My Top 5 Books on the Emerging Movement

Christianity Today, October, 2009

My Top 5 Books on the Emerging Movement

Scot McKnight, Professor of Religious Studies, North Park University | posted 10/06/2009 10:11AM

The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier By Tony Jones This intelligent and informative book is the only insider story from one of the leading lights of the more progressive wing of the emerging movement, the former national coordinator of Emergent Village.

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The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations By Dan Kimball Kimball, who gets credit for first using emerging in a book title to describe the movement, articulates the nitty-gritty of what goes on among these Christians, and does so from an evangelical basis.

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Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures By Eddie Gibbs and Ryan K. Bolger A richly documented survey of what emergent churches believe and practice, this book sketches emerging congregations around the globe.

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Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church: Understanding a Movement and Its Implications By D. A. Carson Carson offers the first thorough critique of the movement; he demonstrates where some have wandered from biblical revelation and focuses on the postmodern threat to the biblical concept of truth.

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Why We're Not Emergent: (By Two Guys Who Should Be) By Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck This hard-hitting analysis of the liberal tendencies of some in the emerging movement is theologically informed, biblically alert, and pastorally concerned

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Rediscovering Christian Faith

Author and Pastor Brian McLaren discusses what he considers to be the most imperative global crises, how Christians are equipped to grapple with them, and how Christians can join with people of other backgrounds as advocates for change. Series: Walter H. Capps Center Series [7/2009] [Humanities]



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The Emerging Church Panel in Dallas

We hear much about the emerging church, but pinning down its beliefs and goals can be challenging. What is the movement emerging from and where is it headed? How influential is the emerging church? Participants, observers, and critics examine this movement from all angles — biblical, theological, pastoral, and missional. Christianity Today’s Mark Galli moderated this panel on March 21, 2009 for the Christian Book Expo in Dallas.

Panelists:
•Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet (Zondervan)
•Tony Jones, The New Christians (Jossey-Bass)
•Kevin DeYoung, Why We Are Not Emergent (Moody)
•Alex and Brett Harris, Do Hard Things (WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group)

Conversations on Emergent, Missional and Monastics

Len Hjalmarson wrote a informative article on Missional, Monastic, Emerging: A Traveler's Guide in the August 2008 issue of Next-Wave Ezine.

It’s helpful to characterize the four conversations as Sine did, with four streams denoted by emerging, missional, monastic and mosaic (Find Andrew Perrimann’s summary HERE). It’s even more interesting to observe the convergence of these energies, all birthed by the Holy Spirit. Each brings their own renewal dynamic to the broader church, and I’m convinced that the convergence zone is where some of the most creative experiments will occur. Convergence is evident in places like Life on the Vine, where monastic is meeting missional and emergent, or in kingdom initiatives like ALLELON, where a similar dynamic is at work...

After these observations I was left running a structural taxonomy in my head, so I created it in PaintShop. What this requires is some kind of consensus on essential characteristics of each stream...

Worthwhile to read the whole article.

New Wave: Ten Years of the Emerging Churches

As Next-Wave turns ten years old with its January 2009 issue, it provides a good opportunity to look back over the short history of the emerging church in North America. Next-Wave, after all, is the publication most closely associated with the emerging church conversation and many of the movement’s most prominent leaders have contributed articles to the online journal over the years.

Ten Years Out: A Retrospective on the Emerging Church in North America
By Stephen Shields










Brian McLaren – Named by Time Magazine as one of The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America and often considered the father of the emerging church, Brian’s books A New Kind of Christian and Generous Orthodoxy are considered by many to be two of the most important books published within the conversation.

Jordon Cooper – Canada’s Jordon Cooper is an influential emerging church blogger. Jordoncooper.com, which Jordon began in 2001, was an important early clearinghouse of emerging church information.


Tony Jones – Tony, the author of The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier, until very recently was National Coordinator of Emergent Village and has been engaged in emerging church conversation since the famous Dallas Pappasito’s Cantina meeting in August of 1998.

