A New Kind of Christian and the Emerging Church

Reading Pastor Sivin Kit’s blog, as well as some linked articles, I stumbled upon something which I have never heard of up till recently. There are actually dialogues being conducted throughout the world in which church leaders and Christians are coming together to discuss current issues in our postmodern culture, and looking at ways at which the Church can respond to these issues.

There seems to be a growing discontent among many Christians in the way the Church as we have it today has failed to handle such issues. More and more Christians are becoming disappointed and disillusioned with church, as well as with the current form of ‘Christianity’. More and more of us are beginning to discover that currently existing denominations and theologies do not fully describe our personal faith and beliefs. There is a cry for a new form of Christianity, an emerging Church that will be able to address these issues and to handle the challenges of postmodernism and a changing culture.

I have personally been disappointed with certain churches. There have been countless times when I have disagreed with church leaders on certain issues. I disagree with some of the stands that many Christians choose to take just because their leaders say so. I am saddened by the way certain church leaders take advantage of their positions by forcing their own ideas and ways of thinking onto the people that they have been called to lead. It would seem now that their personal convictions and beliefs have become the absolute truth. To them, everything is black and white. Other opinions are not acceptable. They believe that everyone must agree with them, and they go all out to brainwash their members. The only problem is that what one pastor believes to be the truth totally contradicts what the other pastor believes to be the truth. Christians are not allowed to drink alcohol. Christians are not allowed to go clubbing. Sunday is the day in which you HAVE to be in church; Other Christian camps and gatherings are not allowed. Church leaders decide when you can start dating. Church leaders decide who you can date. Church leaders decide what you can and cannot do. Church leaders control your life, and if you disobey them, you disobey God.

I sometimes do wonder what their motives are. I know that they are not perfect, just as I am not perfect. I struggle to forgive them and to try to understand them. I pray that God will forgive me for being judgmental towards them. But it does really get on my nerves; every time I hear Christians (especially leaders) say things as if they already seem to know everything. It is as if they fully know and understand God. They come up with shallow, simplistic answers to every issue and problem and expect everyone to agree with them. Where is the thinking Christian? Where is the Christian who loves the Lord our God not just with their emotions, but with their minds as well? Where is the Christian who is more concerned about following Jesus rather than being conformed to the pattern of other Christians? Mark Twain once said, ‘if Christ were here now, there is one thug he would not be… a Christian.’ No doubt he was an atheist, but it does make us think. If Jesus was here now, what would He be doing? What would He have been like?

This is why I find Brian D. McLaren interesting. This is why I am curious to read his books. A controversial figure, no doubt, but so was Martin Luther in his time. I finally got my hands on ‘A New Kind of Christian’, and started reading it today. Maybe I will find that whatever he has to say may not be far from what my heart has been saying.