Author: Wagner, E. Glenn
Genre: Theology - General
Tags: Ecumenism, Evangelism / Outreach
Series:
Rick Shrader‘s Review:
Wagner is Vice President of Ministry Advancement for Promise Keepers. This book is one of many on the market now that promotes the PK movement. I am not a PK participant nor advocate. This book and my growing file on PK remind me that I am closer to writing a longer article expressing my conviction for abstaining. Wagner only writes four of the nine chapters himself, the others being done by five contributors. Though I read the other chapters, I read Wagner’s chapters twice, thinking that I surely was missing his point. Perhaps this book (and others like it) was not intended to be a defense of the PK position or movement and it is assumed that none who might disagree would read it. But my concerns remain.
It concerns me that Wagner reduces Christianity to only two spheres: The gospel message (“the cause of the gospel”) and the five fundamentals (“the cause of the kingdom”). Everything else is non-essential and should seldom, if ever, be discussed in a public forum. It concerns me that the organization of the local church and denominational names are for those of “low self-esteem” who “play the power game” and who need to “validate their own existence.” It concerns me that Wagner quotes, refers to and gets definition from Chuck Colson’s book The Body. There, Colson sets his ECT agenda: broad definitions of faith and few distinctions of doctrine. And those who differ are at least mildly neurotic.