and cleanse the heart which is black with the sin-nature and which
continues to resurrect itself even after we have surrendered it to God.

The best course for any follower of Christ is to tend his own
garden, to allow the Father to guard his own heart, to pray for others, and to
leave them to God’s dealings and loving wisdom.

u If They’re Not Against Us, They Must
Be For Us. Jesus’ disciples saw others, “not of them” who did not
follow (the twelve and Jesus) casting out demons in Jesus’ name. John
informs Jesus that he rebuked these “outsiders,” and Jesus responds with a
rebuke of His own: “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle
in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is
on our side.” [9]

Before allowing criticism to frame your understanding of someone
involved in traditional church ministry, ask yourself, “Are souls coming to
Christ?” “Is God being glorified?” “Are these worshipping Jesus?” – even if
they aren’t worshipping as you prefer to worship – Too many believers think
that their methodology of worship is somehow related to the authenticity of
worship. Methodology is nigh on meaningless when compared with the subject of
authenticity.

If people are coming to know Jesus Christ as Savior; if they are
learning to live by faith in the finished work of Calvary, “Do not forbid
them . . . for he who is not against us is on our side.”

u Be Thankful for the Light God has
Given You and for the Light He Has Given Those Who Are “Not of You.”

There are legitimate arenas, spheres of understanding in which God
has blessed with light and with revelation knowledge. There are some
assemblies, gatherings of God’s people where great revelation is shared, where
prophetic truth is declared, where apostolic grace is present. These venues are
more attractive (to many) than the ancient Sunday morning “church” experience –
the singing of a couple of songs, the reading of the weekly announcements, the
repetition of a scripture verse and the dull monotony of a memorized sermon
before launching out to the local buffet, and then repeating the same
experience on the following Sunday, ad infinitum.

If God has given you light – His revelation knowledge, be thankful
for it, rejoice because of it, but thank Him also for even the limited light
glowing faintly in your neighbor’s window.

u Live in the Grace God Has Given You.
If others are in error, pray for them. Trust that God loves them and will give
them the same Light He has graciously provided for you. You can’t talk a man
out of his “truth.” Neither can you argue a man into your “truth.” The thing needed for change of mind and
heart is the light of God’s grace in the heart of man.

The scriptures indicate that no one can come to God “unless the
Father” “draws him.” [10]

All the arguing in the world will not change a man’s opinion. It’s
true, “A man convinced against his will is not convinced.” [11]

Ask yourself how you received a revelation of God’s “more perfect”
way. Pray that He will likewise issue forth like grace to those ensnared in any
dead form.

God is No Respecter of Persons.
He loves every man equally. God doesn’t have “favorites,” neither does He have
“special” groups of insiders, those in the know, those who are somehow elevated
to a plane unseen by lesser men.

Paul testified, “By the grace of God I am what I am.” [12]

At its Heart it’s a Heart Issue. It seems we always have
to go looking – to ask, “Where’s my heart?” because the heart is desperately
wicked; it wants to go its own way. The Message gives Jeremiah 17:9 like this,
“The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure
out.”

We are encouraged to “present (our) bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God.” [13]

Daily we must check our hearts with the Heart Surgeon. Each morning
and often throughout the day, we must allow examination by the Great Physician.
Only a heart recently touched by the finger of God is a heart capable of right
thinking and right attitude.

If God Is Doing a “New Thing,” If
God is revealing a “New Wineskin,” So Be It; so let it come, so let us
receive it. But for the sake of Heaven’s testimony and for our own spiritual health,
as well as the hope for those we deem “stuck” in an outdated vehicle, let us
allow God to set them free as we rejoice in the liberty given us and remain
thankful for His amazing grace.

Paul began his assistance to the Corinthian church with the desire
to kill a divisive spirit and to encourage life. Perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad
place for modern day apostles to begin.

OUR
DISPOSITION AT THE ALTAR

WILL
AFFECT OUR POSITION IN THE KINGDOM

Don Atkin

www.DonAtkin.com

· Present your bodies a living sacrifice.

