Moving towards Simplicity

Years ago, my husband and I found ourselves sitting in meetings of Emergent church leaders in the area and were amazed to hear the feelings we had resonating with others.   Some of these were high standing leaders in the community, and they were questioning the foundations of the faith that they have practiced and preached for years.   I found it interesting to see through North’s work that hundreds of years before us others also felt the same discontent we do today with our churches, although often for different reasons.  One could even apply North’s writing to today with just a few changes such as changing Restoration Movement to Emergent Movement, or adding the mention of moves to become Post-Modern from traditional churches. “A further result of the fractured religious situation in America was that many people were unhappy with their current situations.  Many people lost concern with religion because the denominations could not become organized or even agree on the basic doctrines of faith.  When the Restoration Movement came along with its appeal to Christian unity and the basic common denominator of Christianity, many of these people heard a message they had waited a long time to hear.” (North 5)

I think the basics that the Restoration Movement leaders used such as biblical authority and unity are just as important today and equally as lacking in many of our churches.   Many in our community of faith are finding that it’s taking a season of searching out what we know to be true for ourselves, separately from what we’ve been raised to believe in order to get back to the simplicity of faith that the Church in Acts had.   I loved Mr. North’s remark that states, “When various individuals began the Restoration Movement, they were coming out of their own individual context.” (North 19)  I know one day my children’s generation or their children’s will write a book and it will talk about this Emergent movement and other movements happening currently.  It feels good to know they will be referring to my fellow leaders and me as we seek out in a search for a church that relies solely on Scripture and unity and not necessarily on a title or denomination.

(the book I’m reading that inspired this is Union in Truth by James B. North, this was an excerpt from my homework assignment this week, thought since it was relevant to yesterdays blog I would share)