Scot McKnight – Scot, an author who serves as the Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University in Chicago, is a prolific blogger who has been participating in the emerging church conversation for many years. Scot also serves on the Creative Team of The Origins Project.

Andrew Jones – Andrew is a New Zealander pastor and missionary who currently lives in the United Kingdom and serves as Director of the Boaz Project. An A-list ec blogger, Andrew was an early leader in Emergent Village and spent several years ministering in the United States.

Dan Kimball – Dan, who serves Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, California as their Pastor of Mission and Teaching, wrote The Emerging Church. Dan’s also one of the founders of The Origins Project.

A Retrospective on the Emerging Church in North America Pt. 1
By Interviews by Stephen Shields

A Retrospective on the Emerging Church in North America Pt. 2
By Interviews by Stephen Shields

Poor Man: Brian MacLaren

Alan Hirsch on Defining Missional

Evangelism

Defining Missional
The word is everywhere, but where did it come from and what does it really mean?
Alan Hirsch posted 12/12/2008


It has become increasingly difficult to open a ministry book or attend a church conference and not be accosted by the word missional. A quick search on Google uncovers the presence of "missional communities," "missional leaders," "missional worship," even "missional seating," and "missional coffee." Today, everyone wants to be missional. Can you think of a single pastor who is proudly anti-missional?

But as church leaders continue to pile onto the missional bandwagon, the true meaning of the word may be getting buried under a pile of assumptions. Is it simply updated nomenclature for being purpose-driven or seeker-sensitive? Is missional a new, more mature strain of the emerging church movement?

It's time to pause and consider the origin and meaning of the word that is reframing our understanding of ministry and the church. This tree diagrams the roots of the word missional and how its reach has expanded into different areas of ministry. Alan Hirsch, a self-described "missional activist," also provides a concise definition of the ubiquitous term.

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Missional Misgivings

from Christianity Today

Missional Misgivings
Small, indigenous churches are getting lots of attention, but where's the fruit?
Dan Kimball posted 11/26/2008 11:51AM

I hope I am wrong. For the past few years, I have been observing, listening, and asking questions about the missional movement. I have a suspicion that the missional model has not yet proven itself beyond the level of theory. Again, I hope I am wrong.

We all agree with the theory of being a community of God that defines and organizes itself around the purpose of being an agent of God's mission in the world. But the missional conversation often goes a step further by dismissing the "attractional" model of church as ineffective. Some say that creating better programs, preaching, and worship services so people "come to us" isn't going to cut it anymore. But here's my dilemma—I see no evidence to verify this claim.

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Dan Kimball raised some hard questions about the missional churches
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The Emergence of Emergent

The Emergent movement has stirred passions as a new way of doing church or yet another attempt to wipe the slate clean and start new. But the movement isn't really a movement, not yet, say its supporters. It's still a conversation, one that's taking place in books, articles, and weblogs. Christianity Today and its sister publications participated in the conversation with book reviews and articles. Whether you're a newcomer to the discussion or looking to dive deep, there's plenty of conversation fodder here.

Everything Hasn't Changed

An apocalyptic Brian McLaren strives to reframe Jesus and discipleship.Review by John Wilson, editor of Books & Culture January 16, 2008

Rethinking Church in an Emergent Salon

Rising from the Ashes asks emergent leaders about the impact of alternative worship on the mainline church.Review by Howard A. Snyder January 9, 2008

Technology and the Gospel

Phyllis Tickle, Brian McLaren, and others weigh in on worship and evangelism in a plugged-in age.by Becky Garrison, excerpted from Rising from the Ashes: Rethinking Church January 9, 2008

Five Streams of the Emerging Church

Key elements of the most controversial and misunderstood movement in the church today.By Scot McKnight January 19, 2007

Emerging Confusion

Jesus is the truth whether we experience him or not.By Charles Colson with Anne Morse June 1, 2006

Emergent Evangelism

The place of absolute truths in a postmodern world—two views.By Brian McLaren and Duane Litfin November 1, 2004