· Be transformed by the renewing of your
mind.[14]

Forty years ago, I knew EVERYTHING. Thirty years ago, I knew MOST things. Twenty years ago, I knew SOME
things. Ten years ago, I knew VERY
LITTLE. Today, I’m with Paul:

For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ
and Him crucified.

For me, decreasing so that Jesus might increase in me
has been a lifelong challenge.
Whatever the question, I was the answer (at least in my mind). I am so thankful for those dear,
patient saints who put up with me during those early years.

I specifically remember * (almost thirty years ago) being part of a
local group of ministers who met together for fellowship and prayer each week.
I always had the answers—until, one day, when the Holy Spirit was ready to
discipline me about ruling my own spirit.

He who rules his own spirit is better than he who takes a city.[15]

I already had visions of
“taking cities.” But was still very carnal—earthbound—in how that was to
be accomplished. The school of the
Spirit was opening (for me) for a new session. I had my first assignment: “I want you to remain silent for four of these weekly
meetings, beginning today.”

Someone asked, “Where does the Bible say
_______________________?” I
immediately responded with book, chapter and verse. Conviction enveloped me. I was GUILTY to the max! “Oh, Father. Please forgive me!
“No problem, My son.
Your four weeks can begin next week.” BTW, I was wrong in the Scripture I referenced, adding to my
humiliation.

It took me seven painful weeks to learn this lesson. Ruling our spirits is a primary
governmental (kingdom) essential.
By so doing we are able to rightly steward divine truth, the mysteries
of the kingdom.

The high road
that leads toward the oneness of the body of Christ is paved with sincere humility
and navigated by diligence and discipline. By the grace of God, I am what I am.

Jesus—the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world[16]–has
been, is now, and will be forever, the foundation of our gospel[17]
and the Head of His body, the church.[18] This has been, is now, and will be
forever, the Seed[19]
of eternal truth. “I am the
Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, who is and who was and who is to
come, the Almighty.”[20]—I
AM, who is the same yesterday, today and forever.[21]

JESUS, THE PRESENT PERFECT LAMB

Let’s look to Jesus in the present perfect tense. His sacrificial death was a reality in
the mind of eternal God from the foundation of the world. God was not surprised by Adam’s fall or
Israel’s failure. Provision had
already been written into the schematics of God’s master plan for His kingdom
on earth as it is in heaven.

The time/space limitations of our humanity have been
swallowed up into the context of God’s eternal personhood. Jesus—current fix for all
generations—reaches both backward and forward from Calvary’s cross, to draw
those who believe unto eternal life in Him.[22]

The bronze altar in the Outer Court of Moses’ Tabernacle[23]
was a type and shadow of the cross/crucifixion. The cross of Calvary was Jesus’
springboard to victory, the appropriate prototype for all mankind.[24]

Our cross is the ante-type, and our springboard to victory!

“And whoever does not bear his
cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

“For which of you, intending to
build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has
enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to
finish, all who see it begin to mock him.”[25]

OUR POSTURE ON THE CROSS DETERMINES OUR POSITION IN
CHRIST!

There’s a whole lot of mocking going on! There’s a whole lot of unfinished
business in the church! The way to
royalty is through the cross. When leaders step away from the cross to judge and criticize
brethren or to quibble over paradigms, they leave their crowns on the mercy
seat.

The only recourse or remedy is to return to the mercy seat
through repentance, and in the hope of having the plank removed from our
own eyes.[26]
This is the only way that we might be renewed in hope, and graced once again to
obey the new commandment—that you love one another; as I have loved you,
that you also love one another. By
this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.[27]

LOVE KEEPS US NEAR THE CROSS!

