Dear Debate Coach, Thank you for what you ... - Lads to Leaders

Dear Debate Coach,
Thank you for what you mean to Lads to Leaders/Leaderettes, and for leading in
what I consider to be the most challenging event of our entire program.
As you know, this year’s debate will argue this rather unique proposition:
Resolved: In Christianity, believing and defending sound doctrine is equally as important
as caring for and helping those in need.
This debate is an effort to educate and prepare our young people for troubling
doctrines in what has been called the “Emerging Church Movement.” The wording was
particularly challenging this year because this dangerous movement defies easy analysis.
Proponents minimize the importance of doctrine, commandments and even assembling
together. Instead, they urge that Christians should just immerse themselves in the culture
and "wait" for churches with all sorts of varying characteristics to "emerge" from society.
(Practical application: Yoga and visual arts will be a part of worship for some churches,
while rock music and dancing will be common in those churches that emerge from night
clubs.) The movement asserts that, since God is in everything, there is no difference
between things that are holy and things that are secular. (A practical application would be
that secular music is just as holy as hymns and thus, just as appropriate in worship.)
Those who promote this emerging church movement prefer calling it a
“conversation” rather than a doctrine, and the proposition we have selected embraces one
small expression of the movement.
Adherents of the Emerging Church Movement would largely replace doctrine and
church attendance with benevolence as followers of Christ meld into the culture. As they
sometimes put it, “How could you argue over doctrine when people are starving in the
streets?” The movement did not begin in churches of Christ, but has been successfully
influencing students on some of our university campuses. It poses a genuine threat to our
young people.
We, at Lads to Leaders/Leaderettes, understand fully that benevolence IS part of
Biblically sound doctrine, but we have distinguished these two necessary areas of
Christianity in order to help students accurately grasp the Emerging Church Movement,
and to help them be prepared to adequately defend the truths of the Bible when they
encounter this deceptive movement.
If debate teachers/coaches would like to do some preparatory reading by some
leading promoters of the Emerging Church, I recommend the following. I do not

ecommend it for your youth, but for the mature teacher, it could be very helpful.
Amazon is a good source, and if purchase used, the book costs very little.
Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger, Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in
Postmodern Cultures (Baker, 2005).
To be practical, I envision affirmative teams citing passages from the Bible which
show the necessity of believing and teaching sound doctrine, and observing that in fact,
benevolence is part of that sound doctrine.
Negative teams will argue that benevolence trumps the need for emphasizing
sound doctrine in our preaching. They will portray Jesus as benevolent and caring
instead of One who emphasizes correct patterns and practices. They will urge that
Christianity is primarily a lifestyle of compassion in culture and not one concerned with
truth regarding doctrine and worship.
In Him,
Glenn Colley
Board Member
Lads to Leaders/Leaderettes