Single Page
E-mail
Print
RSS
G-bookmarks
Live
TechnoratiBrian McLaren, considered one of the more articulate leaders in the emergent church, has a lot of questions. And he hopes Christians won’t avoid those questions.
In his new book, A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions that are Transforming the Faith, McLaren questions conventional truths and calls for a major overhaul of the Christian faith. He recently spoke with The Christian Post talking about where he really stands on certain Christian core beliefs and addressing some of his critics.
CP: Would you describe yourself as just an ordinary Christian who’s struggling with questions and working his way through figuring out the Bible?
McLaren: I’d certainly say my struggle is first and foremost as a Christian myself. Add to that the fact that I was a pastor for 24 years so I suppose I’m struggling with this on behalf of the kinds of people I met as a pastor. And then thirdly, one of my primary concerns is evangelism. So I also think I struggle with these questions thinking about my friends who are spiritual seekers and so I’m struggling with these questions on their behalf as well.
CP: Some say the emergent movement is fizzling out. It seems there’s less buzz about the movement and those who were originally part of it or thought to be part of it are distancing themselves from it or dropping the term emergent, like Dan Kimball and Mark Driscoll. I wanted to get your thoughts on that.
McLaren: This new book where I’m speaking from my heart. I’m not trying to speak as a spokesman for anybody’s movement. That’s important to say. But when it comes to emergent my sense is that what emergent has always been to me is a conversation. And a good conversation moves from subject to subject. Certain people have been most interested in the part of the conversation that was about church, about styles of worship, styles of leadership, approaches to evangelism and that’s been an important part of the conversation. And then the conversation has moved to issues of theology and this new book especially the first five questions of the ten are about theology. For some people that’s just not part of the conversation that they were interested in. So all that to me is fine. People shouldn’t be forced to have conversations they’re not interested in. I think they all have to happen. We need to have conversations about the practical conventions of doing church and some of us also need to have conversations about theology.
CP: When you say “not interested” in the conversation do you mean they don’t want to debate on the core Christian beliefs?
McLaren: For them, the theological questions are by and large answered. Those questions aren’t important to them. What’s important to them is the matter of effectiveness, leading and serving, working within their current theological paradigms. So there’s just no need to talk about that for them because they’re very satisfied with their theology as it is.
CP: The new kind of Christianity you present seems like something a lot of Americans would get on board with. A lot of Americans today want a sort of pick and choose type of religion. But there’s also a generation that really wants truths, core convictions at a time when there’s so much uncertainty or it’s all relative attitudes. What are your thoughts on this?Continue »
