Brian McLaren, who said a few years ago that everything must change, proposes that in order to keep the next generation in church, we must deal with the way that Christian children and teens have been taught, or are currently being taught. Therefore, the curriculum must be changed. McLaren and friends seem to agree that one area where the church has failed is by teaching children a literal interpretation of the Bible, especially when it comes to the book of Genesis. Recently, McLaren and his associates put together a conference to try to change everything that children and youth are learning about Christianity. Here is part of what he had to say when questioned after the event . . .
You recently convened a conference on ‘Children, youth and a new kind of Christianity’ – what was that event all about and why did you draw it together?
There is a group of us in the United States who have been doing a lot of creative work on what it means to be Christians and what church is about, especially focussed on young adults and adults. We’ve done a lot of creative work with youth, but very often we’re still providing our children with the same kind of traditional curricula. As a result, in some ways we’re having to do repair work on those children when they reach adolescence and then adulthood.
For a number of years we’ve been saying all of our creative work for youth and young adults, ‘how would that affect the way we teach children?’ So, for example, if we teach children a way of reading the first few chapters of Genesis that gives them an anti-evolutionary bias, then we’ve got to deal with that when they turn 14 or 16 and they’re ready to leave the faith because it’s so opposed to science. So that was one dimension of the event.Source: Q&A with Brian McLaren
http://www.childrenswork.co.uk/main/article/brianmclaren
The grave concern with McLaren’s new idea to deal with kids who are going through stages of doubt in regards to creation vs. evolution (as he did at that age) is that McLaren does not hold to a literal interpretation of the Bible. He has stated that . . .
“Christians are in “deep denial” over the continuous evolution of the Christian faith which allows the work of Charles Darwin to be celebrated, not feared.
Source: Brian McLaren: Christians in Denial Over Evolution of Faith
http://www.christianpost.com/news/brian-mclaren-christians-in-denial-over-evolution-of-faith-48703/
The article at the above link also says that McLaren “rejects the Bible’s narrative of Eden, the fall, condemnation, salvation, and heaven or hell/damnation” and that he
“criticizes evangelicals for holding onto what he perceives as obsolete doctrines instead of making faith relevant to the 21st century.”
The spiritual danger in viewing the book of Genesis, or the entire Bible, as allegorical rather than literal is that the meaning of doctrines can then be changed, and no longer accepted as the basics of Christianity. Anyone who denies the redemption from eternal punishment in hell through the blood Christ shed on the cross, and re-imagines a new kind of Christianity, as McLaren has done, has placed his soul in eternal peril. But the even bigger danger is when the teachers of this re-imagined Christianity target the minds of children and youth.
Later this month, McLaren will be speaking at Faith Forward 2014, another conference about re-imagining ministry with children and youth. In the following video, Brian McLaren and co-planner Dave Csinos discuss looking forward to the conference. During the conversation, Csinos says, “maybe we need not just change the packaging, maybe we just need to tell better stories.” McLaren agrees and says that “we as adults need to be story formed and story shaped people.” Through their own creative efforts at this gathering, they hope to fill the void, the old methods are not working, and this gathering will bring together creative people who are experimenting… a community of co-conspirators re-imagining together . . .
__________
Is the Bible just a bunch of stories that need to be changed for children? Does Sunday School curricula that contains old doctrines need to be re-imagined?
Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 1 Cor. 10:11
When Scripture is viewed as just an allegory, the absolutes disappear, and the meaning becomes subject to conjecture and opinions of man. This is what leaves a void that opens the door to all kinds of substitutions for the truth. This is how heresy, mysticism and contemplative spirituality are being introduced into the church, labelled as the ‘new kind of Christianity.’ The muddy lie is so smooth that this new kind of evolutionary Christianity has slipped into every area of the church, and is now sliding into the Sunday School curriculum, thanks to those who don’t even believe that the Word of God is inspired by the Holy Spirit.
In one of his books, Brian McLaren states, “Scripture is something God had ‘let be,’ and so it is at once God’s creation and the creation of the dozens of people and communities and cultures who produced it” (McLaren, p. 162 Generous Orthodoxy, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004)
McLaren fails to notice that Jesus took scripture literally whenever he quoted from the Old Testament. In contrast, McLaren twists scripture when he quotes it. For example, he has suggested that …
“the Old Testament priest Melchizedek was of a different religion than Abraham, and Abraham used a mystical practice to connect with Melchizedek. Thus McLaren draws this conclusion: “[W]e discover practices for our own faith in an encounter with someone of another faith””
Source: Brian McLaren’s Hope for the Future – The Minds of Your Grandchildren
http://reformednazarene.wordpress.com/2009/06/17/brian-mclarens-hope-for-the-future-the-minds-of-your-grandchildren/
Is this why McLaren celebrates Ramadan?
In truth, had McLaren studied the Bible in depth, instead of re-imagining it, he would have discovered that Melchizedek, which means “king of righteousness,” was king of Salem (Jerusalem) and priest of God Most High who worshipped the true God. According to Psalm 110:4, the priesthood of the Messiah is the order of Melchizedek, and Hebrews 7:3 alludes to Melchizedek as a possible theophany.
Sadly, McLaren and friends may be correct about one thing – many teenagers and young adults in our culture are leaving church. It’s the conclusion on the solution which is incorrect. Teaching a non-literal interpretation of the Bible is not the way to keep the youth in church. If they stay in these new kind of emerging ‘churches’ that are void of the power of God’s unchanging Word, today’s youth will fill the void with a counterfit spirituality, as their emerging ‘church’ leaders have done.
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
Related:
*** McLaren’s New Book – A New Kind of Year Long Church Curriculum
http://mennolite.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/mclarens-new-book-a-new-kind-of-year-long-church-curriculum/
Question: “Can / Should we interpret the Bible as literal?
http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-literal.html
10 Basics Every Creationist Must Know To Boldly Proclaim a Biblical Worldview
http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v5/n2/basics
Genesis 1: Are the Six Days of Creation Literal or Figurative?
http://www.gci.org/bible/genesis/sixdays
Emergent Church and Biblical Inerrancy-What Does The Emergent Church Believe
http://youthapologeticstraining.com/emergent-church-and-biblical-inerrancy/
Like We Said, Brian McLaren Wants the Minds of Your Children and Grandchildren
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=9116
Indoctrination……It’s Not Just For Communists. Emergents Like It, Too, for Their “New Kind of Christianity.”
http://www.solasisters.com/2012/04/indoctrinationits-not-just-for.html
[…] Muddy Emerging Convergence in Sunday School Curriculum https://muddystreams.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/muddy-emerging-convergence-in-sunday-school-curriculum […]
[…] Muddy Emerging Convergence in Sunday School Curriculum https://muddystreams.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/muddy-emerging-convergence-in-sunday-school-curriculum/ […]
[…] Muddy Emerging Convergence in Sunday School Curriculum https://muddystreams.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/muddy-emerging-convergence-in-sunday-school-curriculum… […]