Brian McLaren - Everything Must Change

What’s the beef? Brian McClaren’s declaring that acting on the global issues of our planet fall indeed within the announcement and acting upon Christ’s Reign of God!! As a clergy member of a mainline denomination, Brian’s proposals are not new. I have lived and fought for these issues for over 30 years. What is new is the language he uses to communicate to evangelicals and emegent Christians, as well as the mainlines. I regret Brian is getting some criticism from the evangelical elite, however, they need to re-read and receive the message of the kingdom, rather than being limited only by the message of substitutionary atonement and once for a all salvation. Why did Jesus eat with sinners and forgive them. Some didn’t ask for salvation, yet he was a friend and loved them. The message in the Bible is wholelistic and holistic. Let’s read it, believe it and act on it.

Larry Rankin

It is new. The Fathers, medievals, and reformers would have probably all burned this guy’s books. Noone taught that the gospel= Kingdom of God is Jesus-followers spreading social justice until the late 19th century social gospel movement, and the Catholic liberation theology of the 20th century.

It’s new if you ignore the fact that Jesus healed the sick, fed the hungry, taught the illiterate and uneducated, comforted the hurting, and set things in motion that were in direct opposition to the religious and class-based hierarchy that existed at the time of Christ. But hey, Jesus just came to get us all saved, right?

Here’s a thought—maybe “the fathers, medievals, and reformers” weren’t right about everything. It’s easier to ignore this stuff if you just write it off as “social justice,” but not so easy if you remember that Christ actually modeled it.

I don’t think either of you are giving enough credit to “the fathers, medievals, and reformers”.

Thanks Larry for pointing out what Jesus is all about. It’s reaching out to “the least”. In this way Jesus was a huge social activist. What a great example to follow.

I have read several of Brian’s books. They are relivent and a breath of fresh air. Thanks Brian.

Email me if you still need some sponsorship – I wasn’t sure who to contact, but I would like to at least know the amount we are talking about.

“I don’t think either of you are giving enough credit to “the fathers, medievals, and reformers”.”

Pardon me for not giving them all the credit they deserve in this tiny comment section on a remote corner of the internet. The fact that they didn’t have everything right doesn’t mean they had everything wrong. I’m not demonizing them, but they weren’t perfect, and I don’t believe the Church has just been in a theological freefall since the time of Christ.

I have a hard time understanding how what Brian is saying is taken as so new, artificial, and heretical. I just don’t see it; to me, “social justice” seems to be something Jesus advocated in his deeds as much as his words.

I feel that with every new book, Brian just paints a bigger target on his back for many in the evangelical community to take aim. Thanks for being a lot more brave than I am Brian and keep up the good painting, uh, writing.

hey! i am a bible college student at Mattersey Hall in the UK!!! wow my studies in postmodernism and the emerging church are changing my life so radically its hard to keep up!!!!lol
thanks for writing AMAZING books brian!!!! ur a full on ledgend!!!

i pray that God continues to bless you in your revolution!!!

I have kind of a problem with how some of this is being framed. Brian compares Jesus’ care for and good words towards samaratins with our attitude towards al quaeda, but the samaratins hadn’t declared war on the Jewish people of the time. That’s not to say that our attitude towards islamic militants doesn’t need to be careful, loving and measured, but this sort of equivalence strikes me as very problematic. Likewise, over on the “emergent villages update” post, Tony attributes starvation to racism and classism having their roots in (presumably Christian) theology. What about the corruption which has divereted literally billions of dollars of aid to warlords and “big men” and continuing war, poor economic policy (see zimbabwe). Again. this is not to say that the western, rich world is perfect and blameless. However, is it really helpful or even honest to paint a picture where Christians and the west are simply negligent at best and malevolent at worst? I would love to delve into the ideas of the emerging church, but everytime I wander over here I see this sort of sloppy biased thinking and it’s such a turn off. Maybe I’m just taking it all the wrong way – I would like to think so, but that’s how it looks to me.

I have enjoyed listening to the debate about the meaning of Brian’s latest work. As a pastor in a mainline church myself I would have to say that this is not good news for those interested in church growth, power, prestige and wealth. But then again, those don’t seem to be Jesus’ priorities, do they? They seem to be the priority of Christendom. One word of caution to our new-found allies in the Evangelical and Emergent worlds: you must be careful never to sacrifice truth for relevance. We did and we are paying the price for it.

“rebeccat”: Is it all really so “sloppy” and “biased” to say that we, as Christians in the West, do have our fair share of flaws that, in many cases that we may not always realize, fan the flames of certain problems?

I think that if Zimbabwe’s problems existed in the U.S., most of us wouldn’t think twice about offering our help (financial and otherwise). But I think that for many of us (me included), just the fact that it’s in a land far, far, away, affecting people that look different than me, it’s easy to ignore their problems. I would definitely attribute this to my own subtle racism and classism, even though I try so hard to rid this stuff from my system. I genuinely believe we should seek to take care of all of God’s children. Should we cut off our aid to the Third World because some of the money is lost to corruption? Instead, I think we should seek to make our aid more effective, rather than just stopping it (though I don’t think you’re advocating an end to aid).

I don’t think Western Christians are all completely bad—I am one, and I think everyone here would agree that, thankfully, there are innumerable redeeming qualities about the Western Church. But I don’t think that allows us to overlook the ways in which our perspectives, actions, and lifestyles are influenced by even the most subtle pride and prejudice (including racism and classism), and thus add to many of the issues we should be seeking to address (as Jesus has called us, in word and by example). I know there are lots of people who adopt a sort of reactionary approach to the emergent conversation (i.e., sloppy and biased), and put up more of a fight than a dialogue. But I think, as responsible followers of Christ, we should always seek balance and honesty in our criticism, and this unfortunately means looking long and hard in the mirror, before and as often as we point our finger.

