Rap Session: Brian McLaren on Useful Perhaps

Christianity Today recently published a semi-negative review of Brian McLaren's most recent title, Everything Must Change. Brian is an author, speaker, networker and much appreciated voice in the Emergent conversation. Here was his response to the CT article...


A statement like "this changes everything" or "everything must change" is what one might call idiomatic hyperbole: rhetorical exaggeration for the effect of conveying an overall meaning that is larger than the sum of its parts. Thus, when I came to the book Everything Must Change, I didn't expect it to be a literal "theory of everything." That would be too much expectation for any treatise to bear. However, I was hoping for a way forward out of the gridlock of integrity that occurs when people of faith no longer expect of themselves that "words of wisdom would be ways of wisdom" (Arrested Development, 1992).

However, I do understand why some might take exception to Brian McLaren's most recent book , released October 2007. One major reason for consternation may be that Everything Must Change offers a hearing of the Jesus message that takes the gospel out of the battle for primacy in the global theater of self-aggrandizement. McLaren deconstructs the age-old debate of whose religion deserves top billing by conspicuously not participating in it. As opposed to hearing in the message of Jesus an exclusive call for Christians and the Christian church to be central in world affairs, he implores any (Christian or otherwise) who finds the way of Jesus inspiring to become integral in seeking justice, truth, peace and beauty in dealing with the biggest problems facing the world. Such a subtle yet profound shift undoubtedly unsettles many.

John Wilson, Editor of Books and Culture for Christianity Today, was certainly among those unsettled by Everything Must Change—in ways that he apparently did not appreciate.

I attended the launch of McLaren's Deep Shift Tour in Charlotte, NC. We gathered in a most beautiful urban arts commune, Area 15, embedded in the reconstituted NoDa neighborhood of Charlotte. The artists' home is an old warehouse that has been converted into gallery, gathering and prayer space and has had such an affect on the community that the City of Charlotte has asked the creatives of Area 15 to open a second studio in another distressed portion of the city. While there, I took the opportunity to invite McLaren's clarification of any of the issues raised by Wilson's article.

You may ask who am I to seek to challenge the collective wisdom of the Evangelical world's foremost public marketplace of ideas. To be honest, no one of much significance. Publicly, I am a simple storyteller, writer, activist and friend. Nonetheless, in a brave new wiki world, post-modernity, we are finally coming to recognize everyone's stake and the value of everyone's voice. And it just didn't seem right for Wilson's review to be the final word in Christian circles for what I and many others have found to be a most unsettling yet also inspiring declaration of revolt.

Q: Were you surprised to hear about the Christianity Today review?

A: In early or mid-January, a friend called me to express his condolences about a negative review in CT and to tell me not to let it get me down. I said, “What review?” It was a couple weeks before I actually saw the review, so over those weeks I imagined the worst. The review ended up being less negative than I had imagined it would be. John Wilson is arguably the best-read Evangelical in America and editor of a premier Evangelical publication in America, so I’m pleasantly surprised that someone of John’s stature would take the book seriously enough to engage with it.

CONTINUE READING This Changes Everything>>>

Robust Storytelling

What kind of stories can you tell?

I have a theory that the strength of one’s theology and the depth of one’s spiritual journey are best measured by the kind and quantity of one’s stories.

We often measure discipleship success as: biblical knowledge, regular attendance, abstinence from (fill in the blank), tithing generosity, and general purity. And so we get together to “talk texts” or swap camp meeting tales or analyze what we should do and not do, especially on the final day of the week.

Seriously, get a bunch of religious folk (including Adventists) together and listen to their stories. There will, of course, be analysis of iphones, Tiger’s swing, and Starbuck’s newest brew. But when the conversation turns to so-called “religious” matters, what is spoken and heard? What are the conversations of Sabbath School, Small Group or Christian Blog?

Check this out:

Jesus sent out 72 disciples. And when they returned (Luke 10:17-19):

17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, "Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name."

