The wrestle Pt. I

A while back Jared Bradley asked me to read a book that he had found to be quite significant. He showed me his copy and offered to lend it to me. It was a book I'd heard of, called "A New Kind of Christian" by Brian McLaren; that night I began to give it a read and like Jared, found it compelling.
I got about four chapters in and then decided I wanted my father's perspective on the 4th chapter so I lent him the book. For the next couple of weeks I got away from reading it and by the time it was returned to me, I'd decided that I wanted to buy my own copy because I wanted to be able to mark it up and make notes as I read it through.
I've just spent that past two days powering through my copy and underlining quite a bit of it; it's giving me some real food for thought and I wanted to take time to process some of them here.

Essentially the book unfolds as two friends talk through the differences between faith in a 'modern' context vs. faith in a 'post-modern' world; about the struggle to translate or transfere a faith that, for many, has been passed down to us from either our family or our western culture, in a 'modern' construct.

In a sense I don't know exactly where to start. This book intrigues me but I don't know why. It's quite well written, so that's certainly part of it. I agree with a lot of it, and find myself living out many of the things the book articulates. But other parts are causing a wrestle in me and I'm not sure why.

It certainly is an important book to many among The Canopy, because there are number of people at our church who have read it and have been very impacted by it. It's striking quite a chord.

The statement on the back of the book (which I can only assume was put there by the publisher) reads, "A tale of spiritual renewal for those who thought they had given up on the church". I know they're trying to be provocative but that kind of statement infuriates me! Why? Because I like the church. I always have, since the time I came to faith in Christ and decided that the beliefs I had been raised with were now my beliefs as well. I've talked to many people who use the same language as that statement and most times I find it's an excuse to be cynical and to remove themselves from the Church, instead of sucking it up and being part of a positive solution. Anybody can complain.
(BTW, when you get into the book, you realize just how much that statement is there just to be provocative)

A 'new kind of Christian' would extend to a 'new kind of church' and I wonder how people see The Canopy? Some have come and gone, saying that The Canopy has turned out to be 'just another church'. I've also been told that others in the city see The Canopy as the 'best example of the "emergent church" in Edmonton'. Are we 'just another church'? I've wondered that many a time. Are we too institutional? I don't know; it's not to me! Is the 'institutional' question about the way we are 'structured' or is it more about the way people are living out their faith? (meaning, if we are too institutional, then what is making us that way?)

I've still got to finish the final chapter. (I'm about half way through it). Many more thoughts to process and wrestle through.