What Brian McLaren's Friends Say...

Last night we went to hear Brian McLaren, the Emergent Church guru, speak at Richview Baptist Church. With the Emergent movement picking up momentum in North America, I often hear about it, but have had difficulty understanding exactly what it's distinctives are.

Of course the stereotype that comes to mind is the candelit service of 18-29 year olds, sitting on sofas drinking coffee, surrounded by art work for inspiration. The men all with their poetic goatees and piercings and the women with their post-modern counterparts.

After listening to a fairly lengthy Q&A period with McLaren, I can see why it can be difficult to define the Emergent movement. I don't think he made a single ringing affirmative about what he believes to be true throughout the evening. When asked a direct question he would often tell a rather vague story, or reply by saying, "I have a friend who said this" (implying that he agreed, but not taking credit for it and therefore not taking criticism for it either) or else he would reply with a question such as "What is the question behind that question?" While I agreed with some of his critiques of our culture, there were many times when I felt like banging my head against the wall because he would not give a straight answer to anything. Everything was so ambiguous and safe. He seemed to want to avoid conflicts at all cost.

I think this may be intentional. He was modeling his idea of humility, namely, that he wants people to become uncertain of any beliefs they hold strongly, and become perplexed (and therefore humble) and "join the conversation" that has no conclusions.

The funniest part of the evening was when someone noted that McLaren had the ability to avoid conflicts by raising the conversation to "a higher level," and asked if it was "a discipline" of his--to which McLaren answered in the affirmative. (Who would have thought that not answering questions was a "discipline!")

The saddest part of the evening was when he began to minimize the atonement, and tell a story to discredit penal substitution--well, it wasn't his story, but a "friend's" story.

And then he preceded to say that we should shift our attention from the atonement to the incarnation and think of the world not as sinful, but "sick" and Jesus as "medicine" and as the kingdom grows the medicine spreads--well actually, that wasn't his idea either, but a "friend's" idea.

When asked about the homosexual question, he said he believed it was not a theological question, but a missiological question (or was that a"friend's" conviction too?) And said it was up to each individual church to decide. If I understand him right, he is saying we should change depending on our culture. So that if we live in a community with a high homosexual population, we should be accepting and say it is alright, but if we live in a community where homosexuality is not widely accepted, we should not be so quick to accept it as kosher.

While he affirmed that abortion was wrong, he minimized it by asking why, if people are really so concerned about killing babies, are they not more concerned about global warming and it's effect on human life.

The impression I got from the evening was that the Emergent movement, in trying to engage our post-modern culture, has taken on the shape of our culture--shying away from absolute truths and believing in something that is so neutral that it couldn't possibly offend anyone.

And I couldn't help thinking of Mrs. Elton's false humility in Jane Austen's Emma. When complimented on her sandwiches, she responds with something like, "While I don't say so, my friends say I certainly know how to make a sandwich."