The Emergent Mystique

The 'emerging church' movement has generated a lot of excitement but only a handful of congregations. Is it the wave of the future or a passing fancy?By Andy Crouch November 1, 2004

Theologian Stan Grenz Dies

Leading advocate of emergent movement mourned.By Ken Walker May 1, 2005

Christianity Today Reviews A New Kind of Christian and the Sequel

The Virtue of Unoriginality

The old kind of Christian is the best hope for church renewal.By Mark Galli posted 04/04/2002

The Postmodern Moment

Are Christians prepared for ministry after modernism's failure?By Glenn T. Stanton posted 06/18/2002

A Story Darwin Might Love

Brian McLaren's evolutionary interpretation of the faith promises more than it delivers, but what it delivers is good enough.By Mark Galli posted 04/14/2003

A Newer Kind of Christian

Brian McLaren's sequel to A New Kind of Christian touches other tenets of faith.Reviewed by Cindy Crosby posted 03/26/2003

Books & Culture and the Book that Started It All

Faithfully Dangerous

Christians in postmodern times .By Brian D. McLaren May/June 2002

Post-Evangelicalism

Last in a series of responses to Brian McLaren's book, A New Kind of Christian.Tony Jones May/June 2002

Reformed or Deformed?

Questions for postmodern ChristiansBy Mark Dever March/April 2002

Let's Get Personal

Yes, the church needs to get past modernity's impersonal techniques. But adding the prefix post doesn't solve anything. By Andy Crouch January/February 2002

Leadership's Emergent Wrestling

My Emergent Guilt

How did I get here, dancing off-beat, and out of touch?By Ron Benson

Has the Emergent Church Emerged?

When newspapers pick up on a religion story, there's a good chance it's old hat to insiders. So now that the Denver Post and the Press-Enterprise of inland Southern California have written stories on emergent churches, are they really still emerging?By Rob Moll

Nomo Pomo—a Postmodern Rant

Why we can and should talk about something else.By Kevin Miller

Pomo Ponderings

10 Questions about Postmodern Ministry. By Kevin Miller

Is Pomo Nomo?

A postmodern pastor reaches out to the Mod Squad.By Chris Seay

How to Evangelize Today

Reaching people who think negatively about Christianity.An interview with Brian McLaren.

Brian McLaren Says

Passionate, but Not for Mel's Movie

Why The Passion 'outreach' was all hype, and I didn't fall for it.By Brian McLaren

Bless This House?

Why efforts to renew the church are often misguided.By Brian McLaren

It's All About Who, Jesus?

If worship is for God, why are so many songs about us?By Brian McLaren

Emerging Values

The next generation is redefining spiritual formation, community, and mission.By Brian McLaren

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The Ironic Faith of Emergents

Christianity Today, September, 2008

The Ironic Faith of Emergents
McLaren shows us not only where 'post-evangelicals' are going, but also how they get there.
Scot McKnight posted 9/26/2008 11:11AM

The experience of "ironic faith" is pervasive—though rarely noticed—in the work of McLaren and other emergents. The irony is that they have deconstructed the very thing they were most committed to, and are left with what many call post-evangelicalism.

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Brian McLaren's Emergent Theology

Finally this article appear online. See my earlier post on this.


McLaren Emerging
In his last two books, Brian McLaren presents more clearly than ever his vision of the gospel.
Scot McKnight posted 9/26/2008 11:09AM

I maintain a crucial distinction between two related streams: emergent and the broader emerging movement. Emergent is crystallized in Emergent Village and its leaders Brian McLaren, Tony Jones, and Doug Pagitt. Emerging is a mix of orthodox, missional, evangelical, church-centered, and social justice leaders and lay folk. When I think of this broader emerging movement, I think of Dan Kimball at Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, Dave Dunbar at Biblical Seminary in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch and their book The Shaping of Things to Come, and Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz. Some of this was anticipated by Lesslie Newbigin's many writings and is now sketched in Tom Sine's The New Conspirators. Furthermore, I see emerging trends in megachurches like Willow Creek Community Church and Saddleback Church.

