Evangelical Author Puts Progressive Spin On Traditional Faith

Modernizing the Message

---

"Emerging church" is a loose network of mostly young evangelicals who believe the Christian message needs to be made more relevant in a time of rapid technological and societal change, particularly to those who've never been part of any church. Participants refer to their interaction as a "conversation," much of which takes place on the Internet at sites such as http://www.emergentvillage.com and blogs such as pomomusings.com.

"We are questioning a lot of presuppositions of conventional Christians: What should a church look like? How do we really understand Scripture in a modern context?" said Tony Jones, the conversation's national coordinator. "To conservatives, we seem like relativists, and to liberals, we seem like Jesus freaks."

The movement has no membership rolls, set beliefs or creed; liturgical diversity is encouraged. There is no way to know how many congregations are putting "emerging church" ideas into practice, Jones said. But "thousands of churches and pastors are . . . listening in, coming to hear Brian and reading my weekly e-mails."

McLaren said the name "emerging church" came out of a 2001 discussion he had with Doug Pagitt, pastor of Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis, about "why the megachurches were not attracting young people." The reasons, experts said, were becoming evident in the 1990s: dissatisfaction with the rightward drift in evangelical politics; worship styles so contemporary and casual they had no spiritual uplift; a lack of emphasis on social justice; and a theology that some say reduced Christianity to a recipe.

"The modern Christian formula of 'I mentally assent to the fact that Jesus died for my sins and therefore I get to live forever in heaven' . . . is entirely cognitive," said Ken Archer, 33, a D.C. software entrepreneur who is studying philosophy at Catholic University. "It's a mathematical formula [that] leaves the rest of our being unfulfilled."

McLaren's 2001 book, "A New Kind of Christian," captured the dissatisfaction. "I felt like someone had read my mind," said Michael Lamson, 31, an evangelical youth pastor in Mercersburg, Pa. Three years later, in "A Generous Orthodoxy," McLaren elaborated his theological outlook, which became a major influence on the "emerging conversation."

"What Brian is contributing is excellent questions that expose the modern roots of our spiritual angst," said Archer, who has had long conversations with McLaren. "He sees the answers coming from others, and he has encouraged thousands of people, including myself, to find the answers."

A Fellowship Expands

---

Cedar Ridge, the congregation McLaren founded, is a far cry from the religious environment in which he was raised in Rockville. His family belonged to the ultraconservative Plymouth Brethren, which also is the childhood church of activist Wallis and radio celebrity Garrison Keillor.

As someone who loved books, music and science, "I was on the way out from the Christian faith" in his mid-teens, said the balding McLaren, who wears glasses and a closely cropped grey beard.

But that changed with the Jesus Movement of the 1970s, whose anti-establishment spirit attracted him. "I've always had the sense that Jesus's message is not a chaplaincy to the establishment," he said, "but that it is countercultural."

In 1982, while he was teaching English at the University of Maryland, McLaren and his wife, Grace, started a small "fellowship group" in their College Park apartment. "We'd have prayer, I'd do a little Bible study, then we'd have dinner. It was mostly grad students," he recalled.

The group met for several years in homes and school buildings until it ended up at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Beltsville and took the name Cedar Ridge. McLaren left teaching -- and his unfinished doctorate studies -- to be pastor. In the late 1990s, the congregation of about 250 bought a 63-acre farm in Spencerville and moved there in January 1999.