Encouragement from a Pentecostal house church participant
Just received this:
I know you are busy, so I'll keep this short... I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your writings. Coming from Pentecostal[ism] I've struggled with the Science versus Christianity battle. Your books have given me the confidence to be who I am and believe what I believe without any question. I am a new Christian.
And The Secret Message of Jesus transformed my thoughts of the church's message.
You see, I have been part of the house church movement for about 10 years now, but have been tortured by how fundamentalist Christians I fellowship with can blatantly question all church practices without a thought about their blind allegiance to their beliefs. I've always questioned everything: my scientific need for evidence. You give thoughtful care to answering many questions. And there is nothing better than a solid answer instead of "just because".
Thanks for the note. I'm so glad the books have been helpful, and I hope the next one will be the most helpful of all, since it focuses on good and needed questions. God bless!
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Countdown Day 10
Deconstruction is not destruction, as many erroneously assume, but rather careful and loving attention to the construction of ideas, beliefs, systems, values, and cultures. (55)
From A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith (available February 9, 2010)
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A New Kind of Christianity
In the US, you can currently order it from ...
amazon here
christian book distributors here
barnes and noble here
In the UK, you can order it from ...
ecclesia here.
Discussion Questions: Click to download the Discussion Guide eBook for free. (Thanks to Doug Stuart for making this available!)
Bonus Chapters: You can download a free pdf of two bonus chapters:
A New Kind of Bible Reading
Making Eschatology Personal
Discussion Questions: Here are discussion questions for personal reflection and group study.
Videos: Brian has teamed up with theooze.com to create some free downloadable videos introducing the book and the ten questions it covers.
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two photos from the West Bank
The second is of Grace and me overlooking the Judean wilderness along the Jericho Road, and the first is of my shadow against the segregation wall near East Jerusalem. (Thanks to Mike Todd for the shots.) If you get a chance to go to Israel and Palestine, I encourage you to take it - but only if you can go on an alternative tour that will have you spending time in the West Bank, meeting both Palestinians and Israelis so you can see for yourself how different the reality is from the impressions gained from our well-managed media and highly-lobbied government.
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Countdown Day 11
My training [in literature] taught me to read for scenes and plots, not doctrines; for protagonists and antagonists, not absolute and objective truths; for character development and conflict resolution, not raw material to be processed into a system of beliefs; for resonances and common patterns among many texts and traditions, not merely for uniqueness or superiority of one text or tradition; for multiple layers of interpretation, not merely one sanctioned one. (55)
From A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith (available February 9, 2010)
"A new reformation is taking place in Christianity. Brian McLaren is one of its leading voices and A New Kind of Christianity is a roadmap for this reformation. This is a very important book." (Adam Hamilton, author of Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White and Senior Pastor, The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection.)
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