Spiritual practices have been around for a long time and McLaren takes a contemporary look at these practices that as Christians we do to try and get closer to God. McLaren likens the concept of Spiritual practices to running a marathon or speaking a language or even playing an instrument. In order to do well at these things you have to train, train, train, practice, practice, practice, do it, do it, and do it. Unless you do this you can’t get the true benefit out of the practices you do.
Like Foster’s classic Celebration of Discipline, McLaren emphasis both person and communal Spiritual practices. He goes through the understanding of practices like spiritual reading, prayer journaling, solitude and silence (which I struggle with everyday), gratitude and tithing and so forth. In essence what McLaren is doing is setting the ground for a series of 8 books that focus on returning to the accident Spiritual practices.
As part of my passion, I have a workplace ministry. As I was reflecting on this while I was reading the book, I realized that McLaren is calling us to do something that I have been trying to convey to folks for many years. That is religion is a life style. We can and should live out our religion in our lives. McLaren even provides some ways to help equip us to do that in our lives in a way that shows love and compassion to folks. McLaren attempts to show us how to cleans our lives and focus on getting closer God.
One of the things that I notice is the McLaren makes references to his own beliefs and concepts that he has outlined in some of his previous books. This can be awkward if you are not really familiar with him and have not read him. While the book stands alone, it does warrant some background on the author to really grasp what he is referring to in this book.
Overall I really liked the book; however, knowing the way that McLaren rubs some people the wrong way, it is possible that this could be a very polarizing issue as McLaren’s beliefs and concepts run deep in it. If you are not familiar with his concepts this can be a difficult read for some.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their Book Review Blogger program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Showing posts with label Brian McLaren. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brian McLaren. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
What is the emergent church?
All across the spectrum we hear about the emergent church. I have struggled with trying to figure that out. Is it missional? Is it organic? Is it about small groups? Does it have to do with church at all? I have spent time looking into to this to formulate what it means to me.
Much of stuff that I have read comes from Brian McLaren as he seems to be one of the cutting edge writers on this subject. While the movement has been a polarizing one, I think that the key is that there is a shift that needs to occur in the church. In essence, the movement began as a look at what it means to be called to go and make disciples in a postmodern world. Things have changed in 2000 years. This is not the world of Jesus and we have to accept that. As McLaren put it “it had its genesis in a desire to share the Gospel in a changing social climate.”
Not only is the social climate changing, but with the advent of social media and things like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, the way we communicate and talk in today’s world is completely different that it was in the past. It is not about just making the church culturally relevant through updated buildings or new music and worship. Instead it is about looking at the tired old stale theologies that we have tried to use for 2000 years. We have to move towards updating the way we think theologically, issues around who we are as a culture in a postmodern world and also how we are going to deal with the social justice issues that we face. After all that is what Jesus did, he worked with the poor and the outcast to provide ways for them to have better lives.
Live is more diverse and church should be too. The emergent church has to focus on the fact that church life is much more diverse that it was today. Churches need to break down the walls that silos off groups that look alike coming together in church. I think that it is the silo mentality of our churches that make it difficult for us to really see the marginalized since we are so insulted with people who look like us and act like us that we are blinded to the real issues in society.
Dan Kimball is another person on the forefront of this emergent church idea. He also points out that “When the whole emerging church discussion began, it was primarily about evangelism and mission to emerging generations.” I think that the point here is that we need to make sure that if we are working on being emergent that we balance what started the movement and not forgot in an effort to address some of the very important theological issues that need to be redressed, renewed and reinvigorated.
So this is my look in to the emergent church. Regardless, we cannot do church like we always have and we need to consider what that means for us today and find ways to reach out to those who need it.
God bless.
Much of stuff that I have read comes from Brian McLaren as he seems to be one of the cutting edge writers on this subject. While the movement has been a polarizing one, I think that the key is that there is a shift that needs to occur in the church. In essence, the movement began as a look at what it means to be called to go and make disciples in a postmodern world. Things have changed in 2000 years. This is not the world of Jesus and we have to accept that. As McLaren put it “it had its genesis in a desire to share the Gospel in a changing social climate.”
Not only is the social climate changing, but with the advent of social media and things like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, the way we communicate and talk in today’s world is completely different that it was in the past. It is not about just making the church culturally relevant through updated buildings or new music and worship. Instead it is about looking at the tired old stale theologies that we have tried to use for 2000 years. We have to move towards updating the way we think theologically, issues around who we are as a culture in a postmodern world and also how we are going to deal with the social justice issues that we face. After all that is what Jesus did, he worked with the poor and the outcast to provide ways for them to have better lives.
Live is more diverse and church should be too. The emergent church has to focus on the fact that church life is much more diverse that it was today. Churches need to break down the walls that silos off groups that look alike coming together in church. I think that it is the silo mentality of our churches that make it difficult for us to really see the marginalized since we are so insulted with people who look like us and act like us that we are blinded to the real issues in society.
Dan Kimball is another person on the forefront of this emergent church idea. He also points out that “When the whole emerging church discussion began, it was primarily about evangelism and mission to emerging generations.” I think that the point here is that we need to make sure that if we are working on being emergent that we balance what started the movement and not forgot in an effort to address some of the very important theological issues that need to be redressed, renewed and reinvigorated.
So this is my look in to the emergent church. Regardless, we cannot do church like we always have and we need to consider what that means for us today and find ways to reach out to those who need it.
God bless.
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