More Ready Than You Realize

Making postmodernism his starting point, Brian McLaren now looks at the issue of evangelism in light of this fundamental shift in culture in his book, "More Ready Than You Realize: Evangelism As Dance In the Postmodern Matrix". During the modern period, evangelism involved calling one a sinning, expecting to walk an isle, and be baptized. That has all changed, McLaren argues. Evangelism, now, is more like a dance: no one wins, no one loses. Evangelism is a conversation, not an argument.

The book follows such a conversation between himself and a seeker whom he has renamed Alice. Alice is interested in Christianity but finds it distasteful. McLaren, rather than call her out on her sin, the hope found in Christ and the cross, etc. offers a conversation full of more questions and mystery.

Again, we return to a repeating theme in McLaren’s work: no cross and no gospel. In the book, McLaren presents a golden opportunity to share the gospel with a church member and fails miserably. The man asks McLaren explicitly, "why did Jesus have to die?" McLaren admits that he was trained to give the theological answer: substitutionary and penal substitution. He responded to the man, "give me two weeks to answer that question." And, as he thought about it, he came to the conclusion that even Jesus did not know why He had to die. Again, a golden opportunity to share the gospel lost out of fear of offending a postmodern with the hard truths of the gospel.

One must wonder, if this is McLaren’s model for evangelism, is anyone in his congregation saved? Is McLaren traveling the world preaching a false gospel to a people wanting their ears tickled. McLaren does not offer gospel evangelism, but postmodern evangelism that is nothing more than a dance into the gates of hell itself.