Presby-Musings

As I scroll through my Facebook feed each day I am always struck by the deep divides that exist between so many of my Christian friends.  I see Christians sharply divided over politics, Biblical interpretation, social justice issues and so much more.   The latest presidential debate sparked a flurry of Facebook posts within which many of my Christian friends both defended their candidate of choice, while excoriating the other. In one case, one of my friends offered an impassioned defense of support for the candidate they believed had "sinned less" than the other.    I think the problem that we are coming face to face with as Christians during this contentious election season is deep-seeded and difficult to address.  Both conservative and progressive Christians claim to be appealing to the same playbook, but are finding vastly different answers within it.   The problem is that we've come to see our Christian faith as a system of beliefs rather than ...

I recently read a blog post from a mainstream, conservative evangelical Christian blogger/author that leveled some damning accusations toward three authors/Christian thinkers, who I admire: Rob Bell, Donald Miller and Bryan Mclaren. All three of these men had once been included beneath the mainstream, conservative evangelical umbrella, but (according to this blogger) they had strayed from orthodox Christian belief and become "universalists," who believe that God lets anyone into heaven, not just those who follow Jesus. In our current culture, a Christian leader, pastor, author, theologian, etc. being labelled a "Universalist" by mainstream, conservative evangelical Christians is the post-post modern equivalent of being anathematized--a practice the early church fathers employed to rid themselves of heretics and people who had too much imagination when it came to Christian beliefs. I realize that I just oversimplified and caricatured the development of or...

Finding Our Way Again  by Brian McLaren is one of those rare books that you discover you need on your bookshelf for those times in your life when you are feeling spiritually dehydrated.  It's easily the sort of book that you could read again and again at various stages in your life, and for lots of different reasons. Finding Our Way Again  was written in 2008, and is a departure of sorts from McLaren's usual fare, which has tended toward the political and theologically controversial.  The book lays out a case for the need of spiritual practices for people of faith in today's culture, and then provides both the rationale and guidelines for how to do it. Finding Our Way Again  also guides the reader through the ancient spiritual practices of the Church, demonstrating how they can both form and inform a vibrant and Spirit-filled 21st century faith. Even if you disagree with McLaren's theological assumptions, or you simply disagree with McLaren based on read...

A couple of years ago I was grieved to hear that pastor, author and speaker Dan Kimball had officially separated himself from Emergent Village ---the "organizational" aspect of what people were calling the " Emerging Church ." Kimball was one of the main reasons why I started self-identifying as an "emergent" church leader, and heavily influenced my development as a preacher and teacher through his creative approach to multi-sensory worship, and his postmodern approach to transforming existing churches. So when I heard that Dan no longer felt that he could be a part of Emergent Village, I assumed that it had to do with his Baptist background, which probably imbued him with a great deal of suspicion toward more theologically progressive Christians.  His separation was gracious, however, and I continued to read his books and occasionally hear him speak.  But I never understood why he felt it necessary to disassociate from the movement he was such a pa...

  A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming Our Faith by Brian McLaren (HarperOne, 2010).   Brian McLaren has been under fire these past few years.  He's been called a heretic (one of the more kindly monickers), and been likened to the anti-Christ and/or Satan.  In his "friendly" note to his critics, McLaren offers this bit of advice to those who have attacked him for his ideas and thoughts on Christianity and the people who call themselves Christians.  "I repeatedly tell people, if they are happy and confident in your approach, that they stay with it and ignore me, my work, and my friends entirely. I am not here to steal any of your "market share" or do you harm in any way."   Sadly, the vitriol and the hate speech that is leveled at McLaren almost exclusively comes from "Christians" and "Christian" leaders.  Having grown up in a fundamentalist Baptist culture, I am familiar with the fear-mongering that ...