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The Dream of a Perfect Church-Emerging Church

The Emerging Church is Dead

According to this post from Out of Ur, R.I.P. Emerging Church, the emerging church is dead. The term 'emerging church' that is, not the actual movement which seems very much alive. Apparently Dan Kimball and Andrew Jones aka. Tall Skinny Kiwi has found the term 'emerging church' so 'polluted' that they have decided not to use the term anymore. Imagine that. Are we in the post emerging church era?

Meanwhile back in the United States, the emerging church movement can be broadly divided into two categories according to an article by Scot McKnight on Brian McLaren's Emerging Theology published in Christianity Today magazine, September 2008 p.58-66, which strangely did not appear on its online form. Sorry readers, you have to get a hardcopy of the magazine to read that.[update: article now availble here] Acccording to McKnight, one category is the Emergent Village (EV) of which Brian Mclaren is the leader with his distinctive brand of theology and the rest belongs to the other category.

Some leaders in the other category are planning to start an alliance that has a theology closer to the Lausanne Covenant. This promises to be fun. We shall be see more of Mclaren and McKnight (I wonder why both have a dropped 'a' in their surname) in the coming years.

In the meantime, listen to Doug Pagit explaining these terms 'emergent' and 'emerging' to you.

Is Your Gospel Too Big?

Christianity Today, September, 2008
Christian Vision Project

Missional Misstep
Emphasizing the big gospel can make it hard to communicate any gospel.
David Fitch posted 8/27/2008 10:40AM

David Fitch is an unusual church planter because he is also a theologian, occupying the Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology at Northern Seminary. And he is an unusual theologian and professor because he is a church planter, immersed in Life on the Vine, a "missional" church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. This double life has made his writing, both online at his weblog, Reclaiming the Mission, and in his provocative book The Great Giveaway, must-reading in emerging, evangelical, and mainline settings. One of Fitch's great gifts is his willingness to challenge his readers' assumptions, and his own. Here, he turns the tables on our big question for 2008, "Is our gospel too small?"

Can the gospel be too big?

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Brian McLaren's Finding Our Way Again (1)

McLaren, Brian (2008), Finding Our Way Home: The Return of the Ancient Practices, Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson

Brian McLaren never ceases to amuse me because he keeps on popping up in unexpected places and writing/speaking of unexpected topics. This time, he is speaking of the ancient spiritual practices or spiritual disciplines of the ancient church. However, I am not surprised because I see the coming convergence of the ancient-evangelical future church movement, the missional ecclesiology, and the emerging church movement.

I find McLaren’s thesis for this book important for all Christians, if only they will stop criticising him long enough to listen to what he has to say. It was in the first chapter that he dropped the bombshell. He was telling a story about him conducting an interview with Dr. Peter Senge (father of systems theory and author of The Fifth Discipline). Senge was saying that in any bookstore, the best selling books will be on how to get rich and the second will be on Buddhism. Why Buddhism? Senge replied “I think it’s because Buddhism presents itself as a way of life, and Christianity presents itself as a system of belief.’ (p.3)

McLaren went on to explain that what is important is not either/or but both/and. Christianity needs a system of belief and a way of life or else it is not relevant. It will not give to what people are searching for today. McLaren suggests that we (Christians) have to rediscover our faith as a way of life, shaped and strengthened by ancient practices (p.6).


In any discussion about the ancient practices, one usually comes to the contemplative versus the active life or the Mary/Martha conflict. McLaren’s solution was rather simplistic in that he lumps it all in a circle and place it in heaven and earth. What he did was to repeat what Ignatius of Loyola was teaching the Jesuit during the counter-Reformation times of Martin Luther: the sacredness of the everyday life. This was also the teachings of other Christian mystics such as Margery Kempe. Recently discovered by the Protestants, it is now strongly advocated by Richard Foster, Diana Bass and Phyllis Tickle. The way of the Christian life is to be both active and contemplative at the same time.

