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Brian McLaren Interview on Charlotte.com

Posted Jan 27, 02:29 AM | 3 comments | by Editor | Link

One of the widest ranging, most in-depth interviews with Brian McLaren that I ever recall reading is the one posted today on Charlotte.com. The Charlotte Observer newspaper’s Faith & Values reporter Tim Funk discusses with Brian everything from theology (personal sin vs. social sin; the End Times; evangelism; prosperity Gospel; etc.) to politics (and the role of faith in politics) to homosexuality and abortion to Billy Graham to the new atheism to Islam to church structure (the small group model) to worship music to the Internet — and more.

Some choice excerpts:

Q. You say that many Christians should start by replacing the idea of getting themselves and others “saved” so they can go to heaven — the evacuation plan, I think you call with — with this idea of getting out there, in the here and now, and healing the hurts of the world. So when Jesus said, “As the father sent me, so I sent you,” he was talking not really about conversions but about tackling the world’s crises — Is that right?

Actually, I would put the two together. If we keep recruiting people to evacuate the earth, then every person who gets saved is, in some ways, taken out of the action. It’s like going to the bench of people who want to play in a football game and trying to recruit them to leave the (stadium) altogether.

A better image would be: What Jesus is asking us to do is go into the stands and recruit some people to come on the field and join us to play. The recruiting of new disciples is really connected to wanting to make a difference in the world.

Q. Some Christians may see the title of your book and worry that you’re saying that what also needs changing is some basic doctrine. For example: Jesus’ divinity. Is that negotiable?

I affirm in the book that I am completely orthodox in all of my beliefs about Christ. I affirm all the ancient creeds.

But here’s where we have to face some deeper issues. The creeds teach us to affirm the deity of Christ. But then we have to say: What does it mean to live out the belief that Jesus was really the word of God incarnate? If we really believe that, then we’ll take very seriously what he said about how we treat our enemies. Instead, we often affirm the doctrine in our words — we can say “Lord, Lord” — but then we don’t actually do what he said.

The change I’m interested in is helping us flesh out what it means to affirm the ancient creeds and historic faith.

Q. What do you say to conservative Christians who say, “What about the Great Commission? These (non-Christian) people are doomed and we need to save them through conversion.”

First of all, I love to help every person I can to become a follower of Jesus Christ.

A lot of people don’t want to become followers of Jesus Christ. And when they don’t want to, they are not disqualified from being my neighbor. In fact, they still are my neighbor.

And so, everything Jesus teaches me about loving my neighbor applies to a person who has no interest in being a Christian. This idea that because some people don’t want to become Christians, we should ignore them or treat them as enemies, I just don’t get it.

Read the full transcript of this interview

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BTW — Brian McLaren is in Davos, Switzerland, this week for the World Economic Forum. On Thursday (1/24), Brian participated in a panel discussion on “The Wisdom of Storytelling” with Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist), German movie-maker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others), American author David Bodanis, Nigerian novelist and poet Chris Abani, and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel.

Please keep Brian in your prayers as he also participates in a Muslim-Christian dialogue in Davos, as well as a Trialogue discussion with Jews, Christians, and Muslims as part of the “Everything Must Change” event in Charlotte, North Carolina, next week.

Andrew Jones recently wrote, “Brian’s book Everything Must Change is his most important book and is totally worth reading and familiarizing yourself with. You may not agree with everything. I can’t say that I did. But you can’t ignore his book, or these issues of the environment, economy and the message of Jesus. You can also catch him at the Deep Shift tour around USA. I think you will be sorry if you miss it.”

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