>Would Jesus worship in a church where the pastor’s sermon was on “Biblical Oral Sex?”
Would Jesus worship is a church that quotes Stephen Colbert and Lady Gaga as sources of authority?
Judge for yourself.
You must read this article on the “the emerging church.”
Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary
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Tags: Emerging Church
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I am Emeritus Professor of Old Testament at Northern Baptist Seminary. I was born in Brazil. I graduated from California Baptist College, Golden Gate Baptist Seminary, The Southern Baptist Seminary, and have done additional graduate work at the Graduate Theological Union. I have pastored churches in California, Kentucky, Missouri and Illinois. I have published more than 200 articles and book reviews in English, Spanish, and Russian. My academic works have been published in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, The Mercer Dictionary of the Bible, The Holman Bible Dictionary, Jewish Bible Quarterly, Perspective in Religious Studies, The Expository Times, Biblical Illustrator, Old Testament Abstracts, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, The Journal of Biblical Literature, and Biblical Archaeologist.
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Dr. Claude Mariottini - Professor of Old Testament
>Oh, my. What are they thinking?The last two paragraphs nail the solution. If the evangelical Christian leadership thinks that "cool Christianity" is a sustainable path forward, they are severely mistaken. As a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don't want cool as much as we want real.If we are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way, it is not because it's easy or trendy or popular. It's because Jesus himself is appealing, and what he says rings true. It's because the world we inhabit is utterly phony, ephemeral, narcissistic, image-obsessed and sex-drenched—and we want an alternative. It's not because we want more of the same.When I was in seminary, there were many churches of my fellowship within just a few miles. An ironic note is that the "seeker-friendly" (I mean that in a bad way) churches rarely had more in attendance than the traditional churches. In fact, the three largest churches were very traditional. One even moved the pulpit out of the way when a famous woman missionary came to speak at the church. I found that over the top. At the same time, that church teaches straight Bible and is one of the largest of our fellowship in the nation.My wife and I were discussing this issue just last night. She said, "the problem is we've shifted our standards. The church is trying to be better than the world, but the world is getting worse. It's not such a great thing to say we're better than that."
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>Would Jesus worship in a church where the sermon was on "biblical oral sex"?I would say yes, in as much as the Bible discusses the issue. Song of Songs isn't for the faint of heart, but it's also part of the Bible and, in my opinion, should be preached.One could also ask whether Jesus would worship in a church where the sermon was on the incredibly fertile and endowed Egyptians in the book of Ezekiel, the bashing of little ones on rocks in Psalm 137, or the forced miscarriage in Numbers 5.Has anyone here listened to Mark Driscoll? He's named in the article and the "biblical oral sex" part seems attributed to him. It might be good to point out that he is not part of the Emerging Church, and has gone very far to denounce much of what they do and stand for as unbiblical. If anyone is interested in his position on this matter, he did a sermon on the emerging church in his series called "Religion Saves And 9 Other Misconceptions. His series on the Song of Songs may also be worth listening to before judgments are passed based only on news articles.
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>Frank,One objection I have with these kind of sermons is that it is trying to bring the world into the church.The problem with some "seeker-friendly" churches is that they water down the Gospel and do not require the kind of radical commitment Jesus asked of his followers.Claude Mariottini
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>Greg,I believe the church should speak forcibly to issues that impact the community and sex is one of them.I have preached on controversial texts, including Psalm 137 and Song of Songs. However, I have preached on these texts not to be titillating but to explain the text.Many churches today try to become relevant and in the process, they abandon the Gospel.I have never heard Mark Driscoll preach, thus, I am unable to speak about his sermons.Claude Mariottini
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>Dr. Mariottini, I'm usually concerned when subjects like this are brought up because more often then not positions are taken up based on second-hand information.I enjoy your blog and respect your opinion, so I think it would be nice to hear what you think about a few of Driscoll's sermons on the Song of Songs if you ever had the chance to listen to a few.Take care, Greg
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>Greg,I will try to find Driscoll's sermons on the Song of Songs. The reason I wrote that post is that I am against some of the things happening in some churches today. Some of the things people do I consider to be a watering down of the biblical message and a way to secularize religious traditions. Many people do not think as I do. Maybe, I am just showing my age.Claude Mariottini
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