The Simple Pastor
Simplicity & Generosity
Bibliophilia (09.09.10): An abundance of reviews this week – which means lots of choice and recommendations and sh... http://bit.ly/9Kpslp 3 hrs ago
Not so long ago I gave warning of a storm gathering steam around Brian McLaren’s new book. Just a couple of updates and reviews for those interested. Justin Taylor links to this excellent and reasonable review by Scot McKnight in Christianity Today. McKnight offers praise and criticism but at the end of it questions how much orthodoxy is left writing, “Unfortunately, this book lacks the “generosity” of genuine orthodoxy and, frankly, I find little space in it for orthodoxy itself.”
At the same time to further evidence of the frustration I felt, McLaren has been in London at the Faithworks conference and has been saying some generally agreeable and sensible things such as, “We are not passive players conforming to the world but with transformed and renewed minds, we are agents of transformation.”
A storm is brewing and it could become a blogosphere Hurricane. The storm is called Brian.
Brian McLaren is a polarizing figure, loved by the left and rejected by the right. First the debate was whether he was evangelical, now it’s whether he’s even Christian. The furore is over his latest book A New Kind of Christianity: 10 Questions that are transforming the faith. I’ve always maintained that he is better at asking the right questions than he is at giving the right answers. That remains mostly the case.
For the strongest possible reaction to this book then read what Tim Challies has to say. For a more measured but no less damning perspective try Kevin DeYoung or Michael Wittmer
Now, I find myself in an awkward position so time for some disclosure. I own some of his books. Four of them to be precise, and I quite liked bits of them. A good friend of mine even spent some time in his church. Who knows, we could be friends. When Brian says things like this about consumerism I find myself in agreement.
So here’s my bind, the orthodox authors and leaders that I increasingly admire, almost never mention consumerism. McLaren who’s evangelicalism is increasingly in question, mentions it a lot. Aaaarrgghhgh. Where are the orthodox evangelicals who give a damn about this issue? Thank God for Tim Keller that’s all I can say.
Too often on these issues, dealing with the culture of the day, Christians only have support from writers like McLaren. Well, OK, but evangelicals MUST do better than that. If anything reading and writing this post has given me a kick up the backside to refocus this blog on providing the resources and the Biblical support to Christians who want to subvert consumerism by leading Christ-like lives that are faithful to scripture and faithful to the one who died, was buried and was raised.
Tim Challies posts this quote by Kevin DeYoung knowing if you’re emergent or not. I have to put a tick by a lot of those boxes.
“After reading nearly five thousand pages of emerging-church literature, I have no doubt that the emerging church, while loosely defined and far from uniform, can be described and critiqued as a diverse, but recognizable, movement. You might be an emergent Christian: if you listen to U2, Moby, and Johnny Cash’s Hurt (sometimes in church), use sermon illustrations from The Sopranos, drink lattes in the afternoon and Guinness in the evenings, and always use a Mac; if your reading list consists primarily of Stanley Hauerwas, Henri Nouwen, N. T. Wright, Stan Grenz, Dallas Willard, Brennan Manning, Jim Wallis, Frederick Buechner, David Bosch, John Howard Yoder, Wendell Berry, Nancy Murphy, John Franke, Walter Winks and Lesslie Newbigin (not to mention McLaren, Pagitt, Bell, etc.) and your sparring partners include D. A. Carson, John Calvin, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Wayne Grudem; if your idea of quintessential Christian discipleship is Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, or Desmond Tutu; if you don’t like George W. Bush or institutions or big business or capitalism or Left Behind Christianity; if your political concerns are poverty, AIDS, imperialism, war-mongering, CEO salaries, consumerism, global warming, racism, and oppression and not so much abortion and gay marriage; if you are into bohemian, goth, rave, or indie; if you talk about the myth of redemptive violence and the myth of certainty; if you lie awake at night having nightmares about all the ways modernism has ruined your life; if you love the Bible as a beautiful, inspiring collection of works that lead us into the mystery of God but is not inerrant; if you search for truth but aren’t sure it can be found; if you’ve ever been to a church with prayer labyrinths, candles, Play-Doh, chalk-drawings, couches, or beanbags (your youth group doesn’t count); if you loathe words like linear, propositional, rational, machine, and hierarchy and use words like ancient-future, jazz, mosaic, matrix, missional, vintage, and dance; if you grew up in a very conservative Christian home that in retrospect seems legalistic, naive, and rigid; if you support women in all levels of ministry, prioritize urban over suburban, and like your theology narrative instead of systematic; if you disbelieve in any sacred-secular divide; if you want to be the church and not just go to church; if you long for a community that is relational, tribal, and primal like a river or a garden; if you believe doctrine gets in the way of an interactive relationship with Jesus; if you believe who goes to hell is no one’s business and no one may be there anyway; if you believe salvation has a little to do with atoning for guilt and a lot to do with bringing the whole creation back into shalom with its Maker; if you believe following Jesus is not believing the right things but living the right way; if it really bugs you when people talk about going to heaven instead of heaven coming to us; if you disdain monological, didactic preaching; if you use the word “story” in all your propositions about postmodernism—if all or most of this tortuously long sentence describes you, then you might be an emergent Christian.”
I believe Jesus when he said 'life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions'. I believe he offers something better. This blog is mostly about that search.
I'm also a church pastor, a bookshop owner, a husband, a father, a keen runner, reader, and motorcyclist. These and a few other things make guest appearances from time to time.