EMNR Update E-Newsletter
Volume 4, Issue 1, June 2001
EMNR Update E-Newsletter is produced by Evangelical Ministries to New Religions (EMNR). EMNR is a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing the challenge of new religious movements from an evangelical perspective. EMNR facilitates quality scholarship, missions strategy and other resources in the arena of new religious movements on behalf of its membership.
IN THIS EMNR Update E-Newsletter:
- Feb. 2001 Conference Report
- Historic EMNR/EMS Meeting
- 2002 Conference and Call for Abstracts
- EMNR News
Feb. 2001 Conference Report
This year's annual conference was held Feb. 15-17, 2001 at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. The conference plenary sessions and workshops were very well received. A highlight for members was the summit conference, where several workshops provided practical discussions of important issues for those in ministry to new religious movements. Members engaged in a spirited discussion of the need for change within "counter-cult" circles following the delivery of a paper calling for a missiological paradigm for ministry. This was followed by the membership sharing their thoughts with EMNR board members as to what they would like to see in the organization. Overall, the members stated they enjoyed having a place they can get together for the exchange of professional information and fellowship each year.
Historic EMNR/EMS Meeting
Representatives of the Evangelical Missiological Society, the Evangelical Theological Society, the Society for the Study of Alternative Religions and Evangelical Ministries to New Religions met in Nashville during the 2001 national conference for the Evangelical Theological Society to discuss the challenge of new religious movements to world evangelism, and to lay a foundation for future dialogue and cooperation.
The meeting was well attended and those in "counter-cult" ministry were pleased to see such a large number of missiologists in attendance. The participants agreed that continued dialogue is needed that will facilitate an interdisciplinary approach to an evangelical response to new religious movements.
The participants also agreed that individuals interested in this mission field should consider membership in each of the organizations, including EMS, ETS, SSAR and EMNR. Individuals who would like contact information for these organizations to request membership applications should contact EMNR.
A highlight of the ETS conference was the presentation of a paper by noted missiologist, Dr. David Hesselgrave. The paper was titled "New and Alternative Religious Movements--Some Perspectives of Missiologist." The Evangelical Missiological Society added a paper by John Morehead to their website which he delivered at the 2001 EMNR conference titled "Tired of Treading Water: Rediscovering and Reapplying a Missiological Paradigm for 'Counter-Cult' Ministry."
The participants of this important meeting agreed to continue dialogue through an e-mail forum, and to work more closely by attendance at various conferences, and through the submission of articles to various publications. A major goal would be a national consultation of theologians, missiologists, academics and the "counter-cult" community discussing the missiological challenge of new religious movements.
2002 Conference and Call for Abstracts
We are in the planning stages for an exciting conference in 2002.
The conference will be held Feb. 21-23, 2002 with the theme, "Refining Responses to New and World Religions in the 21st Century." It will be held on the campus of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY.
Plenary sessions include:
"Raising the Standard: Awakening Evangelicalism to the Challenge of Religious Pluralism" - Dr. Phil Roberts
"Raising the Standard: Refining Scholarly Approaches to New Religious Movements"- Dr. H. Wayne House
"The New Mormon Challenge" Book Roundtable Discussion - Robert Bowman, Dr. Craig Hazen, Mr. Bill McKeever, Dr. Phil Roberts and Mr. Luke Wilson
"Raising the Standard: Developing Mission Strategy to New Religious Movements" - Dr. David Hesselgrave
"Raising the Standard: Improving Ministry in the Trenches" - Pastor Steve Rost
"Raising the Standard: Where Do We Go From Here?" - Professor James Bjornstad
Workshop leaders include:
Dr. Winifred Corduan
Dr. Irving Hexham - "Cults and Cultural Evangelism"
Dr. Karla Poewe - "What can we learn from New Religions and the Rise of National Socialism in Germany?"
