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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodists together |
October 2005 |
McLaren encourages clergy, laity leaders to transform church
By Daniel R. Gangler
INDIANAPOLIS - Brian McLaren, accomplished author and pastor of an independent evangelical church in suburban Washington, D.C., encouraged more than 550 clergy and laity leaders from across the state to transform their congregations and the church.
In his introductory remarks, Indiana Bishop Mike Coyner said that the Sept. 17 "Coming Together" meeting was important because as church leaders we too often "don't get around to what we believe as a church." He said that was important to John Wesley, founder of Methodism who questioned "What do we believe? How shall we teach it? And how shall we do it?" Coyner said Wesley took the next step, too, and outlined what his preachers taught and how they taught it.
Coyner was encouraged by the attendance of both clergy and laity to discuss theology and listen to Brian McLaren. He expressed appreciation to South Indiana Conference host pastor Kent Millard of Indianapolis and North Indiana Conference pastor Craig LaSuer of Lafayette for planning the event.
Dividing lines moving
Speaking to an attentive audience, McLaren said he spoke to many types of Christians groups from independent conservative groups in his own tradition to mainline Protestant groups like United Methodists. He said he believed the dividing lines between theological camps are moving, changing lines that no longer define where we are as the church in the greater society in which we live. He said the church today is like a bridge that no longer spans a river. "It used to be easy to see who was on one side of the bridge and who was on the other side. That has all changed."
According to statistics he quoted, he said "twice as many people now attend Christian churches outside of mainline Protestant churches." He said on any given week, 9 percent of the population attends an evangelical congregation, 3.4 percent attends a so-called mainline Protestant church and 6.2 percent attend a Roman Catholic church. He also said between 1990 and 2000 (the latest figures we have), 43 percent of Americans say they attend church regularly but only 25 percent actually attend. Even among more conservative churches, the growth is with ethnic minority immigrant churches and not white churches.
McLaren said that churches in United States need to plant 38,000 new churches to keep up with the growing population trend.
Need to plant churches
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"We can face the future with great confidence and hope, if we have faith, determination and courage." - Brian McLaren |
He predicted that if we don't plant needed churches on a large scale, by the year 2050, according to current trends, church attendance in the United States will sink to less than 10 percent of the population. For those who may have doubted such trends, he said, less than 100 years ago the Netherlands had a church attendance rate of 99 percent. Today less than one percent of those who live in the Netherlands attends church regularly.
"Churches (congregations) in the United States that are more than 40 years old are in decline," McLaren said. "Something's happening and we aren't paying attention to what's happening."
No mater what the current trend is, "we can face the future with great confidence and hope, if we have faith, determination and courage," McLaren assured his listeners.
Understanding perspective
He said to understand what's going on, we need to understand Christianity from a global and historic perspective. He divided the last millennium of church history into Medieval (1000 to 1500), Modern (1500 to mid-1900s) and Post-Modern (now.) During the modern era, the church divided between conservative and liberal viewpoints. Liberal Christianity rose with the Enlightenment of the 1700s marked by the rise of modern intellect and science. McLaren observed that liberals saw a problem between Christian faith and science but tried to deemphasize differences and emphasized what could be agreed upon.
Meanwhile, conservatives believed giving up traditional Christian beliefs was a slippery slope and threat to the Christian faith.
In the mid-20th century, American Christianity has now defined itself in reaction to each of these two viewpoints. A challenge to both groups has now come with the advent of what is known as the Post-Modern era.
Into this mix, he said liberal Christianity is declining while conservative Christianity is increasing. He observes that liberal Christians are usually rigid in their methodology and liberal in their theology. Whereas conservative Christians are usually liberal in their methodology and conservative in their theology.
What he said surprised him as a member of a Plymouth Brethren church is that he assumed that all Methodists were liberal, but has found that mainline Protestant denominations have both liberals and conservatives in their numbers. He said, "we (American Christians) need to rethink both methodology and theology."
Role of civil religion
Another importance needs to come to light within American religious history. In the early 20th century, America's civil religion (government favored religion) was with liberal (or mainline) Christianity, especially observed by liberal Christianity strongly supporting both World War I and World War II. But during the 1960s, liberal Christianity challenged government views both during the civil rights movement and the Vietnam war. Whereupon American government shifted its allegiance from liberal to conservative Christianity. McLaren observes, "Now conservative Protestants have access to the halls of power and liberal Protestants suffer a power hangover."
He then strongly warned, "Power blinds you."
McLaren proposes Christianity beyond civil religion - a post-modern theme. He said presently there are very deep shifts going on in American religious culture. We need the strengths of structure that denominational Christianity has given us and the freedom that that non-denominational Christianity gives. He said American Chrisitianity is going through a transformation.
If American Christians continues to be at odds with each other, Christianity will lose like it lost in Europe, he explained. As American Christians, we must focus on the transforming power of the Gospel, not on political power and theology. We must face together such social problems as stem cell research and global warming. He said, "government cannot change lifestyle." To save the world, we must act as the church, as Christians, to change lifestyle through our faith.
Response Q&A
During a response session, McLaren heard questions about today's brand of medieval fundamentalist Islam of the Middle-East, universal salvation, young adult ministry, war, civil religion and racism.
He challenged his listeners to acknowledge and engage American society. "Don't downplay our faith," he said. "Show up as disciples of Jesus Christ."
He said, Christianity isn't about who gets into heaven and who doesn't. Christianity is about the Kingdom of Heaven. Salvation isn't about being Republican or Democrat or the free market system. Salvation is about loving your enemy.
On youth adult ministry, he said Gen-Xers aren't looking for a civil religion. They are asking, "Can you help me make contact with God?" He said, we must listen to youth.
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For more information about McLaren and his views, log on to www.emergentvillage.com. |
When it comes to civil religion, McLaren asked participants to listen to Paul's advice in 1Corinthians 13. "What is required of us to be Christians is that we love each other," he said. "We have to work against civil religion." Paul said that Christianity is a place where Jews and Gentiles (that are at odds with each other) are welcomed, McLaren reminded.
McLaren said, like John Wesley who took the message of salvation (both social and spiritual) to vile coal miners, United Methodists need to do the same thing today. Sadly, we said, we (current church members) don't speak their language anymore. Therefore, we need to start new congregation for new people, and not necessarily invite them to existing congregations.
Last updated on 25 Apr 2008