Recent writings
What just might be killing the church…
What just might be killing the church is the idea that this whole Jesus, God, Holy Spirit, Love, joy, serve your neighbor thing is just a good idea. What just might be sabatoging our efforts is the notion that this form of religiosity is simply meant to make us feel better. What just might be sucking away our life is the belief that Jesus simply taught us some good stuff and had some nice thoughts on how to live life.
Christianity has been drained of it’s power if we remain encamped around the idea that Jesus came just to make our lives a little better. Jesus came to make our lives holy. Jesus came to reorient the focus of our intentions, thoughts, and actions. Jesus came to provide the pattern of faithful living, something far beyond just making our lives better… at least not according to our definition. Our civic religion has infiltrated the gospel to such a great extent that the American dream is hard to separate from the Christian dream, and when those dreams remain unrealized, we can only seem to blame one thing. Spirituality. For many of us, God looks more like a genie from a bottle rather than our Lord and King.
The truth is that Christ does offer a "better" way of living… we’ve just screwed up the definiton of better… and until we rediscover the "absolute" truth behind that call of sacrificial living, we will remain as we have been… bleeding… waiting for someone to bring a fresh pint of life back into our community. And that may be what it takes to save us. Some faithful people from within, and some radical thinkers from the outside to inspire us to believe again in something more than just a good idea.
Category: Uncategorized
I finally took this theological assessment test. This might also be a great activity for us at the Young Pastor’s Forum. We could talk through these answers. I guess I am in the right place since my answers reflect Wesleyan thought. I would really like to hear some of the other responses to the test. You can take the test by clicking here. My results are posted below.
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You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan. You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God’s grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists.
What’s your theological worldview? |
Category: uncategorized
Topics for First Young Pastor’s Forum
Membership covenant (Does the emergent church need a new understanding of membership? Can we allow people to covenant with the community without a confession of faith? What does it mean to be a "full" member of the church? Is it appropriate or counterproductive to have levels of membership?)
Social contract being clergy and lay (see Spiritual Transformation 120-121) Pagitt talks about the shift from the pastor as teacher to the community as teacher.
What is your definition of church "success" or church "health?" How is that definition being shaped and changed through your reflection on the emerging church?
How does the emergent conversation challenge and/or affirm our wesleyan understanding of theology?
If you have additional topic ideas, add a comment.
Category: Uncategorized
Spiritual Formation as Dialogue
"In dialogue you are not allowed to stay right where you are; you must move toward the perspective of the other person. You don’t need to stay there, but a commitment means that you are required to visit." (Spiritual Formation 93)
Right now I am in West Memphis, Arkansas for our High School Mission trip. Last night was the first time I have preached since recently attending Emergent and diving head first into a lot of the reading published by authors from the emergent community. It was quite an interesting experience. I would have to call it "theology on the fly." Anyone who preaches on a regular basis has some "core" material that they lean on. It is almost impossible to avoid. The ""core" material usually is a reflection of that person’s core theology, as it should be. When your core has been twisted and turned upside in such a short time period… It’s hard to rely on the core. I had to filter some on my own thoughts…
It’s probably misleading to say that my theology has be "twisted and turned upside down." More appropriately I should say, many of the gaps, that I didn’t even realize existed, are being filled in a way that is both thrilling and challlenging. It is thrilling to see the broader perspective, but challenging to process all the intriguing colors, tones, and textures of the new theological landscape I see.
But the picture is awesome to see and experience, and I rejoice that I have found that sense of beauty, awe, and wonder again. If life really is like a roller coaster ride, I sense that I have now rounded the slow corner and am beginning to climb again. What awaits me on the other side…
I don’t know…
but I hear the sound of the track pulling me higher…
the excitement is building.
Category: Books & Readings
To songwriters and poets…
McClaren has written an article and has also shared a postscript written by John Mortensen that is an open letter to songwriters of "contemporary worship music." He has some really interesting thought.
Download lettertosongwriters.pdf
Download ANUNAUTHORIZEDPOSTSCRIPT.doc
Category: Uncategorized
McClaren’s Jesus Creed
We have confidence in Jesus
Who healed the sick, the blind, and the paralyzed.
And even raised the dead.
He cast out evil powers and
Confronted corrupt leaders.
He cleansed the temple.
He favored the poor.
He turned water into wine,
Walked on water, calmed storms.
He died for the sins of the world,
Rose from the dead, and ascended to the Father,
Sent the Holy Spirit.
We have confidence in Jesus
Who taught in word and example,
Sign and wonder.
He preached parables of the kingdom of God
On hillsides, from boats, in the temple, in homes,
At banquets and parties, along the road, on beaches, in towns,
By day and by night.
