Cleveland, Tenn.–On Monday evening, November 14, 2011 at 7:00 p.m., the School of Religion at Lee University will sponsor a lecture by Dr. Jerald Daffe entitled “Crosses, Communion, Coffee and Couches.” Offered in the Jones Lecture Hall of the School of Religion building, the lecture will provide a survey of the variety of ministries within what is broadly called today the “emerging churches.”
During the spring of 2011, Dr. Daffe used his research sabbatical to focus on this recent development on the ecclesiastical landscape of the United States. Not only did he read extensively in the sources of the last decade, but he visited numerous emerging churches themselves, from the East coast to the West coast, obtaining first-hand observations of their worship services as well as face-to-face interviews with their leaders. He will share some of the results of his research during his lecture, with a question-answer period following. Dr. Cross, Dean of the School of Religion, has urged Dr. Daffe to give this lecture. He stated, “Perhaps no other movement in the last 50 years has so impacted the future of the church in evangelical America as has the emerging church movement. The difficulty it presents, however, is that among the churches who might fit under this label there is such great diversity of theology, worship practices, and ideas of how to do church that even the church experts are baffled by them. Dr. Daffe’s lecture will provide us all with a map to help us understand who these groups are and why they have become so appealing to so many people today—churched and unchurched alike.”
Daffe (D.Min.) is Professor of Pastoral Ministry at Lee University. An ordained bishop in the Church of God, Dr. Daffe has been training pastors and ministers at Lee since 1987. This lecture is open to the public and all are invited to attend. Questions may be directed to the Office of the Dean of the School of Religion (423-303-5080).