Christians should not be surprised at the growing use and desire to use foul language by their leaders, even in sermons. Probably too few of us are aware of where the post-modern church movement is headed and its view of the Bible, the church and orthodox Christian belief.

The leaders of this emergent movement are exercising a profound influence throughout the Western world and most students of theology will have studied their works and, to a greater or lesser extent, been influenced by them.

This emergent leadership has stated clearly that the Church must make radical changes, and it is their intent to push these changes through. Belief about the Bible, God, Jesus and salvation all must be reinterpreted (see Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis, page 12). We are told in no uncertain terms that the Church is irrelevant, more of a hindrance than a help to God’s work, and its beliefs and message are obsolete.

For these emergent leaders, bad language is a badge of honour that one is free from the pious self-righteousness mentality of the historic Christian Church. Rob Bell used “wtf” (stands for what the *****) within his “sermon” at Catalyst 09 to the laughter of the crowd.

Leaders and elders of the local church need to make themselves aware of these new ideas that are quickly infiltrating God’s church (see Faith Undone by Roger Oakland).

To indicate how far this movement has penetrated the evangelical church of New Zealand, Brian McLaren, a leading writer and spokesman for this cause, was invited and welcomed as a guest speaker at Laidlaw College, formerly Bible College of New Zealand.

McLaren and his advocates have dispensed with the Epistles, which historically the Church believed revealed the significance of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The downside of such an arbitrary decision to ignore the Epistles is to leave the gospel story open to mean whatever one wishes. For example, to say that Jesus has died for the sins of many (1 Peter 1:18, 2:24, 3:18) is foolish. Such an idea, we are told, would be “divine child abuse” (see The Story We Find Ourselves in by Brian McLaren).

Should you wish to see an intelligent discussion of McLaren’s latest book, A New Kind of Christianity, visit www.sbts.edu and search for the title.

– Bruce Richmond
Hamilton