He taught the way of love for God and neighbor,
For stranger and enemy, for outcast and alien.
We have confidence in Jesus,
Who called disciples, led them,
Gave them new names and new purpose
And sent them out to preach good news.
He washed their feet as a servant.
He walked with them, ate with them,
Called them friends,
Rebuked them, encouraged them,
Promised to leave and then return,
And promised to be with them always.
He taught them to pray.
He rose early to pray, stole away to desolate places,
Fasted and faced agonizing temptations,
Wept in a garden,
And prayed, “Not my will but your will be done.”
He rejoiced, he sang, he feasted, he wept.
We have confidence in Jesus,
So we follow him, learn his ways,
Seek to obey his teaching and live by his example.
We walk with him, walk in him, abide in him,
As a branch in a vine.
We have not seen him, but we love him.
His words are to us words of life eternal,
And to know him is to know the true and living God.
We do not see him now, but we have confidence in Jesus.
Amen.
© Copyright 2003-2005
Brian MClaren
Category: Uncategorized
“Contemporary” Worship
I am beginning to catch a glimpse of the frustration that mean people feel with respect to "contemporary" worship. To begin with, coming to some sense of a defintion of the term is impossible. I attended one of these "contemporary" services this morning at a church in Arkansas. I guess all I can say is that it was a contemporary service for that congregation in that setting, but It didn’t fit my personal definition of what that type of service should look and feel like.
But at the core of this conversation is something deeper for the church to recognize. We have moved beyond the idea that worship can be commidified and reproduced in any time and any place. In the modern era, appropriate worship liturgy and order was collected, recorded and mass produced to be used the world over, and to some extent we have expected the same one size fits all strategy to continue with contemporary worship. So we have collected the appropriate songs and liturgy (yes, even liturgy) and tried to mass produce that product like it was New Coke.
I believe what we are experiencing, more than a dissatisfaction with the universal church’s definition of contemporary worship, is a sense that worship must be grounded and shaped by the culture, values, hopes, and dreams of the community that participate in the act. In other words, figuring this thing out is going to be more difficult than we had originally hoped. Why? Because it is always more difficult to be incarnational. It is always more difficult to create rather than to reinterpret what has come before… and perhaps that is the real great call of my generation… As Doug Pagitt said, "Our generation isn’t making a lot of things that will be around for generations to come." He was talking about furniture at the time but I think the sentiment has a broader application. What are we creating and developing in the church that is both grounded in the ancient story of the church and is authentic to the community in which we now live? This question may be the most important one our generation has to answer.
I think God might be looking for a generation of creators.
Category: uncategorized
A new church?
For years, me and a friend of mine have joked about the idea of starting a new church together. I believe our level of seriousness about the idea has fluctuated with our own particular feelings about the church we were serving at the time. Sometimes it was a distant dream… Sometimes the idea may have been the only thing that kept us sane at the time. But this time… Well, this time is the only time that I believed we were both completelly serious about it at the same time. This time was the first time I ever really believed that our dream might some day come true. The idea fills me with both excitement and terror, yet I feel those emotions in a way that makes me think God might be involved. Do you know that sense of terror? Incredible wonder and dangerous awareness? That’s how I feel about it… Filled with a sense of the opportunity and scared to death to walk too many steps down the unseen road. Thrilled at the chance to see what God might do and scared that I might somehow screw it up… because I can’t get over the thought that I just might not be the guy (not that it couldn’t be a gal) to do what so many of my friends think I am going to do. I’ll be honest. I desire to be innovative and an agent for change within the church, and I love it when people say these wonderfully generous things about me and my future, but I just don’t know if I am one of those guys. I don’t want to fail.
Yet on the flipside, I am even more afraid of missing out on what might have been. What if I am one of those guys? It haunts me to think that God might place an path of opportunity in front of me, and I chose something different because I didn’t think I could make it down that road. I get goosebumps whenever I hear in my mind again some of the most powerful words I have ever heard. "I don’t want to waste my life!" Rick Warren said that in a sermon I heard him preach once, and it instantaneously made me think this: He really believes that… Where would the church universal today be if Rick didn’t believe that? Rick’s not the greatest theologian of all time. He certainly isn’t the most magnanimous personality of all time. The church of our dreams wouldn’t look anything like what Rick’s church has become. Yet, for his generation… In his time, and in his place… Where would we be without people who defined themselves by an awareness that God has tremendous possibilities in store for those who had the courage to walk the lonely path?
Maybe one day that possibility will become a reality. Until then, I will be here continuing to dream about what might be in store for me and my friend.
Category: uncategorized
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