Above all things have fervent
love for one another, for “love will cover a multitude of sins.”[28]

Most of all, love each other as
if your life depended on it. Love
makes up for practically anything.[29]

First priority—above all things—most of all—be proactive in
sustaining fervent love for one another. Do so as if your life depends upon it. The resources are available (in
resurrection life) for us to obey in faith and to find our delight in releasing
this love among one another. Love
has taken up permanent residence in us, and is always available to fill the
place we give Him. We are without
excuse.

Jesus will meet us at the cross, be with us in dying to
self, and bring us forth into newness of life.[30] He is the way, the truth and the
life—the access to the Father.[31] If we want to be in Him and have Him in
us in resurrection power, then we must meet Him in the cross. Authentic spiritual service precludes
any other options.

I have been crucified with
Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.[32]

TOSSED, BLOWN AND IMMATURE[33]

The bronze altar (typifying humanity) is immediately
available to us in the outer court.
We leave all of our human judgments and other limitations there on the
altar, by faith, and move into the Holy Place, where the Holy Spirit reveals
Christ to us. It is there in the
enlightened realm of the Holy Place that we find our particular identity and
placement in Him, ala the golden table of shewbread.

Whenever we step out of that place (backslide) and begin
again to judge others, we are no longer in the flow of the Spirit. We’ve once again put off Christ, and
clothed ourselves with filthy rags.
We have chosen to arm ourselves with the strength of our own flesh.

We have returned to the dung heap, forsaking gold, silver
and precious stones, and are building with wood, hay and straw.

Each one’s work will become
clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and
the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. If anyone’s work which he has built on
it (the foundation—Christ) endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will
suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.[34]

A PLEA TO ELDERS AND EQUIPPERS, FATHERS AND MASTER BUILDERS

There is a huge weight upon us; a stricter judgment awaits
us.[35]

It is good (not) to do anything
by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.[36]

Whoever causes one of these
little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone
were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.[37]

Perhaps our highest service to our King, perhaps our
greatest devotion to our Father, is our example to the flock of
God. People need to see love
in our actions and hear love in what we speak.

Love suffers long and is kind;
love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not
behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not
rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all
things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.[38]

Where there are brethren, fellowship them.
Where there are issues, deal with them. (Wisdom is ours for the asking.)
Where there are problems, solve them. (God has the solutions we need.)
Where there are differences, embrace them. (God is not finished with us yet.)

We need to back into our brothers’ tents with
blankets, and cover their nakedness![39] Moreover, we should make tunics and
linen trousers to cover their (our brothers’) nakedness, so that when they
come near the altar to minister in the holy place, that they do not incur
iniquity and die.[40]

By this we know love, because He
laid down His life for us. And we
also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.[41]

[1] Ephesians
4:11

[2] Luke 4:18

[3] 1
Corinthians 1:11

[4] 1
Corinthians 1:12

[5] John 17:21

[6] 1
Corinthians 1:13

[7] 1
Corinthians 5:1

[8] Jeremiah
17:9

[9] Mark 9:38-40

[10] John 6:44

[11] Dr.
Laurence J. Peter

[12] 1
Corinthians 15:10

[13] Romans 12:1

[14] Romans
12:1-2

[15] Proverbs
16:32b

[16] Revelation
13:8

[17] 1
Corinthians 3:11

[18] Ephesians
1:22-23

[19] Galatians
3:16

[20] Revelation
1:8

[21] Hebrews
13:8

[22] John
3:14-15

[23]
Exodus 25-27

[24]
Hebrews 2:14-16

[25] Luke
14:27-29

[26] Matthew
7:1-5

[27] John
13:34-35

[28] 1 Peter 4:8

[29] I Peter 4:8
TM

[30] Romans
6:3-11

[31] John 14:6

[32] Galatians
2:20a

[33] Ephesians
4:14

[34] 1
Corinthians 3:12-15

[35] James 3:1

[36] Romans
14:21

[37] Matthew
18:6

[38] 1
Corinthians 13:4-8a

[39] Genesis
9:23

[40] Exodus
28:39-43

[41] 1 John 3:16

The Error of Egotism by Greg Austin & Don Atkin