As in other McLaren’s books, I learned a number of new words to the English language such as ‘open-source spirituality’ which McLaren use to mean Christians learning and mentoring from each other; ‘faithing our practices’; ‘otherliness’ (mean love); and this memorable quote from Doug Pagitt “preaching without speeching.”

This is a good introductory book to Christian spirituality and Christian spiritual disciplines. It is highly readable, written in McLaren’s conversational style with lots and lots of stories to illustrate his points.


My other postings on Brian McLaren can be found here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here.

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Random Bloggings about the Emerging Church

Phillis Tickle observes that in church history, there is a reformation/renewal movement every five hundred years. The last one, about 500 years ago is the Reformation. Could the emerging church be the next renewal? Read about it in The Future of the Emerging Churches from the blog,Out of Ur

In the same blog Brian McLaren Thanks God for Enemies. Brian credits Bishop Velimirovic's prayers for his enemies influential in helping him to relate to his.

Prayer Regarding Critics and Enemies by Serbian Orthodox Bishop
By Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic, Serbian bishop who spoke out against Naziism, was arrested, and taken to Dachau.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them. Enemies have driven me into your embrace more than friends have. Friends have bound me to earth; enemies have loosed me from earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world.

Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world.
Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath Your tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless and do not curse them.

They, rather than I, have confessed my sins before the world. They have punished me, whenever I have hesitated to punish myself. They have tormented me, whenever I have tried to flee torments. They have scolded me, whenever I have flattered myself. They have spat upon me, whenever I have filled myself with arrogance. Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Whenever I have made myself wise, they have called me foolish. Whenever I have made myself mighty, they have mocked me as though I were a [fly].

Whenever I have wanted to lead people, they have shoved me into the background.

Whenever I have rushed to enrich myself, they have prevented me with an iron hand.

Whenever I thought that I would sleep peacefully, they have wakened me from sleep.

Whenever I have tried to build a home for a long and tranquil life, they have demolished it and driven me out.

Truly, enemies have cut me loose from the world and have stretched out my hands to the hem of your garment.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Bless them and multiply them; multiply them and make them even more bitterly against me:
So that my fleeing will have no return; So that all my hope in men may be scattered like cobwebs; So that absolute serenity may begin to reign in my soul; So that my heart may become the grave of my two evil twins: arrogance and anger;
So that I might amass all my treasure in heaven; Ah, so that I may for once be freed from self-deception, which has entangled me in the dreadful web of illusory life.

Enemies have taught me to know what hardly anyone knows, that a person has no enemies in the world except himself. One hates his enemies only when he fails to realize that they are not enemies, but cruel friends.

It is truly difficult for me to say who has done me more good and who has done me more evil in the world: friends or enemies. Therefore bless, O Lord, both my friends and my enemies. A slave curses enemies, for he does not understand. But a son blesses them, for he understands.

For a son knows that his enemies cannot touch his life. Therefore he freely steps among them and prays to God for them. Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.


Prof. Mark DeVine writes, Fast Friends or Future Foes? The Emerging Church and Southern Baptists, which is an interesting development as one can hardly imagine an emergent church in the Southern Baptist Convention.

Meanwhile, Mark Discoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church, blogs about his exhaustion, poor health and dryness in Brokeness and Buddies: a lesson we all should take to heart.

The House with the Golden Windows in the Ooze

The Ooze published my article The House with the Golden Windows on 21 March 2007. Hope you will enjoy reading it. Appreciate your comments here.

A Quiet Reflection on QROH

The conference, Friends in Conversation: A Quiet Revolution of Hope was held in Petaling Jaya on 3-4 March, 2007. The main speaker is Brian McLaren. Aside from the conference, Brian also gave a lecture at STM on 5 March 2007.

Jamie Sim reported the event in Christian Today online magazine here

Alwyn Lau’s reflections are here,here,and here. I am sure Alwyn has much more to say. David Tan comments on his blog. Another comment is found in Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam. It is encouraging to note the conversation is still going on and people are engaging with the experience.


