BRIAN MCLAREN’S “BIG IDEA”, “INVOLVES NO CONTROL”- WANTS TO FORM GLOBAL UMBRELLA ECUMENICAL CHURCH HUB ORGANIZATION WITH YOUR MONEY
COULD MCLAREN BE INTERESTED IN RECREATING A MODERN “BABYLONIAN MYSTERY RELIGION”?
As announced by Brian McLaren on his website http://brianmclaren.net/archives/blog/a-request-for-help.html, and subsequently reported by other blogs such as
Stand Up For The Truth http://standupforthetruth.com/2013/05/brian-mclaren-asks-for-significant-cash-for-mystery-project/, and
Lighthouse Trails Research http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletters/2013/newsletters20130528.htm#21,
McLaren is asking for sizable monetary contributions for a “mystery project”, which is no great mystery at all to Bible knowledgable Christians, and with the hint that we should just trust him with the money? Just send him an e-mail to happytohelp@brianmclaren.net, and he’ll keep you up to date on his plans for using your money. Why should any traditional, Bible-believing Christian trust him to do the right thing when he, as
Ken Silva of Apprising laid out, denies the substitutionary atonement of the cross: http://apprising.org/2008/10/26/brian-mclaren-attacks-the-substitutionary-atonement/, among a whole host of other heresies, false teachings, twisting of Scripture, and contemplative associations within Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Muslims.
See: http://apprising.org/category/brian-mclaren/.
Also see Way of Life articles on McLaren:
http://www.wayoflife.org/sphider/search.php?query=brian+mclaren&search=1.
See this video:
McLaren is sending the following teaser as his preliminary response to e-mails: (Quoted in full, bold type is ours for emphasis):
Brian
“NewNet”
(Potential Name: CANA Initiative)
We aggregate and promote events and conversations for the the generation of friendship, shared thought, and collective action among organizations and leaders around the country.
We provide online resources – to connect related organizations, affiliates, allies, resources
We build and strengthen alliances between leaders, organizations, and networks who together build the movement
We provide a means by which “NewNet” can relate to parallel regional networks around the world.
We produce key documents – to identify values, ethical standards, questions for conversation, and proposals for action.
We develop a press office – to provide secular and religious media with trained, responsible spokespeople for this emerging Christian ethos.
We disseminate movement news and provide an edited news/commentary aggregator
We select and support a group of gifted, trained, committed, and diverse leaders to represent and advance the movement.
Speakers’ Bureau – to provide growing numbers of spokespeople for Emergence Christianity.
Create transparent communication and decision-making structures
Welcome and include new participants into the network
Assist fundraising for participants by telling the larger story and inviting financial participation
Help people find churches, organizations cohorts, staff, jobs, etc., to promote the larger goals of the movement.
Identify issues and opportunities of participation among NewNet participants
Understand opportunities and challenges
Articulate our message
Engage in strategic collective action
Mobilize people and resources
Build movement culture
Enrich participant lives
Encourage new, expanding, generative and meaningful expressions of Christian faith in North America
Create exposure for media and other practitioners to learn about and access the movement
Highlight more attractive public opinion of Christian faith, spirituality, and mission
Connect with and inspire new generation of leaders
Generate a collaborative environment for shared participation among leaders
Network with parallel networks globally
Create pathways for a new kind of interaction between faith traditions
Generate pathways for faith-based organizations to collaborate with non-faith focused endeavors
Support systems that generate new innovative initiatives – communities, churches, learning centers, media organizations, causes, etc
We are moving from largely independent innovative entities to a more collaborative eco-system
We are not asking existing efforts to be part of our whole, but asking existing efforts to see what they are doing as contributing to a larger whole
We are in transition from a generative conversation to an ecumenical spiritual movement
We need a hub that is not seeking to compete or control, but coordinate and serve
If we maximize the larger system, we will maximize the sub-systems
More and more of us are ready for a collaborative rather than competitive philosophy of ministry
This is not about a polarized “right or left”, but about a polarized past, a convergent now, and a future full of collaborative possibilities.
NewNet will not:
Provide funds, but will seek to link to others who do
Advocate particular expressions of faith, but will support a wide variety of expressions
Start new churches, but will encourage their development
Give voice of NewNet within their networks
Give voice of their network within NewNet
Identify with NewNet in bio and social networks
Participate in National Gathering of NewNet
Participate in a strategic twice-a-month call/video chat
Meet in twice-a-year in face to face national working group meeting
Contribute to setting the direction and strategy of NewNet
Host “invitation/recruitment” meetings among their network
NewNet will operate a lean and effective budget. We will support a small staff, provide stipends for Movement Representatives, underwrite meeting and travel costs, and develop and curate an interactive website. Toward that end, NewNet is based on a $200,000 a year budget. Funders can help us by making one-time initial contributions, providing monthly support, and introducing us to potential funders.
We seek to new engagement in the following areas, making demands upon ourselves and others:
2. The Church: A vision of integral mission and missional church prompts us to challenge the church to move beyond institutional maintenance towards forming Christ-like people who become a blessing to the larger community, and thus embody the message we proclaim.
3. The Poor: The growing gap between rich and poor calls for a multi-faceted partnerships that expresses compassion, seek justice, confront exploitation and marginalization, and create opportunity, especially in a global economy.
4. The Planet: The environmental crisis must evoke from us proposals that will benefit the birds of the air, the flowers of the field, and the ecosystems that maintain them, so that followers of Christ will pioneer a new lifestyle and help create the regenerative economy the planet needs.
5. Pluralism: To love our neighbors in today’s world means to learn to appreciate our neighbors’ diverse religions. We must propose new ways of encountering the other the provide alternatives to both combative fundamentalism on the one hand and loss of Christian identity on the other.
6. Peace: After two thousand years, it is time for the Christian faith to distinguish itself not just by advocating for war with less injustice, but by proclaiming an attainable ideal of peace, along with equipping Christians as practical peacemakers.
7. Equality: Women and men, minority and majority, alien and native-born, unbeliever and believer, gay and straight, occupied and occupier, one percent and ninety-nine percent – our world is torn by divisions that put some in a position of of privilege and power, and others in a position of disadvantage and danger. Sadly, our churches are often laggards, not leaders, in confronting prejudice and standing for the dignity and equality of all people.
8. Families, Women, and Children: Families face multiple challenges today, including greed-based economies that corrode humane values, exploitive entertainment industries that undermine human dignity, and patriarchal religious systems that reward a crude form of masculinity. We must challenge churches to propose and embody family life that can overcome these challenges.
9. Business/Economics: We must challenge business and economic leaders to create new forms of business that seek a triple bottom line – lasting social, environmental, and economic benefit, not just maximized short-term profit. In a world of rising population and increasing mechanization, we must also challenge business leaders to seek to maximize employment along with profit, and to discover new ways to reduce economic inequality by expanding opportunity.
10. Personal Dimensions: In what way must those who articulate demands like these make demands on themselves? How can those demands be sustainable and life-giving rather than burdensome and restrictive? And how can we model gracious collaboration in some areas when we maintain honest disagreement in other areas?