261 vs. 3

This morning, in the midst of trying to work on my sermon (it wasn't piecing together smoothly...and I've learned you can't force that...you have to let it happen naturally)...I finally clicked on a video for a link I saw on the Alban Institute's Twitter, for a one-hour video of a lecture by Brian McLaren: http://www.emergentvillage.com/weblog/everything-must-change-in-one-hour

I've read some of his stuff, and heard him speak before, so I wasn't sure if it would just be repetitive, but it's really good...you should check it out.

One of the (many) interesting points McLaren makes is that the word "Christian" only appears in the New Testament 3 times...and generally with a negative connotation. However, the word "disciple" appears 261. He then goes on to talk about and ask whether we are more concerned about making/being Christians or making/being disciples. Indeed, I think this is a core question today.

We've often, in the Church, gotten to good at the trappings of the faith, and complacent in our living. Disciples, though, always keep learning and growing. That's who they are. I think it's sad but true to say that far more people are concerned about being good Christians than being good disciples of Jesus. And I think that's a really major difference.

Earlier in the video, McLaren also relates an experience a couple decades ago when working with some youth/young adults at a camp. He was supposed to lead a devotion, but wasn't prepared. So what he ended up doing was first, using a large pad of paper, asking the young people what things concern their churches, what their churches are talking about. Things like whether women could speak in church, etc. came up. Then, on another piece of paper, he asked what the young people themselves were concerned about, what they talked with their friends about. Things like overpopulation, global warming, etc. came up. And McLaren says he was struck by two things (1) That there were no things in common between the two lists and (2) as a youth pastor, his job was to raise up young people to spend their lives arguing about the first list.

Again, sadly, this is all too true of an observation.

Check out the video and let me know what you think.