ETS Paper: “Emerging churches in dialogue with Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A fresh practical theology of discipleship for the church”

Update December 23, 2006.

I have updated the paper here.

I just thought I would let you know that I am presenting a paper this Wednesday at the Evangelical Theological Society in Washington, DC.

The title is: "Emerging churches in dialogue with Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A fresh practical theology of discipleship for the church."   

Here is a summary of what to expect.

According to UNC sociologist Christian Smith, evangelical teens tend to view Christianity as “feeling good, happy, secure, and at peace” (Soul Searching, 164).  And yet Jesus said "If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also" (Mt 5:39 TNIV).  We've got an educational problem here.  How do we bridge the gap?  We need to take a multi-disciplinary approach to tackle this issue.  I use the practical theology reflection paradigm described by Princeton Theological Seminary's Richard Osmer.

If we are going to reach young adults, it will be instructive to investigate what emerging churches are doing.  I suggest that these emerging churches should properly be seen as laboratories where innovative Christian practices are being explored.  I then present some insights by Dietrich Bonhoeffer on discipleship and innovative Christian practices.  I then look at the meaning of "turning the other cheek" according to New Testament scholars.  Finally, I suggest how a few emerging church practices could be utilized to teach young adults about turning the other cheek.

Here are the details of when and where I'm presenting.

Wednesday, November 15 // Afternoon

Lincoln East
3:20-4:00 PM
Andrew D. Rowell (Taylor University)
Emerging Churches in Dialogue with Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Fresh Practical Theology of Discipleship for the Church
(replaces paper by John S. Hammett, which is moved to November 15 in C-356 at 11:00 am)

I am on the "program changes" page which you can find on the conference page here.

I had written earlier about the ETS conference here.

December 1, 2006 Update

Due to your kind requests, I have put the paper I presented below.  I have been reading a lot more Bonhoeffer and have decided to completely restructure my dialogue between Bonhoeffer and Emerging Churches in another paper.  But, if you are interested, here was my first stab at the whole concept. 

Thanks Steve Knight for the link at Emergent Village.