One of my comments did actually get through on Mike’s blog. There’s a second one that….well….probably won’t.

I asked Mike to hold Rick Warren to the same standard he held for himself in this posting where I do not see “the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, the Gospel, denial of self, sacrifice, repentance and on and on” as mentioned in his critique of Rick Warren.

Not me…I am different.

I find most of the anti-discernment bloggers-discernment bloggers also the ecm, to be excessively religious and prideful, to the point of elitism.

If this had been phrased “anti-discernment bloggers, discernment bloggers, and ecm bloggers” I could have easily pointed out the clear problem: they’re bloggers.

It takes a certain kind of pride and elitism to blog, since you assume anyone wants to read what you’ve written.

But back to the original…if these three are such, then which kind of Christian blog/blogger isn’t in danger of being “excessively religious and prideful”?

I have a theory that part of the problem is the blog itself, that when a writer decides something like “my blog is going to be about Rick Warren leading the world astray!” or “my blog is about truth in discernment!” it becomes incredibly limited and makes the blogger create mountains out of molehills just to keep the blog fresh. (Example: Apprising Ministries)

If the focus, however, isn’t one of such limiting format (maybe like “my blog is about living the Christian life” which opens it to a lot of stuff), the blogger does not have to always look for trouble and turn themselves into a complainer or nit-picker or some such thing.

I have started to think that the narrower the focus of the blog/blog ministry, the more detrimental it is to the Gospel of Christ.

What I have found is that when you attempt to address things from scripture, most of those who support these “new moves of God” won’t even go there.

INteresting. Because I’ve found the opposite to be true. The vast majority of posts written by watchdoggies contain no scripture whatsoever. The post this was written about being an example of that.

Warren is a pragmatist as Rick said and that makes him suspect. Please don’t tell me that Jesus was a pragmatist.

Alright then, how about Paul was a pragmatist then.

The focus of all that is post-modern is horizontal relationships.
The vertical is almost completely ignored.

No, the vertical isn’t almost completely ignored. Rather there is more emphasis put on the relationship between believers than there has been in the recent past. Some might say it has restored the relationship of believers to the proper place. When I read commands like “consider others better than yourself”, and “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” and I know that there are a lot of churches out there that need to focus on their horizontal relationships a little better. In fact, I think a good argument can be made (especially from the John 13 passage, as well as 1 John 3:10) that the horizontal relationships, and the vertical relationship are in direct ratio with each other, not in competition against each other.

Blessings to you.

As I said before, mocking and disdain is unchristian and lazy.

QFT

What I have found is that when you attempt to address things from scripture, most of those who support these “new moves of God” won’t even go there. Gives them too much of a headache, I guess.
That is the problem, as the scriptures that are used by these groups are, for the most part, not in context, or incomplete.
Warren is a pragmatist as Rick said and that makes him suspect. Please don’t tell me that Jesus was a pragmatist.
The focus of all that is post-modern is horizontal relationships.
The vertical is almost completely ignored. That is “discerned”
by the Holy Spirit through the Word.
We are not here to make God “accessible”.We are here to proclaim the one who is the access.

Of course I don’t fall into any of those narrow groups so I can personally and accurately discern boasting from a vantage point of humility!

But then again I disagree with people who would visciously label him and even question his motives and salvation. He does some great work with AIDS in Africa and other humanitarian efforts, so to dismiss him as a Satanic agent is absurd.

And the mocking and dismissive way in which the discernment blogs attack everything he does is not only a lazy way to confront something, it is unchristian. Use Scripture, dissect what you may question, and present a Scriptural, cojent, and understandable presentation of why you feel something is shallow and doesn’t fully represent Biblical truth.

As I said before, mocking and disdain is unchristian and lazy.