charlieDEAN’S Blog

The American Gospel

Posted in Issues & Theology by charliedean on April 25th, 2008

Our last session for this conference is with Brian McLaren…he just put up a slide that I thought I’d share:

our contemporary gospel is primarily:

information on how to go to heaven after you die

with a large footnote about increasing your personal happiness and success through God

with a small footnote about character development

with a smaller footnote about spiritual experience
and with an almost unreadable footnote about social global transformation

5 Responses to 'The American Gospel'

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  1. KG said, on April 27th, 2008 at 8:05 pm

    Do you think this is really an accurate description? I guess, I am just not used to being around Christians who don’t see the gospel in terms of total life transformation. I feel McLaren is way overemphasizing his bias to prove his point, but then maybe it just depends on who you are around.

  2. Chris said, on April 28th, 2008 at 1:59 pm

    My gosh…totally resonates! We are very much so about saving souls, which entails receiving a Christ who will walk them into Heaven holding their hand. Forget about life transformation, character and spiritual development, and social crises. I would venture to say that most churches are very scared to admit that, but if you simply examine what is being taught from most stages, it becomes quite clear what is “most important”. And to some degree I don’t have a problem with that. The problem is when “most important” becomes the only focus.

  3. justin said, on April 28th, 2008 at 2:16 pm

    sobering.

  4. rick-e-b said, on April 30th, 2008 at 5:48 am

    McLaren must be friends with Barna……..how else does a person make that assumption.

  5. emily said, on May 3rd, 2008 at 12:35 pm

    i do not even like brian mclaren. but that is good.

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