McLaren calls on Anabaptists to no longer be the ‘quiet in the land’

GOSHEN, Ind. – Just a little over a week following the shooting of Amish school children in Lancaster County, Pa., and the immediate forgiveness extended by the Amish, nationally-recognized Christian author and speaker Brian McLaren said to an audience at Goshen College on Oct. 11, “I don’t think anyone has ever done a better job of sharing the message of the Gospel; the Amish’s behavior mystified the world.”

In the midst of public lectures on the Goshen College campus Oct. 11 and 12, as well as in his presentations in classes and in small group settings with students and local pastors, McLaren continually reiterated his call to Mennonites and Anabaptists to stop being the “quiet in the land” and to start sharing more loudly and broadly the distinctives which formed and shaped the faith since its beginnings 500 years ago: peacemaking, community and discipleship.

“We so desperately need, as we move into this emerging culture, to learn to live a life of Christ instead of just going to church,” McLaren said. “You need to let your knowledge rub off on others.”

Becky Horst, director of the college’s CALL grant and organizer of McLaren’s visit, said, “McLaren came to the college because he believes, as President Brenneman has articulated, that ‘the world needs Goshen College’ and Mennonites in general. He would like more people to hear the perspectives that grow out of our core values. He believes that American Christianity, and the world as a whole, desperately needs to hear responses to local, national and world events that emerge from Christ-centered global citizens and compassionate peacemakers. He wants us to get our lights out from under the bushel basket and start shining them.”

McLaren, who was listed by “Time” magazine as “one of America’s 25 most influential evangelicals,” offered several examples of how Mennonite and Anabaptist young people could share their faith more broadly. “My form of evangelism is to ask a person a question, then shut up and listen,” he said.

He suggested that if 100 people spent 45 minutes a night adding comments to secular and fundamentalist Internet blogs, what a difference it would make for there to be examples of loving, thoughtful Christian comments in those often polarizing environments. “We especially need,” he said, “well-articulated answers to the [assumption] that the Bible justifies holy war.” McLaren also asked, what would have happened, leading up to the war in Iraq, if 100 Mennonite youth would have gone to Washington, D.C., and lain down on the street in front of the president’s motorcade in protest?

McLaren encouraged Mennonites and Anabaptists to listen to the strengths of Christians from other backgrounds as well. In his opening address, during a morning chapel service on Oct. 11, McLaren spoke about “The Seven Jesuses I Have Known,” describing how throughout his life his view of Jesus and salvation has increased as he has encountered Christians from different faith backgrounds. He described the different ways that Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, liberal Protestants, Anabaptists and followers of Liberation Theology believe about Jesus’s role in salvation. “There is good reason for me to love all of these Jesuses because they help me to appreciate Jesus in deeper and richer ways,” he said.

On Oct. 12, McLaren gave an evening public address, “Spiritual Formation in the Emerging Culture,” and said, “It seems to be possible in many places that one can be a Christian without being a follower of Jesus. Some people are even afraid to join a church because they are afraid they will lose their faith in Jesus.”

The mission then of the church, McLaren said, is to make disciples rather than just converts. The image he used as to how that happens best is that of an apprenticeship, where a master takes on students and “shares knowledge and wisdom through action that could never be expressed through words.”

McLaren contrasted this view of making disciples with the more common approach in Christian churches today which is “finding a fast and efficient way to help people get to heaven when they die,” rather than discovering how to “live in the way of Jesus” on earth. He especially encouraged the teaching and practicing of spiritual disciplines, which are “actions within our power that train ourselves to do things currently beyond our power.” The first order of disciplines, he said, are to pray, “marinate” in Scripture, and relieve suffering wherever we can.

McLaren has written eight books and co-authored three. He is a pastor, author, speaker and networker among innovative Christian leaders, thinkers and activists. He has assisted in the development of several new churches and is the founding pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church near Baltimore, where he continued to pastor until this year. He is currently considered to be a leader in the Emergent church movement and is the chair of the board of directors for Sojourners/Call to Renewal in Washington, D.C.

McLaren graduated from the University of Maryland with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English. He later received a doctor of divinity degree from Carey Theological Seminary in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

For persons interested in hearing McLaren’s public addresses at Goshen College, subscribe to Goshen College’s free podcast by searching in iTunes’s store.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

 ###

Goshen College, established in 1894, is a four-year residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.