Cedar Falls Bible Conference

I'm in Iowa for a few days, speaking for the second year running at the Cedar Falls Bible Conference. It was good to be with Mike Horton again who spoke on (among other issues) the Emergent (-ing) Church. It was vintage Mike; pithy, laced with one-liners, generous with a sting in the tail. Some memorable one-liners I jotted down included, "I don't go to church to meet a personality or charisma, but God"; "Jesus did not target a demographic; he went to 'sinners'"; "The Emergent Church consists of well-educated, upwardly-mobile, Starbucks-slurping whites--I don't see them engaging poor, unemployed blacks in San Francisco!"

He mentioned a survey conducted by the Eric Felten of The Wall Street Journal, in which he asked Wall Street Yuppies (Gen Xers and Busters) the following question: "If you went back to church, what would you be looking for?" The answers were astonishing. They included adult theological study groups and traditional worship in a sombre atmosphere!

It is the postwar Boomers, Mike opined with a twinkle in his eye, who want church to feel like the office and offer second-rate popular entertainment!