Deep Church - Taking A Hard Look At Jim Belcher's "Third Way"
Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging & Traditional by Jim Belcher; IVP Press, 2009 Jim Belcher, author of Deep Church is the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, CA. Redeemer, for all that it might purport to be, is a Presbyterian Church in the orthodox, conservative, evangelical and Reformed Presbyterian Church in America denomination. This is a denomination that espouses, among other things, two very conservative, "traditional" beliefs of the "Religious Right"in the US: the inerrancy of Scripture and the subjugation of women in the church to non-leadership roles. Despite this pedigree that should posit Belcher firmly in the "Traditional Church," he tells a compelling story of his journey through doubt and questions of faith that brought him alongside many of the early leaders of the more progressive and non-orthodox "Emerging Church." He name drops a bit, and talks about cigar-smoking and theolog...