Deep Church

DEEP CHURCH by Jim Belcher
I bought this book last time I visited the store, and was pleased to meet the head sherang, Karl Grice, at the same time.

The title is a quote from a 1952 C S Lewis letter to the Church Times in which he said that instead of being either Low Church or High Church, perhaps Christians who believe in God's supernatural intervention in the world should be called Deep Church, or in Richard Baxter's terminology Mere Christians.

Belcher is one of the pastors of the Redeemer Presbyterian Churches founded by Tim Keller. He has researched the Emerging Church movement extensively by meeting its leaders, attending meetings and reading their literature and blogs.

He says that traditional Christians and Emerging folk are suspicious of one another and need to get to know and learn from this interaction. He believes there is a way of combining the best of both worlds into a new Deep Church, while still being cautious about unhelpful aspects of both groups.

The book is well worth reading. You might also find Darrell Bock's article at bock's blog to be something to chew over.