“Listen to our stories Jesus! Sick people got healed, depressed people found grace, victimized people found peace, hopeless people found hope … and we stuck it to some religious folks who had no good stories of their own to tell and didn’t want anybody else telling stories either.”

18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”

“Let me tell you some stories, too!” (Isn’t it great that Jesus jumps in the storytelling festival?) “Satan fell in Egypt and my people went free. Satan fell on Mount Carmel and the rain came down. Satan fell in the desert and I started this revolution. It was the bottom of the ninth, two outs, based loaded, and I went deep on the devil.”

19 “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.”

“You will have more stories to tell.”

“You will do battle with Satan, demons, snakes and scorpions.” (Does this smell of Frodo, Indiana Jones, Jason Bourne, and Peter Parker turned Spiderman?) “You will embrace Jews and Greeks, Slaves and Freeman, Men and Women. You will travel the world feeding the hungry, defending the illegal alien, standing up against the destruction of my creation. You won’t take any guff from the legalists, the moralists, and the exclusionists. You will re-build communities, teach kids to read, and stand in the gap for single moms.”

You will have stories to tell. Astonishing stories.

So, the health of my church will not be measured by the number of dollars or biblical scholars. We will not count heads, but hearts. And, for God’s sake, we will not be boring. A dull Christian is one who has no stories to tell—of risk and love, of sacrifice and blessedness.

Followers of Jesus are able to tell and re-tell the mighty acts of God through ordinary human beings … as exciting as (sarcasm alert) the latest research on vegetarianism, as exciting as the latest statement of the Pope, as exciting as new perspectives on fundamental beliefs might be! Churches should be filled with tension, instability, and drama: the kind created by a Holy Spirit blowing like the wind, high pressure, low pressure, from the east, from the west, cold, hot, gusting, swirling … breathing people into the twists and turns of life-changing ministry.

Religious conversation should become relational conversation.

And this happens when we are immersed in the communities near us; when we are connected to people, and especially people who are not very much like (Christian) us. Friendships with men and women of many denominations, religions, pigments, paychecks, and priorities.

We choose to live a salternative lifestyle (see Matthew 5:13), choosing to experience and, better yet, excite life beyond the glass walls of our religious shaker.

And so our skeletal theories and propositions, vision and dreams, questions and suggestions are given fleshly stories of adventure/love tried, failed, found, lost, built, broken. The tales of supporting human actors (including ourselves) made wonderful by The Lead, Jesus Christ Himself.

“I’ve got to tell you. So there I was when out of nowhere …”

Equally SHAMELESS

Thanks so much, Marcel, for making the last post. I logged on to do the same, but you've done a much more thorough job than I ever could have.

Marcel's post seems to have generated a fair amount of controversy. For those who question a calling that would birth a Faith House Manhattan, I would suggest it can only be because you just don't understand. If you're open to more perspective (and if the endorsement of those with specifically Adventist sensibilities matters to you), I encourage you to download the "Early Endorsements" pdf on the Faith House Manhattan site, and don't neglect to read Samir's first post. Now, for what it's worth, here's my additional shameless endorsement of Faith House.

How do I speak glowingly about a way that has never been traveled before? I can't. I can only affirm my faith in the person(s) walking it.

I once had a dream in which I was looking back over the way I had just taken appalled at how uncertain, unsafe and reckless my traveling had been. In response to my fears, my guide said to me, "Don't be deceived by what your eyes think they see or what your head thinks it knows about the way our journey should unfold." Obviously, Samir Selmanovic has been given a similar challenge and is responding to it in most new and living ways. In many regards, I envy him (such faith). At the same time I am so extremely proud and awestruck and inspired by his courage to walk this path.

Hebrew scripture remembers God as saying, "My house shall be called an house of prayer for all people" (Isaiah 56:7). Someone following in the way of Jesus (Mark 11) finally decided to believe this.

Go 'head, Samir! My best hopes and efforts and prayers are with you, my friend.