I have prepared myself for this conference by reading all 10 of Brian’s books (which he has autographed), and also whatever I can find on the internet. I engage in conversations with people involved with the emerging church movement. My objective is to learn as much about the emerging church movement as possible. I thank my brothers in the JB Pastor Fellowship for their concern; especially those warned me and sent me emails and reading materials about the dangers of the emerging church. Fortunately, this conference allowed me to have a lot of time of interactions and quiet conversations with Brian McLaren.


Here are a few of my observations:

1. Brian is a gentle soft spoken man. I believe that he is a committed Christian seeking to follow and serve Jesus as we all are doing. I do not believe that he is a charlatan with his own selfish agenda.

2. I do not think Brian is “a threat to the gospel” as reported in a report. However, his interpretation of the inclusiveness and exclusiveness of the gospel is slightly wider than what most evangelicals would allow. However, we need to understand where he is coming from in his definition of gospel. Brian is an excellent communicator and as he tells his stories and illustrations, that we can be so caught up with enjoying the way he tells them that we missed what he is telling us, and more importantly, what he is not saying. It is good that he tells of the two versions of the gospel. One is the gospel of self which can be roughly translated as “I am saved so to hell with the rest of the world.” The other version is the kingdom of God. Brian has not mentioned that there are other versions of the gospel. He also needs to clarify whether he means that the kingdom of God is the gospel. He is not too clear in his talks on that. And he also needs to clarify what he means when he uses the word, “kingdom of God.”

3. Brian's emphasis is on contextualization of the gospel rather than attempting to create a systematic theological definition. As a friend of mine points out, this is akin to Lamin Sanneh’s concept of “translatability.” The gospel is both universal (truth) and particular (culture). Other scholar who may have shaped Brian’s thinking is Lesslie Newbigin (who is a guy in spite of his name) and David Bosch. Brian is in fact being a missionary to the North American church. However, it is relevant to us in Malaysia and Singapore or other part of Asia to examine this “translatability” of the gospel especially in a pluralistic, materialistic, and multicultural context. It is important that we examine the universal and the particular.

4. Brian was a pastor and his approach is mainly pastoral in nature. One needs to understand his approach from this direction. While giving us three illustrations about the emerging church, Brian did not give us much information about the emerging church or on what exactly is an emergent church. He then talks about deep ecclesiology in such a vague way that we are free to interpret the term to mean whatever we want to. It would have been helpful for Brian explain his diagram in respect to “liquid”, “ghost”, and why the vertical arrow is bidirectional. What makes this ecclesiology “deep”? There is a danger that we are so engrossed by high sounding words that we fail to understand what it means.

5. I have problem with his theological construct on which he builds his emerging churches. The emerging churches are strong in practice but weak in theology. This is a weakness that Brian has to address if his theology of model making is to be accepted by the church. Another friend of mine comments that Brian “artificially contrasts between the ‘bad’ timeless propositional model which is a caricature and then puts it beside his model which is vaguely described. The assumption is that his theology has all the qualities which the earlier models lack.” While it is obvious that Brian is influenced by W.T. Wright, we need to, in comparison look at the ecclesiological theology of Barth, Erickson, Luther, and Calvin. His theology is very much influenced by sociology, psychology, politics, pragmatism, secular individualism than by biblical propositions. However I do not think that he is “New Age”, of which he is accused to be associated with by another friend of mine. Still at this moment his theology construct is still weak.

6. Though he claims to be post-modern, he is very ‘modern’ in the way he thinks. I do not see how one can think of God, the Trinity and the gospel without being propositional. In his last talk in the conference about the world, he gives his analysis of the problems of the world. His reasoning reminds me of the theories of Karl Marx and Nietszche. His answer, as in all his other three presentations is simplistic without much offering in the sense of how do we translate his concepts to action.

7. His definition of theology as “an ongoing creative enterprise of making models of the universe based on beliefs about God” was presented at the STM lecture. I was disappointed that the many STM theologians present did not engage in this definition. It sounds too universalistic and scary for many evangelicals. I would like to know what limitations does he place on his model making and what hermeneutic role does the Bible plays in his theology.

