Brian McLaren (photo by Britt Bradley)
By Lisa Diehl, Kansas Area communications director
Change is inevitable. Adaptation is optional. Leadership is optimal. Those are the words Brian McLaren, author and public theologian, gave to the clergy of the Nebraska, Kansas East and Kansas West annual conferences in his second presentation Jan. 18.
“Let the possibilities sink in,” McLaren said. “My vision and prayer is that your churches are full and overflowing with people of all ages who are inviting their friends. My conviction is that the future of the church depends on people who are not there. And that depends on the kind of welcome they will receive from those who are already there, starting with us.”
McLaren said it is important to act with a spirit of gentleness and respect, meeting people where they are. This requires us to make the first move. This kind of evangelism is part of the United Methodist heritage.
McLaren shared the story of a young woman named April, who played the harp for the release party for his second book. She was not a Christian, but she was curious about Christianity and wanted to know if McLaren really believed the things he wrote about in his book. Her questions sparked an email exchange that lasted for months and eventually developed into a life-long friendship. But that wouldn’t have been possible if McLaren hadn’t approached her with gentleness and respect as he answered her questions.
From this exchange and others like it, McLaren said he learned several principles that are instructive for being evangelists today.
First, your friends are looking for a safe conversation partner.
“They’re looking for someone in service, not sales. They’re looking for an honest customer review, not an infomercial, a living example of what it means to be a Christian,” he said.
McLaren said he had felt April was a bit combative that first night. He saw it as a test. “If I can come onto you a little bit bristly, and you don’t get defensive, you’re a safe person to talk to.”
Second, most churches aren’t currently helping your friends. Most churches are competing for a shrinking market of “the nuns,” those who are already attending church regularly. This is evident in their written materials that are full of jargon.
McLaren told a story about taking his son to college. When he got to the dorm in the overflowing mini-van, there were members of a church group there unloading cars and helping the freshmen find their rooms. By the time he returned from parking the car, his son was practically all settled in his room and one of the volunteers was showing him how to connect his computer to the campus network.
“They were doing everything right,” McLaren said. Until he looked at the pamphlet they left behind. The message was filled with every piece of Christian jargon. It told Christians what kind of Christians they were, and it told non-Christians that they need not apply.
A survey of 16-29 year olds on their current perceptions of Christianity show us we have our work cut out for us, McLaren said. They see Christians as anti-homosexual, judgmental, hypocritical, old-fashioned, too involved in politics, out of touch with reality and insensitive to others.
Third, people aren’t looking to be argued into believing. This is a big shift for clergy today.
“In seminary, we learned how to argue people into assenting to our claims,” McLaren said.
You can show you’re a safe person by engaging in conversation and asking questions.
“Your questions identify you as a willing listener, a ‘safe person,’” McLaren said. Where are you from? Tell me about your family. How was your weekend? Do you have any religious background? Are you OK?
Fourth, people are looking at your example of growth, not perfection, to see what being a Christian is about.
“They are looking for a human being living life with God in the way of Jesus Christ,” McLaren said.
They’re looking for how much you care, how you cope with difficulties, pain and mistreatment. They’re looking for how you fail.
“We’ve got to start telling people the truth about the Bible, the stuff that we just read over and don’t think twice about,” McLaren said. “When you read the Bible with people for whom it’s new, it sounds like it was written by the Taliban.”
The United Methodist use of the Wesleyan quadrilateral and the use of reason and tradition in interpreting scripture is a strength of our tradition that we should be using to help people access the Bible, McLaren said.
Fifth, your friends’ questions are their way of exploring the credibility of Christian faith and the plausibility of Christian life, McLaren said.
“It’s not just your answer they’re checking out – it’s you! They’re trying your way of answering on,” McLaren said.
You don’t have to have all the answers just because they are asking you questions. It’s perfectly OK to say, “Good question. I don’t know.” Ask for time to think about it and set a time to come back together to talk about it.
In McLaren’s personal experience, God has used such questions to deepen and strengthen his own faith by making him think about things he hadn’t thought about before.
Sixth, be a bringer, include and inviter.
“Faith is a team sport. People are seeking a community that will help them become what they hope they can become,” McLaren said.
The invitation doesn’t have to be to church. It can be to the dinner table.
“You might be a servant of Jesus Christ, but you have some free time. You can be an invigorator if you do what you ask your congregation to do, have a full-time job and do ministry on the side,” McLaren said.
The invitation might be to a class, a mission trip, a new service or a mission trip.
If you don’t know people outside your congregation, then you need to get out more, McLaren said.
Seventh, the Holy Spirit is at work in people, and you can become a spirit-filled agent of God’s mission, healing and beautifying the world, so God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.
McLaren encouraged taking a big-picture look at the state of the church in Nebraska and Kansas and seeing what Jesus sees – people needing connection with a good shepherd.
“It’s a great opportunity,” McLaren said. “If that could happen, I think it could make remarkable change.”
