REPRINT OF A POST I DID ON THE emergent|SA blog:
[Monday, November 28th]Last night emergent | SA along with Viva! Books hosted an informal Q&A with Brian McLaren. At the event, I (along with 60 others) had an opportunity to listen to Brian speak about where ‘the church emerging’ is and his role as the coordinator of ‘amahoro’ (the emergent conversation in Asia, Africa and Latin America -- amahoro is a Bantu word meaning peace). Brian spoke for about 40 minutes and then fielded questions from the audience for another 45.
Here are some of the things that resonated with me and I jotted down:
“The real story is bigger than ‘emergent’ ...people are fed up with polarization and the conversation is moving across institutions...”
“One example is synagogue3000.com which is a Jewish emergent conversation.”
“Mainline protestantism was the civil religion until the 1950s or 60s and then there was a power shift to the religious right. The religious right is the civil religion in America, it just doesn’t know it...”
“The high watermark for the religious right is coming soon...”
“Walker Percy said, ‘In the South, Christianity is a failed religion. It failed to deal with race.”
“One of the exciting movements that is occurring in Europe is the Mass of St. Thomas, which is a mass designed for people who have doubts. It is a safe place where people can bring questions.”
“In a recent survey of American 16 to 29 year-olds, when asked to list words they most associated with Christianity 90% chose ANTI-HOMOSEXUAL as the number one answer.”
The evening was amazing and encouraging just like Brian’s books. For those of you who were not able to attend (and for those that just want to relive the moment) here is an mp3.
Download brian_mclaren_at_viva_28nov05_1.mp3
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