Dear Brian,
I recently read you newest book “A New Kind of Christianity” and found it very interesting. The questions you asked are ones that need to be asked in this changing culture and times.
Specifically, I really liked your focus on challenging the Gnostic thought patterns within modern Christianity. It is sad to think that Christians have become trapped by this heresy, claiming that the ‘material world’ is bad and the ‘spiritual/immaterial world’ is good. Unfortunately, this mindset has caused many believers to consider environmentalism as ungodly. By the grace of God, I have had the blessings to be a part of a movement of Christians that seek to be good stewards of the environment – both for the glory of God and to help our fellow humans.
I also enjoyed reading your response to the question “How Should the Bible Be Understood.” This is a hugely personal issue for me as I face criticism about how we are to read the Bible on a weekly basis. Every time I try to explain the cultural and historical background of a Bible passage, the men in my Bible study shoot me down. To them, each word in the Bible was written in such a way that they should mean the same thing forever – forgetting that the Bible is a collection of letters written to different people at different times among different cultures using multiple genres. Hopefully, the Lord will show them one day that the Bible is not a database of statements to be grabbed and shoved together in order to ‘prove’ whatever action/thought/idea/doctrine they want. Continue reading An Open Letter To Brian McLaren
I don’t think the biblical story is one of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, ‘good’ and ‘evil.’ It is one centered on who determines “good” and “evil.” When Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they did so out of a desire to be ‘like’ God. Or in different words, they wanted to be the one to say what is ‘good’ and what is ‘bad.’ Ever since then, humanity has followed suit – claiming that this war is good, that one bad. Claiming that the uncontrolled greed for wealth is good, even though it takes away food from the bellies of the poor. We say that uncontrolled sexual desire is good – even though it is causing huge emotional, physical, and relationship problems…
God desire has always been that the world would live in harmony, loving and carrying for each other in an interrelated community. In order to do this, He had to make free agents – for to do otherwise would have been nothing less creating robots. He also had to allow humanity to suffer the consequences of their decisions – for what is a “choice” with consequences? To help them along their way, He inserted His guidelines into their souls (Rm 1-2).
Not content to leave it that, He decided to walk with humanity, helping them and guiding them along the way. God did this both before and after Adam and Eve decided to take things into their own hands (i.e. God did not stay in the Garden, He went with Adam and Eve as seen by His conversation with Cain, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, etc). He is doing it now. And He will continue to walk with and guide humanity (and the rest of creation for that matter) forever – as seen in Revelation where God dwells among humanity on earth (yes, a new, restored earth – but a physical, material earth none the less). Continue reading Thoughts About the Biblical Story
Jason Coker (a friend and great blogger – pastoralia.org) just wrote an amazing parable about the mission of the church on DeepChurch.co.uk (which is ran by our mutual friend, Jason Clark).
I have posted the first part of the parable below – however, you will need to go to DeepChurch to finish it.
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A few days ago I was listening to the local Christian AM talk radio station when I heard the strangest thing. Apparently, there is a huge scandal causing rifts among the conservative Christian world. The cause of the rift:
John Piper has invited Rick Warren to speak at the 2010 Desiring God [...]
I wasn’t sure what I would find when I opened the cover of Fred Collom’s book “The Dumb Gringo.” It could be a book of funny stories highlighting the differences between the US and Latin cultures.
Or it could be Fred’s personal story of 25-plus years of church planting in Mexico.
What it turned out to be was a serious book about the fit-falls of cross culture ministry as well as a commentary on the changing winds in international ministry.
The first half the book is a brief look at the history of modern missions’ strategy. Fred, whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, addresses some of the assumption new missionaries bring to the foreign mission field. Assumptions like assuming that the Apostle Paul’s evangelism strategy is the ONLY way to ministry to people because it is the “one” in the Bible… or assumptions based upon books written by scholars who had NO practical on-the-ground missionary experience. Continue reading The Dumb Gringo by Fred Collom
I just received all my books for the class I’m taking this spring about the Emerging Church. They look pretty good! =)
Gibbs, Eddie, and Bolger, Ryan. Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures. Note: Ryan Bolger is the class professor…. Grenz, Stanley J., and John R. Franke. Beyond Foundationalism: Shaping Theology in [...]
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