Emerging Church Change Agents

Emerging church leaders like Brian McLaren are very effective change agents. His popular breakout book A New Kind of Christian presents theological liberalism in the guise of a wiser, kinder, gentler type of Christianity called “Postmodern.” The book recounts a pastor’s journey from a position of holding the Bible as the absolute standard for truth, a position in which doctrine is either right or wrong, to a pliable stance in which “faith is more about a way of life than a system of belief, where being authentically good is more important than being doctrinally right” (from the back cover of A New Kind of Christian). Chameleons like McLaren can talk like Bible believers when it suits their purpose (as he did in an interview with me in at the 2009 National Pastor’s Conference in San Diego). But he has publicly rejected (by re-definition) such fundamentals of the faith as the inerrancy of Scripture, the necessity of the new birth, the substitutionary blood atonement, the literal return of Christ, and eternal judgment. In other words, he has rejected the New Testament Christian faith and has become its enemy. He is a dangerous man, but he is clever and patient, and he is by no means alone in his war against biblical Christianity. He is joined by thousands of “new thinkers” who are leavening individuals, homes, churches, and schools with heresy. McLaren has indicated that he is targeting the children and grandchildren of today’s fundamentalists.

(Friday Church News Notes, November 28, 2014, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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