Let me start off and mention that I have discussed Brian McLaren’s previous book, The Secret Message of Jesus, in a previous blog. As I noted then, it took me two readings to understand what the secret was. The first time I read it, I could not understand what the secret was because I clearly understood the message that Jesus brought to this world. When I read it a second time, I understood that Jesus’ message was only a secret to those who did not know Jesus or only knew Jesus in a superficial manner. It does not require an initiation into a secret society to understand the message that Jesus brought to us some two thousand years ago but it does require that you have an open heart and an open mind. It also requires that you understand the nature of that message.
And I think that is why people are going to have problems with McLaren’s new book. There will be those who couch this book in the vernacular of today’s society. Some will say that it is the vanguard work of the emerging church or the post-modern church. Others will state that it is an aberration of the original Jesus message.
The problem that I had when I first read the book was that McLaren is writing things that I have been writing and thinking about for the past few years. What McLaren does in this book is provide a list of discussion questions at the end of each chapter. This will allow readers to form their own decisions about what course of action they, as a group or as a church, want to take.
I think this is a very important point to make. It frames what Christians are going to do in the coming years. It also removes the desire by some to label this as a post-modern or emergent church topic.
The problem with the contemporary church today is that, for the most part, it does not have a clear understanding of what Jesus was trying to do in this world and what we are supposed to be doing as His disciples.
Early in the book, McLaren recalls a conversation that took place in Africa. The speaker pointed out that he had only heard one sermon in all the times that he went to church. Every Sunday, no matter what the Scripture readings for that Sunday were, no matter what the preacher said, the message was the same “You are a sinner and you are going to hell. You need to repent and believe in Jesus. Jesus might come back today, and if he does and you are not ready, you will burn forever in hell.”
The speaker pointed out that he had lived his entire life against a backdrop of genocide, violence, poverty and corruption. Nothing changed and the sermons that he heard never addressed the realities of life. Nothing had ever been said about the transforming message of Christ, of loving others as God loved us.
We live in a time when fundamentalists and conservatives call for a return to the basic values of Christianity but their call sounds like a return to Old Testament times. The call from conservatives for God’s Kingdom on earth does not reflect the Kingdom in Heaven of which Jesus spoke. By the same token, those who seek social change today seek to do so without the moral or philosophical basis that comes from Jesus’ message.
What McLaren does in his book is lay out a view of society and how it fails to meet the message that was given to us two thousand years ago. But more importantly, he lays out ideas upon which people can build and from which the transforming message of Christ can grow. This is not a book that tells you how to build a church, turn around a church, or save a dying church.
But this book will give the reader time to think and consider what it means to be a Christian personally. The reader will be forced to see how they relate to others. And it will bring into focus what is the true message of the church.
There is a clear need for a change in this world. Change will not come from some program but from the decisions of individuals united in Christ and seeking change in the world. This book will help in that process.
Portions of this review are probably going to appear in the message “A New Beginning” that I will give at Dover Plains UMC, Dover, NY on 28 October 2007.
