Monday, February 19, 2007

overheard: the emergence of chuck smith jr.



over the past couple of months i've read several articles, including this one in christianity today about extreme internal controversies and questionable leadership practices within chuck smith sr.'s calvary chapel movement.

anyway, this evening, while reading the article i referenced above i found out that chuck smith jr. had recently been disassociated from the calvary chapel fellowship and i set out to find why.

after reading about chuck jr.'s story in an excellent la times article with a shitty title - father, son and holy rift - i started to suspect that chuck smith jr.'s movement away from his father's theological fundamentalism and towards a place of ministry that is, in his own words, characterized by learning more than certainty, is quite similar to many of our stories. moreover, i was not only intrigued by jr's story but found myself hoping that those of us who participate in the emergent conversation can express as much charity towards our theological and ecclesiological backgrounds as chuck jr. is showing to his.

i hope all of you take the time to read the la times article as i'm fairly sure you'll find it interesting and instructive. moreover, i think it would make tons of sense for pastor phil and the gang at the gathering to invite jr. out to speak at one of their events, for the latter chap really seems to live that allusive balance between the neo-mystical, charismatic tradition and emergent theological conversation that pastor phil and his gang appear to be longing for.

2 comments:

Kellie said...

As someone who is never in-the-know with the who's who of Evangelicalism, I thought that this was your Chuck Smith customer service guy.

Good thing I clicked on the link.

Anonymous said...

thank you for thinking of me kellie. right now i'm in california receiving sensitivity training from mike murrow. however, you can rest assured that i will make a triumphant return to the blogosphere at some point.

in HIS service,

chuck smith, c.s.s.