Minutes to Memories

Although we've never met in person, the magic of the World Wide Web allows me to say that I have a friend named Tom in New York who sent me a Brian McLaren trilogy recently, and today I finished book number three.

I had heard McLaren's name through its common association with the "emerging church" movement, but I had never read anything from him. I'd seen his name associated with Tony Campolo's before, which left me with a positive prejudice, but you never really know what to expect until you read someone for yourself.

I'll have to say that I had considered many of the thoughts he presents in this trilogy before myself, though as I read more and more I encountered many brand new thoughts, too. All interesting, and for many I'm sure it is safe to say all "far out there" too. Definitely not your typical pastor.

As I came to the end of book number three today, I ran across an idea I had heard before (and now I know where that popular speaker stole the idea!). But this idea was put so eloquently that I thought I'd share it on my blog tonight. Many of McLaren's major thoughts are conceptual in nature and open to (to use his term) conversation, but this particular section is simply wonderful in my humble opinion and should be popularly discussed across the board.

Framed in the story, this is a fictional email from a recovering fundamentalist named Chip to... well... another recovering fundamentalist named Dan (who just happens to be further along a new way of understanding the Christian gospel). Here it is:

"In my way of telling the gospel, what you call the modern Western way, there were always two key questions: (1) If you were to die tonight, do you know for certain that you'd go to be with God in heaven? (2) If Jesus returned today, would you be ready to meet God? Jesus is important because he paid for your sins when he died on the cross, so if you die tonight, or if Jesus returns today, you'll be forgiven and can enter heaven.

"But in this new understanding of the gospel, two very different questions come to mind: (1) If you were to live for another fifty years, what kind of person would you like to become - and how will you become that kind of person? (2) If Jesus doesn't return for ten thousand or ten million years, what kind of world do we want to create? Here Jesus is important because he leads you and forms you to become a better and better person, and the kind of people who truly follow his way will create a good and beautiful world.

"The first set of questions, which used to satisfy me, don't anymore, at least not on their own. I'm realizing that both sets of questions have validity, and the second may be more important. I guess that's obvious to you, but it's just dawning on me."

Now that's worth thinking about if you ask me...