Dr. Bob Stewart
Dr. Chad Brand
Robert Bowman
Dr. David Hesselgrave
Dr. James Chancellor
Bill McKeever
Luke Wilson
Marcia Montenegro
Bill Honsberger
Paul Carden
Special guest presentation by Dr. Douglas Cowan - "Apologia and Academia: Prospects for Rapprochement?" and J. Gordon Melton - "Self-Consciousness in Ministry to New Religions" with responses to these workshops by Dr. Irving Hexham.
Call for Abstracts
We hope you will attend this important conference and consider providing a workshop as well. Conference presentations are arranged in three tiers: general, missions and academic. Guidelines for submissions are given under each track description.
General Track
This track is for presentations that address topics in a non-academic, general way relevant to cults of Christianity, new religious movements and world religions. Proposals should include an abstract of not less than 250 words. Papers for the general track will be evaluated on the basis of interaction with relevant current issues addressed in this discipline, up-to-date research, as well as familiarity with and use of primary sources. Proposals should be postmarked by September 30. Please send all proposals to John Morehead at Watchman Fellowship, P.O. Box 227, Loomis, CA 95650-0227, or e-mail John at morehead@quiknet.com.
Missions Track
Proposals for this track shall address issues relevant to cults of Christianity, new religious movements and world religions. Papers will be evaluated on the basis of relevance to issues of missiological importance. Papers demonstrating up-to-date research, familiarity with and use of primary sources, the integration of history, theology, the social sciences and strategies from a soundly evangelical missiological perspective will be given primary consideration. Proposals shall include an abstract of not less than 250 words. Proposals must be postmarked by September 30. Please send all proposals to John Morehead at Watchman Fellowship, P.O. Box 227, Loomis, CA 95650-0227, or e-mail John at morehead@quiknet.com.
Academic Track
Proposals for the academic track shall address issues relevant to cults of Christianity, new religious movements and world religions. Papers that demonstrate the highest quality of scholarly research will be given primary consideration. Guidelines for academic presenters, with some adjustments, are taken from those set forth by Andreas Kostenberger in his "Editorial" in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 44/1 (March 2001), p. 1: the paper must show use of "relevant literature on the subject, including commentaries, monographs, and recent journal articles" from both evangelical and non-evangelical sources. The use of sources that are dated (fifteen to twenty years old) should be kept at a minimum. However, this does not preclude the use of sources that, though dated, contribute to the scholarly discussion of the topic at hand. Papers must also "engage recent scholarship in a substantive rather than merely cursory manner" and "present information with even-handedness and fairness." Of particular interest are papers that tackle issues that have not received sufficient attention from the evangelical academic community. If you desire to present a paper in the academic track, please send a 250-500 word abstract and paper title to Stephen Rost, 535 West "H" Street, Dixon CA 95620, or by e-mail to srost@gracefellow.com, postmarked no later than September 30.
EMNR News
Membership renewal. Did you receive your membership renewal letter yet for 2001? Our executive director, Bob Waldrep, mailed them out a few weeks ago. If you haven't returned your's yet, please consider taking a few moments and mailing your renewal form with your dues. Or perhaps you have never joined. We'd like you to consider a new membership. EMNR is the only national membership organization for evangelicals in ministry to new religions. We are a top-notch professional organization here to serve you. Please consider your membership today.
Website revisions. EMNR has a new "web servant," Kevin Rische of Walter Martin's Religious Infonet. The board of EMNR will be working closely with Kevin to redesign and update the site to keep timely information and resources available to its membership.
Goals review. The board of EMNR will be meeting in conjunction with the Evangelical Theological Society conference in November of this year in Colorado Springs. Among the items for discussion will be a review of the goals and objectives of EMNR. We hope to ensure that we are putting together a quality organization with a clear purpose and measurable activities as criteria for success. We want to be the best organization possible to benefit our members, and by extension through your efforts, those in new religious movements as well.
Member News Items?
We'd like to hear what's going on in your ministry, both to promote membership activities, and to network together more efficiently. If you have a news item of interest that you would like to share with the rest of our members, please forward it to us.
Evangelical Ministries to New Religions
402 Office Park Drive, Suite G-20
Birmingham, AL 35223
205-871-2858
http://www.emnr.org
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