Team Pyro's Frank Turk lays down the smack...

From Team Pyro:

Bob Hyatt Calls Phil/TeamPyro "the smartest, most eloquent" ... but the smartest, most eloquent source of "waay off base slams" against the Emergent church. Open challenge to Bob: At TeamPyro, we offer critiques to everyone -- evangelical, emergent, reformed, arminian, smart, stupid ... we give everyone something to chew on. Can you personally name anything wrong with the Emergent church which anyone ought to be concerned about, or is Emergent free of any riff-raff? Think about that, bub, before you start with the "way off base" smears.

1st- It's "Bob" not "bub", but I guess the keys are kind of close together? Anyway, no offense taken.

2nd- as for your challenge... Can I personally name anything wrong with the "Emergent" church which anyone ought to be concerned about?
Well, as for the Emerging Church, yes. And as for Emergent Village the organization yes.
I have named various things that concern me about both...
here,
here,
here,
here,
I opened up a monster can of Driscoll on Spencer Burke's book here,
and took issue with Emergent Village specifically here.
I also recently published this mixed review of the Emergent Manifesto of Hope...

And the list goes on... I'm both a critic and a defender of the emerging Church. What I find myself doing most often, however, is defending it against ill-informed, uncharitable and frankly waaayy off base slams... like the new ironically titled book by John MacArthur, "The Truth War"
... or even the silly broadside by TeamPyro against Dan Kimball.

Why do I bother? Because honestly, honesty matters to me. There are genuine heterdoxies present within the emerging church, just as there are in most movements and denominations. There are some who are off base and need some and encouragement to watch their "life and doctrine"  (as Paul wrote to Timothy) closely.
But...

Overall, what I sense in the best of the emerging church (which the critics almost NEVER bother to even look at/mention/commend) is a true Gospel-shaped missionality that sees Jesus and His invitation to life in the Kingdom as a passion worth living and dying for- and that's what attracted me and keeps me in this church that is emerging. I see in  the emerging church a challenge to church  consumerism I see in few other places and  a missionary passion to contextualize the Gospel that is absolutely needed in this time and place.

The Good News of the Gospel is too important to play church games with. There are vast numbers of churches dotting the American landscape who are wondering where all the 20-30s are. And I never got the sense that they wanted to hear the real reasons why. They just wanted to be told what to adjust to get the young people to care about what they were doing again. And frankly, the issues are much deeper. So that's why I made "the jump." There are those who have the temperment to hang around for a decade and maybe, just maybe, turn the ship. But not me.

Do I have concerns? Of course. But I also have hope. And I'm much more likely to hang around something new and try to shape it rather than hang around something old and try to change it. I see much better returns on my efforts this way.

So, sorry Frank/Team Pyro. I know it will come as a disappointment that someone who considers himself very much a part of the emerging church movement might also critique it. I know it doesn't fit the silly stereotype of whiny "Can't we just all get along?" latte-sipper you like to imagine as being the majority of those of us in this movement. But the truth is, some of us are in this thing precisely because we love Jesus, love the Gospel and want to see as many people as possible give their lives to Christ and become followers of Jesus.

I just wish that side of the emerging church would get some play on blogs like yours...