Melvin Tinker on the Emerging Church

Is Evangelicalism too individualistic? (Melvin Tinker part 2)

Is evangelical faith a new phenomenon? (Melvin Tinker)

I have been at a preaching conference today. One of the speakers is Melvin Tinker. Melvin is staying with us so I thought I would ask him a few questions for this blog. Here is the first.

Talking to Ig 'Looking for meaning'

We are on holiday down south at the moment. We stayed a couple of days in Cork. We met up with our friends the Harleys at Fota and then went with them to Cobh. I asked Ingrid some questions about the dissertation she is doing as part of an M.Th. at Irish Bible Institute. Her dissertation is on the demise of Catholicism and where people are looking to get meaning instead (in the Republic of Ireland).

Paul 'So where do people get their meaning from?'

Ig 'A small but growing group are turning to New Age and alternative therapies.'

Paul 'Could you give an example?'

Ig 'Angels! Lot's of people are into the angels thing. Alternative therapies, holistic medicines, raiki, meditation, yoga, acupuncture. For example there is now an angel shop in Carrigaline [Co. Cork]. In Easons one of the biggest selling books is about angels and how your guardian angel can look after you. Other people are looking for meaning in life-coaching. The essence of life-coaching is that you are in charge of your destiny and that you deserve your best.'

Paul 'What about your average person?'

Ig 'I would say for the average person it's materialism. Consumerism is their source of meaning. But that is until a crisis hits!

Paul 'Where do they turn in a crisis?'

Ig 'That's really the thing! For most people the last place they will turn is the church.'

Talking to Pete 'Sunday/Sabbath'

Pete and Em Orr have been here for tea. We are now relaxed in the living-room so I thought I would ask Pete some questions.

Paul: Do you think that Sunday is a replacement of the Sabbath?

Pete: No!

Paul: Why not?

Pete: I think that the New Testament doesn't develop a theology of Sunday in the same way that the Old Testament does of the Sabbath.

Paul: Is there any significance that the Decalogue [Ten Commandments] relates the Sabbath to creation?

Pete: Only in as much as the concept of rest is a very important biblical category and so I think that it is rest rather than Sabbath that is the more significant in the forth commandment when you look at it from the perspective of an entire biblical theology.

Paul: One of the things that has persuaded me that Sunday is not a replacement of the Sabbath is that if it were we would surely hear a discussion of this fact in the New Testament. Is such an argument reading too much into silence?

Pete: Maybe! But at the same time you have to make a decision . . . because there is no real discussion in the New Testament and what discussion there is tends to downplay the significance of the Sabbath (e.g. Colossians 2:16; Romans 14:5) pushes us to the conclusion that the Sabbath as a day doesn't continue into the New Testament but rather the concept of rest is fulfilled through faith in Christ (see Matthew 11:28, Hebrews 4).