Friday Roundup Link Thingie!

Alise Wright does it. Rachel Held Evans does it. Even Sarah Moon is doing it now.

So let's do it.

Let's do a Friday Roundup Link Thingie!

Okay, so it's not the best title in the world. But until I come up with a better title, here are some of my favorite reads from this past week:

-Frank Viola illustrates the the four current streams of evangelicalism: the Systematizers, the Activists, the Emoters, and the Beyond Evangelicals. The last one, according to Viola, is where the future of evangelicalism lies. The key elements of Beyond Evangelicals are:

"*The centrality and supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ.
*Living by the indwelling life of Christ.
*Experiencing church as a Christ-centered, shared-life community.
*Living for the eternal purpose of God."

Sounds like a good idea. But I'm not sure if we need another cool label to separate ourselves from the old time fundamentalists. Right now I just consider myself another pilgrim trying to find my way home.

-Speaking of fundamentalists, over at Roger Olson's blog Mike Clawson writes about the so-called neo-fundamentalism movement. According to Clawson:

"The driving force behind neo-fundamentalism, as with historic fundamentalism, is a 'remnant mentality.' Neo-fundamentalists believe they alone are remaining true to the fullness of the gospel and orthodox faith while the rest of the evangelical church is in grave, near-apocalyptic danger of theological drift, moral laxity, and compromise with a postmodern culture – a culture which they see as being characterized by a skepticism towards Enlightenment conceptions of “absolute truth,” a pluralistic blending of diverse beliefs, values, and cultures, and a suspicion of hierarchies and traditional sources of authority. Because of this hostility toward postmodern ways of thinking, neo-fundamentalists have little tolerance for diversity of opinions among evangelicals on any issues they perceive as essential doctrines – which are most of them – as opposed to the broader evangelical movement which historically has allowed for a much wider range of disagreement on disputable matters.Neo-fundamentalists thus respond to the challenges of a postmodern culture by narrowing the boundaries of what they consider genuinely evangelical and orthodox Christianity, and rejecting those who maintain a more open stance."

Which is why I don't hang with fundamentalists: they make the narrow road so narrow, you feel like you're walking a tightrope!

-Finally, it looks like I'm not the only one who said "Farewell, Mark Driscoll". I knew I should have had that phrase copyrighted!