Do you live in or near Colorado Springs?
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NEWS RELEASE
First Congregational Church
20 E. St. Vrain St.
Colorado Springs, CO 80903
(719) 635-3549 http://www.fcucc.org
Contact: Lois Matthews
(719) 375-5269 ldmatt333@comcast.net
Richard Grebenstein
(719) 635-3549 richardg@fcucc.org
April 9, 2013
Brian McLaren, author and a leader in the so-called emerging church movement, is calling for a truce in the culture wars that so often divide Christians and others in our society.
He will speak on “Toward A New Christian Identity: What Conservatives and Progressives Can Learn from Each Other” at 7 p.m. Friday, April 26, in Armstrong Hall at Colorado College.
His presentation, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by First Congregational Church in Colorado Springs. It is part of this year’s James W. White Lectureship, named for a former lead minister at the church.
It’s probably impossible to put McLaren in a theological box. In one of his books he asserts: I am a missional, evangelical, post/protestant, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, green, incarnational, depressed/yet hopeful, emergent, unfinished Christian.
One may ask how can he or anyone be all of the above. He provides an answer in his book, A Generous Orthodoxy, discussing these seeming paradoxes and calling for a radical, Christ-centered orthodoxy of faith and practice in a missional, generous spirit.
His other books include Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha and Mohammed Cross the Road, A New Kind of Christianity, Naked Spirituality, Everything Must Change and Finding Our Way Again.
McLaren seems to be moving toward what he calls a new Christian identity. Through it, he says, conservatives and progressives have much to learn from one another to “transcend the paralyzing polarization of the culture wars.”
McLaren describes “learnings” that can help both conservatives and progressives transcend their differences as beauty, tradition, intellect, justice and inclusion as well as mission, spiritual experience, storytelling, heroes and youth.
