The New Paradigm Weed is Growing on the Mennonites
Behold, a sower went to sow
A seed,
With dark intent to grow
A weed-
Whose root would rapidly invent
The harvest of his vile intent.p. 48, Dishonesty’s Hidden Things,
Marvin L. Fieldhouse
The New Paradigm weed sprouted in spring of 2002:
Youth Encountering God
Abram Bergen
http://www.directionjournal.org/article/?1238…MENNONITES AND THE NEW PARADIGM
Prayer practices, as they are being revived through the Youth Ministry Spirituality Project, are indeed compatible with a Mennonite/Anabaptist spirituality. Not only so, but they need to become an essential aspect of ministry to youth and their families in Mennonite congregations…
It’s roots had established themselves by the fall of 2005:
Mennonite Brethren and the Next Church
Richard Kyle
http://www.directionjournal.org/article/?1395“Where are the Mennonite Brethren now headed? They appear to be moving toward the Next Church or new paradigm church. By this I mean some combination of characteristics drawn from the church growth movement, the seeker-sensitive churches, mega- and electronic churches, and charismatic worship practices. Reinforcing this impression is the fact that the keynote speakers at the 2005 U.S. MB Conference meetings were gurus of the church growth and seeker-sensitive movements.”
Two years later it went to seed:
Christians Need to Re-Think Story of Salvation, Conference Told
http://www.cmu.ca/news/salvationStory.html
Oct. 2007“Christians need to rethink the way they present the story of salvation if the church is to successfully reach people in other cultures.
That was the message Mark Baker presented to participants at the opening session of the conference of the Association of Anabaptist Missiologists (AAM) at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) on October 12-13.
.…According to Baker, an Associate Professor of Mission and Theology at Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary in Fresno, CA, the western church typically presents the gospel of Christ using the Penal Substitution Model of the atonement. In this story, God is holy and creates human beings to be in relationship with him, but human sin has severed the relationship….
.…Baker suggested that Christians who want to share the Gospel outside of North American culture need a new paradigm for salvation. For him, the best story is the life of Jesus. That story, he said, is about God’s loving and gracious initiative being extended to human beings.”
And now we see a full grown weed:
The tares are ripe…and the winds of change are blowing their seed to every field…
“henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive” Ephesians 4:14
