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The Evangelical Ministries to New ReligionsFounded to evaluate controversial groups, recognize those who are qualified ministers, and set reliable information before the public and churches. |
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Denomination History, Practices and Beliefs IntroductionThe Evangelical Ministries to New Religions or EMNR was founded to evaluate controversial groups, recognize those who are qualified ministers, to set reliable information before the public and churches. The doctrinal statement the Evangelical Ministries to New Religions is the Lausanne Covenant. The Evangelical Ministries to New Religions (EMNR) is a group of Christians in North America who are set up to help people distinguish authentic Christians from false Christians. It was formed in 1982 to strengthen evangelical Christian ministries to new religionists and cultists. They adopted the Lausanne Covenant as the governing document for their organization. The Evangelical Ministries to New Religions (EMNR) was formed to establish a functional regional teamwork for promoting the mission of the Church. The Evangelical Ministries to New Religions or EMNR seeks a deeper unity in truth, worship, holiness and mission. The Evangelical Ministries to New Religions (EMNR) states it was conceived as an umbrella group for ministries. This implies it is a covering for protection, however, they say they do not want to assume the authoritative or superior position. The Evangelical Ministries to New Religions (EMNR) does understand that not all Spirit led Christian ministries will be affiliated with The Evangelical Ministries to New Religions or EMNR however, they believe within timem those groups will be drawn closer to the EMNR. The Evangelical Ministries to New Religions (EMNR) is to help Christians to understand and confront the growth of cults and new religious movements. The EMNR understands not everyone is able to develop skills even knowledge that would be necessary to present a balanced approach to understanding and confronting cults and new religious movements, and strive to sensitively correct and give instructions to others. History The World Evangelization Conference sponsored a Lausanne Committee in June of 1980 in Pattaya, Thailand. This committee was to develop an approach to reach those unreachable people and groups as part of the Great Commission of Christ. In 1981 another conference was held in San Diego, California, on “cults and then again in Santa Barbara, California in 1982. There was a vote to organize a ministry that was to be called the Evangelical Ministry to Cultists (EMTC). The Evangelical Ministry to Cultists dealt with cults and new religions to promote a ministry to assist on research on any new religion or cult, to set up some kind of a credential for membership. The founders of the Evangelical Ministry to Cultists (EMTC) changed the name of the organization to Evangelical Ministries to New Religions (EMNR) in 1984. The primary importance was an apologetic emphasis toward the New Age movement and other cults with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society as a secondary focus. Belief EMNR has struggles for its own self identity and its own purpose since its beginning in 1982. The Evangelical Ministries to New Religions or EMNR has a Statement of Purpose which everyone wanting to join the EMNR must agree and accept in order to have membership. Statement of Purpose 1. Missions - Facilitate mission to new religious movements through networking and the stimulation and formulation of mission strategy to new religions as frontier mission to unreached people groups. 2. Accountability - Maintain worthy theological, ethical and missiological standards among members. 3. Scholarship - Stimulate the scholarly and popular production of research and writing on neglected aspects of strategies, methods and materials important to reaching these unreached people groups. 4. Recognition - Recognize the qualified and credentialed ministries reaching the unreached in the new religions and cults. 5. Networking - Encourage mutual understanding and cooperation among evangelical Christian agencies and individuals, as well as secular organizations where appropriate. 6. Referrals - Recommend to the public, churches and schools those agencies and materials which meet quality standards and may help as a protective to involvement with a non-Christian or pseudo-Christian religious movement.” (Statement of Purpose copied from the website of The Evangelical Ministries to New Religions (www.emnr.org). |
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MLA Style Citation: About the Author
Joanne B. Holstein is a Becker Bible Studies Teacher and author of Guided Bible Studies for Hungry Christians. She is a Religious Philosophy student of Liberty University, and a Homeschool parent and child advocate. She is well-known as a counsleor to Christian faithful who are struggling with tremendous burden in these difficult times. She is a leading authority on the history of development of the Christian churches and the practices and beliefs of world religions and cults. |
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