Brian McLaren

Went to see Mr McLaren in Harrogate recently, having learned so much from his writing.

There had been talk of a protest and I was beginning to imagine myself battling through placcard carrying fundamentalists but in the end it only mounted to an A4 flyer put on car windscreens. (That would have been odd to the North Yorkshire playgroup forum members who were sharing the same venue). The protest was entitled "A Scriptural response to the Emergent Church" and was feeble and predictable.

McLaren was very good, particularly the first two sessions. One of the points he made was that much of our doctrine uses the writing of Paul as the main text and the story, life and teachings of Jesus as a footnote to that. Whereas we need to ensure that the story, life and teachings of Jesus is the main text and Paul is adding footnotes to it. This is not to downplay the importance of Paul but when we take this perspective we can read him in a different light.

Another good thing was his point about sin. Challenged by a questionnaire who was concerned that the Emergent Church was "doing away" with sin and the need for repentance, he made the point that we need to take sin more seriously by including global issues and not solely the recital of the sinners prayer.

More from McLaren here.