In Emerging Church conversations Brian McLaren is a name often dropped.
I first read his name in the first book on the Emerging Church I ever read, Eddie Gibbs' and Ryan K. Bolger's Emerging Churches.
I first heard his name in the first lecture on the Emerging Church I ever heard, when Phyllis Tickle addressed our Clergy Conference 305 days ago (as I discovered when I checked the Notes application on my iPod Touch), and subsequently read his name again in Phyllis' book, The Great Emergence.
And Karen Ward, the Abbess/Vicar of Church of the Apostles in Seattle, also mentioned Brian during her presentation to another Clergy Conference, just 47 days ago. You can find that part of Karen's talk here. If you follow that link to the "Seize the Episcopal Moment" link, you'll discover that Brian wrote that essay's Foreward. On the Missions Possible booktable at the Conference I found Brian's book Everything Must Change, and decided to make it my next Emerging Church read.
I don't know exactly how many days later, but when St. Gregory's Vicar, Meredith Potter, and our Youth Minister, Erica Jeglum, proposed that we meet with some regularity and discuss a book, it was Erica who suggested reading something by Brian McLaren. I in turn suggested we read Everything Must Change.
Not many pages into his book I realized that Brian McLaren and I share one kind of life experience: an intense, exhilarating and . . .
If I keep going on like this, I'll have nothing for future posts. For now, suffice it to say that I emailed Mr. McLaren and asked whether I could quote from his book and reflect on it at St. Blogory's internet café, and he was kind enough to say "yes." He was also kind enough to sign his email "Brian." So in future posts I will refer to him by his Christian name; after all, what could be fairer, or more fitting, than that?
The first chapter in Everything Must Change is called "Hope Happens." It's my hope that hope will happen for you in at least some of the periodic reflections which I will offer.
In the meantime, please note the right-hand column's Emerging Church Blogs and Reading List, and the left-hand column's Emerging Church Category.
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