Do you think a church whose pastor does not give altar calls, has long musical worship services and frequently reads from articles instead of the Bible is an Emerging Church?
Your periodic answers to questions about the Emergent/Seeker Friendly Church sure sound a lot like the church I recently started attending , but I don’t want to see something that’s not there. Frankly I guess I know the answer to this question but would like your opinion. The lack of an altar call has me really worried as I’ve never gone to a church that did not have one at the end of each and every service.
It’s hard to tell without actually being there, but if you notice that the focus is more on gaining new members than on gaining new believers, and if there’s an effort to downplay the need to be born again while emphasizing social programs and the entertainment value of the service, then your concerns might be justified.
These days many churches are experiencing financial pressures and believe that church growth is the answer. Sadly, human generated growth always involves relaxing Biblical standards in order to be more appealing to a wider audience.