8. He is concerned about the weaknesses of the institutional church, and I share his concern that we are losing a large number of our younger people from the church. Would the model of emerging church be an answer?

9. Brian is articulate, intelligent, and well meaning. I have enjoyed his company. I believe we should listen to what he has to say. The least we can do is to offer him Christian hospitality which means that we listen to one another. However, we must critically reflect on what he says. We need to examine his propositions in the light of the Word of God. Finally, we need to come to our own conclusions, not depending on the conclusions of others.

This is not a criticism of Brian and should not be taken as such. These are some of my reflections and of a few other pastors and theologians I have spoken to. There are still a lot of questions and even more answers are needed. I value Brian as a friend. Hey, we had Yee Sang on Chap Goh May. I believe that he has an important message for us here in Asia. At the very least, I can tell my grandchildren (when I have them) that I once shared the stage with Brian McLaren.


Blessings

The Church Emergent in a Post-al Age

Brian McLaren
Lecture presented in Seminari Theology Malaysia (STM)
5 March 2007

The following are my notes:

Part One:

Brian shows a picture of a hurricane damaged Honduras. There was a bridge in the centre of the picture but on both sides of the bridge, the roads have been washed away. The river instead of flowing under the bridge is now flowing on the right bank of the bridge. Brian uses this to illustrate a unpredictable, rapid changing world.

Ideas in the world are always undergoing evolution and revolution.

1 Peter 3:15-16

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

Always means be prepared to answer questions at all times. Questions asked in 1977 are different from questions in 2007. Often those at the grass root ministries have to give answers. The scholars tend to be slower with their answers.

Brian then shared a timeline

*Prehistoric world (2500 BC)- invention of writing changed the world. (A revolution.)
*Development of the ancient world (Sumerian, Egypt, etc)
*500AD, Roman Empire destroyed. Church came to power and replaced it. (A revolution.)
*Development of the medieval world.
*1500AD, development of the printing press. (A revolution.)
*Development of the modern world.

Marshall MacLuhan said that any new development entails loss of something old. Each revolution means we lose something old.

The splitting of the Eastern Orthodox Church means we lost the depth of prayer. The splitting from the Roman Catholic Church means we lose some of their tradition. The Reformation suffers from what they have lost from the Orthodox and Roman traditions.

We live in three worlds:

*Premodern/non modern
*Modern
*Postmodern

The themes of Postmodernity
We have to distinguish between genuine Christianity and our (individual and various culture-encoded) versions of it.
We need to see truth and goodness where they exist in postmodernism
We need to magnify the importance of faith
We ought to be more fair
We need to be more experiential
We need to address the postmoderns’ existential predicament.
We need to listen to the postmoderns’ stories
We need to tell our stories
We need to address issues we have never even thought about before
We need to avoid coercion and pressure
We need to see the postmoderns in here, out there, and everywhere
We must rely more than ever on art, music, literature, and drama to communicate our message
We must believe that the Holy Spirit is out there at work already
We must be seekers again
We must reassess the value of community and rekindle the experience of it
(The Church on the Other Side)

Part Two: Postal Theology

What is theology?

A systematic outline of truth, in the form of proposition, extracted from the biblical text through techniques to create a timeless biblical worldview.

Turning 1:

What is theology?

An ongoing creative enterprise of making models of the universe based on beliefs about God.

The theology of model making.

Emerging theologies aim to be…
1. coherent (hanging together, making sense when the many parts are integrated)
2. contextual (sensitive to its cultural and historical situation)
3. conversational (never attempting to be the last word and silence other voices, but rather inviting ongoing dialogue in the search for truth)
4. comprehensive (relating to all of life)
5. global (ending western hegemony)

Some examples are:

Euro-American theology- Truth vs Emotion (based on philosophy; Plato, Aristotle, Rome, Auschwitz)

Latin American theology- Justice vs Injustice (based on liberation theology; Adam Smith, Karl Marx)

African theology- Truth and reconciliation (reconciling theology; interacting with tribal anthologies and colonial past)

Asian theology- Pluralism vs Relativism (theology among diversity; interact with Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and indigenous religions)

Also eco-theology, feminist theology, etc.

