Holiday Mind Vitamin

As a service to our patrons, those of us in management at The Diner often put little "mind vitamins" on the tables for you to dig in and do some deep-thinking.

Yes, I know it's a holiday weekend.

But, hey, you're here. I'm here. Let's have coffee. Let's chat, you and I.

And the mind vitamin comes from the good folks at Criswell College. It's a Southern Baptist Bible school connected loosely with First Baptist of Dallas--a historically influential church in SBC circles. They have a quarterly academic journal (as do most grad schools)...and in the most recent one they interviewed Brian D. McLaren, one of the more prominent thinkers regarding the state/future of the Church. You can get the full article here. It's 8 small pages or so.

So, here are the little thought-provokers. So feel free to comment away and get dialogue happenin':

[When asked about "deficiencies in the church"]: "One of my deepest concerns, because I do a lot of international work, is that here in America our churches have so identified themselves with American nationalism, and especially with a certain neoconservative ethos in the Republican Party. That kind of partisan alliance is dangerous, I believe. It puts us in the tradition of being a "civil religion" much like mainline Protestantism was in the first two-thirds of the twentieth century.
Civil religions lose their prophetic voice. As a result, for many people—especially young people and highly educated people the word "Jesus" now means things it shouldn't mean: judgmental, angry, exclusive, unkind, lacking understanding, reactionary, violent, pro-war, anti-poor, and the like."

[After being asked how Francis Schaeffer ministered to the first "post-moderns" in the 1960's and how that approach would work today]:

(side note: Francis Schaeffer is highly influential in my spiritual development--college roomie Hollywood will remember that I had all of his books on the bookshelf and studied them constantly my last years of university--so I was particularly interested in his response. So, because I am, now you'll have to be)

"I believe Francis Schaeffer was effective for a number of reasons.

First, he was brilliant and well-educated, and he used his God-given mind and education for the kingdom of God in a time when many evangelicals were shockingly anti-intellectual and reclusive.

Second, he listened. He listened deeply to people's questions and tried to understand them. Closely related, he treated people with gentleness and respect. He didn't call them names nor did he try to manipulate or coerce people. He was kind.

Third,he was conscious of worldviews. He gently, but firmly, helped people see the incoherence or inconsistency of their worldview, and he tried to show the coherence and beauty of a worldview centered on Christ.

Fourth, he loved culture. He appreciated the arts, and wasn't one to insult (or censure) works of art that he didn't agree with; rather, he took them seriously and used them to point out worthwhile things.

Sixth, he was much attuned to history. To return to an earlier question, he emphasized the narrative dimension. He sought—imperfectly, as we all do—to
understand Augustine or Aquinas or Kierkegaard or Sartre or Camus or Cage or whoever in light of their historical setting. This is good missiology, and I think these approaches are still very important today. In this way, I am very much Schaeffer's disciple." (side note: Hurray! Me, too!)

[On things young church leaders should be preparing for the future]:

"Here are a few, in no particular order:

1) What is a better alternative to either a) a private, personal spirituality unconnected to public life, and b) a public civil religion that compromises with
partisan politics (of either the right or the left)? How do we live out the kingdom in the public sphere, learning from the mistakes of recent decades and from Christian history over centuries?

2) How do we make real disciples? Why are so many of our church members so mean-spirited?

3) What does the gospel have to say about the global economy, about the growing gap between rich and poor, about stewardship of the environment, about the
growing threat of violence from both terrorists and anti-terrorists?

4) What new forms of church will be necessary to faithfully contain the ever-new wine of the Holy Spirit in our fast-changing world?

5) How can pastors sustain their own spiritual health in times of stress, change, and tension?

6) How can pastors develop friendships that sustain them in their spiritual disciplines?"

*takes sip of coffee, sits back, and waits for your thoughts...and thinks about how much he enjoys dialogue with you folks*