How does one go about finding an emerging church in Omaha?

The emerging church movement, teaches an extremely liberal/progressive/seeker sensitive social gospel that is meant to tickle people’s ears. Rick Warren, Brian Mclaren, Doug Pagitt, Tony Campolo, ROb BEll, to name a few are all part of this ecumenical drive to reinterpret the Bible. They all need to repent of this false doctrine and teaching. They encourage ecumenicalism of all religions and this is why they are so well liked in the world, but they have so much division with many Born Again Christians. If anyone wants to know more about this emerging church heresy and the damage it is doing to the Body of Christ, go to www.understandthetimes.org, as well as www.apprising.org.

I am thankful for the emergent church’s focus on the Kingdom of God and for bringing to light some of its depth and breadth for all those who believe. It is refreshing to hear that it isn’t all about our “personal” salvation so we can go to heaven. It is about transformation and starting eternity now and becoming the people God wants us to be.
However, I am concerned about this recent push to “change everything.” Jesus didn’t call us (the Church) to eliminate poverty, stop wars, change systems of government, etc. He called us to love our neighbor, visit the sick and that person we know in prison. He called us to clothe the naked. If that takes us across the seas, GREAT!!! But it is too much of a burden to put on people to be responsible for changing the world from the top down….somehow. One of the most documented miracles of Jesus in the Bible is the feeding of the 5000. With 5 loaves and 2 fish, Jesus fed over 5000 people. God does the multiplying. If we are faithful to feed that hungry person, to clothe the naked person, and above all to tell them the Good News explicitly, making disciples of all nations, God will do the multiplying and the changing of the world through our faithfulness and obedience. That way HE gets all the credit and the glory as He should. “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit says the Lord.” So I encourage you all to be obedient to what the Lord puts on your hearts and go and do what He says, but don’t bust your brains trying to figure out ways to change everything nor take on a burden Christ never put on us.

Actually, the comparison with Al-Q is right-on.

At the time of Jesus, Samaritans and Jews were political, racial and religious enemies. When a group of the Israelites were taken captive by the Babylonians, people from the lower classes were left behind. The Babylonians brought other people groups into the land and they intermarried with the lower class Israelites. This mixed-race people were known as the Samaritans, considered by the Israelites to be an inferior race. They were despised and seen as ritually unclean. Over time, their religious beliefs and practices began to deviate from the traditional Jewish beliefs and practices, and so they were despised from a religious point of view as well. The Samaritans also organized riots against the Jews and once a group of Samaritans even tried to deliberately defile the Temple in Jerusalem.

It is in this religious and political climate that Jesus told the story that we now call the Good Samaritan. The incredible irony of the title itself is usually lost on us. But consider this: In a place and time in which Samaritans are considered racially inferior, religiously blasphemous, and politically dangerous, isn’t a “good Samaritan” an oxymoron?

Jesus was challenging us to move beyond our human categorizations and see people with God’s eyes. This is not easy because it goes against human inclinations.

When you look into your own sinful heart for the truth instead of scripture you meet Evil head on. I would guess there are very few real believers around our planet today. SAD

It seems that many of us Christians have put our energy in uniting to agree about what Christians Shouldn’t do rather than uniting in order to DO what Christians should be doing. I also wonder if much of the resistance towards the “social gospel” is really a denial of the “secular left” being able to have some revelation about the Kingdom of God. Perhaps there is a hint of jealousy preventing us to admit that many non-Christians and/or liberal Christians are seeing something vivid in God’s heart. Perhaps we (the mainline western evangelical Christians) are too arrogant to share that aspect of the kingdom with anyone who thinks differently than we do. Sadly, this could be one of the greatest testaments to our belief that we are all created in God’s image; and many of us are dismissing it!

Sondra wrote:
“When you look into your own sinful heart for the truth instead of scripture you meet Evil head on. I would guess there are very few real believers around our planet today. SAD”

I’m assuming this is a negative response to Brian’s book and the work of the EC in general.

The great irony here is that while Sondra puts so little faith in the “sinful human heart”, she seems to think this sinful heart has absolutely no affect on our ability to interpret the scripture she points us to.

Sondra, sorry, but you can’t have it both ways. If our sinful hearts are so blinded, how could we ever hope to see purely what God has revealed in the scriptures?

Marco,

By “social gospel” do you mean that the aim of this type of gospel is to meet people’s physical needs?

Cathy,

Yes, “social gospel” is a term I use loosely to speak of meeting physical needs for justice and compassion in the name of Jesus. The reason I use it loosely is because I think it implies an unnecessary dichotomy between preaching and acts of love and compassion. I see both preaching the kingdom and demonstrating the kingdom
as the full ministry of Jesus. I don’t believe either of these aspects to the kingdom of God is dispensable.

By the way, I resonate with both of your points on your comments above. Sometimes, we tend to forget the “God-factor” of our ministry and relying on the Holy Spirit becomes a cliche for covering our bases, while we still only trust in our works. On the other hand, Jesus did teach us to say “May your will be done on
earth as it is in heaven”. I honestly believe that the implication of this prayer is that it would happen “through us” on earth and not that we are simply waiting for God to do something in heaven. It seems that the NT Bible writers were claiming that He already DID something! He came through Israel, lived, died and resurrected to make us his people who would transform our world from the “bottom – up” or from the “top-down” based on where God has called us. But like you, I belive we need to be very careful that we are giving the glory to God as he works through us.

I wrote you emergents a theme song. It’s on You Tube… Called New Enlightened Church Anthem…dig it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_vLBlaiWJw