Reaction to "More Ready Than You Realize: Evangelism as Dance in the Postmodern Matrix"
As I write these thoughts on Brian McLaren's book "More Ready Than You Realize: Evangelism as Dance in the Postmodern Matrix," the headlines report in national news: the death of a hot air ballonist; the death of a child who was refused to been seen by a doctor; the death of a teenager who partied too hard; the pedophile who smiled and clapped, celebrating his 126 year sentence in the face of his victim; waiters who beat their patron to death; two men fighting it out with a hammer and letter opener; and the on-going stories of missing children or bodies found in freezers . . .
Last week I was boldly approached by a man who made a point to tell me that he was going to get drunk and not even Jesus could stop him. I gave him my card, showed him my phone number, handed him a pen and told him to write on the card the day and time he was going to die--call me just before then.
McLaren's book is hard to take seriously with these things in mind. In his introduction, McLaren explains dance as a metaphor for evangelism; that is, evangelism is the flow of conversation. At the end of the introduction, however, he reminds us that dance is the response to music. He would have found a better metaphor in pursuing the imagery of the tune because immediately he shows that "dance" really means "to skirt the issue." McLaren admits he cannot dance. This book demonstrates there are other things he cannot do, either. If dance is the metaphor for that which he loves so much, then McLaren did much toe trampling--and not the postive kind, either.
Using a two-year long conversation with a "postmodern" as a platform, McLaren does a thourough job of reinterpretation. Though he provides snippets of an actual correspondence, he uses terms such as "in my opinion," "she means," "I think," and "I suppose" explain what the correspondent may not intend. Due to this rationalization, the book really fizzles out for the following reason:
Near the middle of the book, McLaren tells us what tune he is dancing to, which explains why he dances the way he does. He is not able to address the most central issue concerning evangelism. Someone asks him plainly, "Why did Jesus have to die?" How alarming that a pastor should take up to two weeks to formulate an answer!
McLaren says, "I realized that they way he was asking the question was way I had never before asked or had been asked it." Why is that such a shocking question, unless one has not met the reality of the cross to begin with? Then he says, "Second, I realized that none of my answers fit the way he was asking it. He was not asking for an answer within the framework of Christian theology, so talking about Christ's death as a substutionary or atoning sacrifice would not help him--that kind of explanation was exactly, I guessed, what did not make sense to him." First, it was only until he asked for clarification did he understand what the man was really asking--he could stop guessing. Second, how did he come to the conclusion that the man was asking for an answer outside theology? Is there another answer outside theology? He then allows this man, lost in his sin, to shape his thinking by telling him that Jesus Himself did not know why He had to die--McLaren wonders why Stott, Packer, Boice and others did not come to this conclusion.
Someone once said plainly that a God without wrath brings men without sin into a kingdom without righteousness through the work of Christ without a cross.
Chapter 14, "Event and Process" is, among other things, an invitation to disaster. "'I have always believed in and loved God.' I used to think that people who said this were being dishonest, until I thought about John the Baptist, who was described by Luke as being filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb (Luke 1:15). In other words, his infant capacity was filled with God, and his toddler capacity was similarly filled with God, and so on, until full adulthood, when he continued to live in the fulness of a relationship with God. Perhaps John was a rare or unique case, but his example opens up this possibility." The dangers here are many, namely, that there could indeed be people needing no atonement--morally perfect. The Bible teaches otherwise. Our directive is to tell people how to be saved, not to declare them saved.
McLaren ignores the music and dances to the beat of his own drum on the edge of a swimming pool filled with drowing people, hoping that someone will see he's not drowning and will join him in the dance.
Chapter 19 contains a golden nugget. McLaren excuses himself from teaching any methodology because he feels he does not need to. He is right when he says that evangelism today is contrived, but not for the reasons he gives. The timeframe of change he recounts is also correct, but he misses the reason for the change--he must miss it because I am not convinced he understands what that reason is. Evangelism has changed because the cross was removed and living biblically was replaced with man-centeredness, which amounts to idolatry.
He ends his book by saying he has nothing to teach. His only encouragement is "you are more ready than you realize." Take his advice: go read another book.