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Personal note

This is what many of us who attended the Friends in Conversation: A Quite Revolution of Hope conference is looking for: for Brian to articulate and explain his theology and the rationale of his way of doing church. It is my hope that our Malaysian conversation will examine his theology of model making and his emerging theologies.

QROH: Session 4: World

Session 4 on world starts at 2pm on a Sunday afternoon. Brian says that he is sharing materials from a book he will be publishing soon. He also mentions that he has been thinking about this issue about the world and the church for many years. Unlike previous sessions, there are no stories but a straight forward presentation.

Brian started with the many organisations and projects which are working hard to identify the problems of the world today. There are about a list of about 11 problems/issues that needed to be addressed.

However, Brian presents his view of the problems facing the world as he sees it. In his conceptual, societal structure, prosperity is an important factor. Equity is the way wealth is created and thus equity is another factor. Unfortunately prosperity and equity makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. This makes the poor discontent. They then either migrate, turn to crime or revolt. Security for the rich becomes the next factor. Brian shows a diagram where prosperity, equity and security are circles which intersections. The centre area where all three circles overlap is what he calls “framing story”. Often the framing story is religion. Religion is often used by the rich and powerful to keep the poor underfoot. Religion is used to justify why the rich are rich and the poor should remain poor.

Therefore, the framing story is a metanarrative. A metanarrative is a story that erase all other stories and replace it with its own. Brian gives Caesar’s framing narrative:

Equality, prosperity and security come from a powerful leader (Caesar) who concentrates the means of violence and imposes peace through domination. The empire of Caesar is at hand.

Jesus confronts the system by reframing Caesar’s narrative:

Equality, prosperity and security come from a sacrificial people who embody reconciliation and bring peace through justice and love. The kingdom of God is at hand.

Later, Brian makes a comment about narrative.

Metanarrative as mentioned above wipes out other stories and replace them with its own.

Local narratives are your story, my story, their story etc. Unfortunately they are easily wiped out by the metanarrative.

Brian mentions a redemptive narrative which calls people to live with one another in peace and not wipe out others’ narrative.

In conclusion, Brian mentions four possible responses to “my neighbour (of another religion)”
(1) convert and assimilate
(2) persecute and marginalise
(3) ignore or isolate
(4) love and know…serve and protect.

The last response should be our response.

The facilitator is Tricia Yeoh and the conversation partners are Father Jojo Fung S.J., Dr. Hermen Shastri, and Steven Wong. The discussion started with Hermen informing us of his work with the World Council of Churches, the national CCM, interfaith committees and dialogue with the government. He ended his introductory remarks with a poem and shows us a metal cross made out of a bullet cashing. He says that the artist used to be a boy soldier in Liberia who becomes a Christian and now works as an ambassador of peace for the UN.

Steven mentions NECF’s work and Father Jojo explained the Roman Catholic Church involvement in Malaysia. Father Jojo also shares about his work with the Orang Asli and the Muruts in Sabah. He also raises two important points in reflection on Brian’s presentation; one is where does the smaller religions fit into the framing narrative, and how does the ancient civilisations, like Confucianism and Brahmanism affects the framing narrative. After this reflection, he concluded by considering a pig, a lowly creature allowing itself to be consumed. He sees himself as a pig to be consumed by others so that others may live a better life. Father Jojo quotes Gandhi, “We have to live simply that others may simply live.”

Then the discussion went onto to politics in Malaysia and what should Christians do about it. Here the conversation partners were divided. One suggests that politics should be left to the “experts” while another calls for more Christians to be involved in vigil, protest, etc.

This is the last session and it concludes by all participants standing in a circle, breaking bread and passing around a lighted candle.

Much has been said, much reflection needs to be done.