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I was shocked when I found out who the biggest failure in the Bible actually is…The biggest one in the whole Bible is God…I mean, He lost His top-ranking, most anointed angel; the first man He ever created; the first woman He ever created; the whole earth and all the fullness therein; a third of the angels, at least - that's a big loss, man….
-- Kenneth Copeland, Praise-a-thon on Praise The Lord, April 1988
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News: There's A Bigger Story: Brian Mclaren
Posted on Saturday, September 10 @ 20:45:42 PDT by Virgil |
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Eric Hurtgen, Relevant Magazine
In the 21st century, context is everything. If you don’t believe me, try asking for a double cheeseburger at a furniture outlet. Those of us who live in the complex twentysomething world of culture, sub-culture and hyper-culture know that contexts are constantly changing: What works today probably won’t work tomorrow, and it will most likely get you laughed at next week. Understanding and applying the right context to any situation is one of the most basic skills a twentysomething can have in these days of super-globalization. Enter Brian McLaren, pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in the Baltimore-Washington region, and a man in pursuit of helping people find their eternal context.
A prolific author and speaker, McLaren began to find his eternal context by locating his life story in the larger story of Jesus Christ years ago. As the two stories began to fully intersect, Brian found himself as the leader of a very small group of twentysomething Christians in the early ’80s that met in his home for church. McLaren, though trained in English literature and writing, as well as having been an English instructor at the college level, took on the role of pastor in his small church. McLaren explained, “I never planned on leaving teaching to become a pastor, but the church outgrew our home, and I had to make a choice between teaching or pastoring.”
As the church grew, McLaren found himself increasingly uncomfortable with the church’s inability to connect with the larger culture, to work in the current context. As a result, both he and his church started over in an attempt to speak the language of those on the fringes of Christianity. McLaren, in an effort to be relevant, began to intuitively pick up on the cultural sea change known as postmodernism, realizing that, in the words of Leonard Sweet: “There was a whole new there, there.”
Years later, McLaren is still constantly exploring new ways to present the Gospel for the 21st century. His latest stab at connecting Christ with culture can be found in the recently released The Story We Find Ourselves In, which is, at its heart, a retelling of the Christian story for postmodern ears. Not exactly fiction, though very definitely not non-fiction, McLaren explained that he wrote the book in the ancient genre of the dialogue: “It goes all the way back to Plato and the philosophical dialogues. Plato and other ancient Greek philosophers, as well as renaissance thinkers like Gallileo, would write in a dialogical format so that they could get at deeper issues.”
Recently, RELEVANT caught up with Brian McLaren to discuss his latest book, the deeper issues and emerging 21st century narrative theology.
Click here to read the rest of the interview
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Re: Bigger-Schmigger! (Score: 1)
 by chrisliv on Sunday, September 11 @ 21:03:06 PDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | Well,
Since no comments are forthcoming on this article, I'll take a poke at it.
I don't know much about this guy (McLaren), except what I saw on a short TV interview recently. I think he's this same person who likes to wear Hawaiian shirts (an admirable quality which I favor myself) and has a very affluent organization.
But, the Christian outreach to Post-modernism has been tried by far better people than McLaren. Francis Schaeffer is worth mentioning, since he wasn't afraid to call the State a Beast. Sadly though, for all of his efforts, Schaeffer's son (Franky) was recently at a televised book signing while touting the virtues of the US Marines efforts in Iraq, since his son (Francis' grandson) is one of them.
So, along comes McLaren, as the understated, yet highly affluent and undoubtedly state-incorporated, 501 (c) 3 religious organization. And here's his article, in Relevant (Christian beta version?) Magazine, with pseudo-hip apparel advertisements, saying almost nothing, except for a few watered-down statements in the last sentences:
"One is the story of consumerism, and it says that the purpose of life is to own and consume more stuff. It’s not hard to see where that one will lead us. Another is militaristic U.S. or fundamentalist Islam. So which story are we going to choose, which context?"
How revelant is that?
Those things were articulated by teenagers who formed punk rock groups in the late 1970s. Take a look at some of the old lyrics of bands like X-Ray Spex, Gang of Four, Clash, etc.
No, every state-incorporated, 501 (c) 3 "organization" is not permitted, by their Charter, to speak against the policies of their master, The State, and it's federal auxilliary, The United State. And most every Post-modern intuitively realizes that the state-incorporated "church" is a fraud.
The Body of Christ must be Separate from the Body of the State to actually be the Salt of the Earth. And when that happens, Mr McLaren will have no need to go pandering to Post-moderns.
The Body of Christ is the Light of the World. State corporations are contractually prohibited from shining in the World, because they're in voluntary bondage to it, and have effectively sold their birthright for a mess of pottage.
That's a relevant place to start, Mr. McLaren.
Poseur Christians are bad enough. Poseur Christian Post-moderns would not be an improvement.
Peace to you all,
C. Livingstone
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Re: There's A Bigger Story: Brian Mclaren (Score: 1)
by chrisliv on Tuesday, September 13 @ 00:00:00 PDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | Gee,
How'd this article get shuffled away so quickly?
Peace to you all,
C. Livingstone |
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- by forgivenone2002 on Wednesday, September 21 @ 09:21:55 PDT
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