Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? (2 Corinthians 6:14-16)

Hitching Up The Spiritually-Interested For A Fee

Welcome to the website of the Twin Cities Emergent Cohort where we’re told it’s a “cohort of Emergent: a global, generative friendship among missional Christian leaders.” And by the way, if you’re in the area let me also tell you TCEC:

meets at noon on the third Thursday of each month at the Acadia Cafe. The Acadia is located at the corner of Nicollet and Franklin in south Minneapolis and offers a great selection of coffee drinks, tap beers, and lunch-ish foodstuffs. Even if you have NO IDEA what “Emergent” is, you are welcome to join us!

All right in line with the “missional” motto, “if they want beer, then give ‘em beer.” And here’s some interesting information to help the “missional” minister pick up a few extra bucks. It’s seems that the mercenary “missional” minister can marry non-church going folks for $500 a pop. Guess I don’t need to hear any more from angry Emergents writing me about how I accept donations.

National Coordinator for Emergent Village, Tony Jones, informs us in his post Wanna Do Some Weddings:

Hey, cohort friends, I (Tony Jones) have signed up with Wedding Pastors USA to perform some weddings for non-church-going couples this summer. It’s a ministry run by an Emergent-friendly friend of mine, Bill Yaccino (on staff at Willow Creek).

He discovered that, although he’d been told by Christians to only marry other Christians, he was meeting lots of excellent and spiritually-interested couples by widening his mercy in this regard. (Online source)

Hey c’mon now, this yoking together unbelievers is an Emergent-friendly “ministry.” And you know Wedding Pastors USA has got to be of the Lord because it comes complete with recommendations from Guru Brian McLaren and Emergent theologian Dr. Scot McKnight.

It kinda looks to me like Bill is rather money-friendly as well. Note above that even though he’s been told by “Christians (correctly) to only marry other Christians” (see–opening Scripture text) Bill found he was meeting lots of “excellent” dollar bills…oops, make that “spiritually-interested” couples by “widening his mercy” and simply ignoring that nasty ol’ text of Holy Scripture.

Jones then goes on:

So he started this ministry, and I’m the first minister in Minnesota to sign up. He needs a few more. He’ll charge you $100 initially to get listed on the site and $50 referral per wedding (he recommends you charge $500/wedding). In MN, he says, you can do as many or as few as you want, guaranteed. He writes, “This would be perfect for a few hungry church planters – 10 weddings or so a year would give them an extra $4000 and some real unchurched friends! Win-win.”

More like ka-ching-ka-ching! And all you have to do is fork over a C-note to friendly Bill for the right to join together the “spiritually-interested” (for profit) apart from God’s will. An unbiblical union which can very well send them into a life of misery, but hey, at least the Lord’s going to bless His Emergent Church planters with some extra cash out of the deal. Yeah!

An extra $4000 and all you have to do is tell the “non-church going” exactly what they want to hear. Frankly, it’s all just a little bit underwhelming, isn’t it. O, and these subversive Christ-followers try and tell us it’s those evil televangelists who are the capitalist dogs. Uh-huh, right.

Can you spell h-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-e? Time to wake up now Mr. Van Winkle; the Emergent Church isn’t counter-culture; no, it is the culture…