"Adventures in Missing the Point"

written by Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo

Reviewed by Murray Brown

Take the guru of the postmodern Christian movement and line them up against a left wing evangelical and invite them to debate some "hot potatoes" and you have the makings of a great read. Right?

Well, not quite.

It's not that I didn't find this book both thought provoking and enjoyable to read. Its just that I was left with the feeling that the book itself somehow fulfilled its own title. Rather than generate lively debate between these two, they seemed to agree more than the reader hoped! Even the subtitle: "How the Culture-Controlled Church Neutered the Gospel" was somewhat misleading as few chapters draw a link between culture, the gospel and the subject at issue.

These points aside there is plenty to chew on from these two outstanding thinkers. Consider the following quotes for example:

• Is [salvation] about rescue from your uncomfortable circumstances (as it was for the ancient Jews), or rescue from this world after death (as it is for many modern Christians) - or is it about being rescued from a life that is disconnected from God and God's adventure, both in this life and the next? (McLaren)
• We should be a people bound together in Christian love who are cultivating a social system that attempts to incarnate what the kingdom will be like when it comes on earth, as it already is in heaven. (Campolo)
• We western Christians may be in bed with Babylonian and not even realize it. What is our Christian subcultures, including many of our eschatologies, are perfectly designed to keep us slightly sedated as good consumers in Babylon? (McLaren)
• What if the Bible is intended not merely to tell you what to think but how to think... the questions the Bible raises in your mind may be more important than the answers you find in it. (McLaren)
• We need to be careful we don't overreact against the CEO model and slip into what William White Jnr, called "the organization man" style of leadership, which can contribute to camaraderie and a sense of well being among employees but lacks entrepreneurial genius and genuine creativity. (Campolo)
• Karl Barth said that a preacher should be able to develop a sermon with the Bible in one hand and the day's newspaper in the other. Frankly, I do not think that seminaries pay enough attention to the newspaper. (McLaren)
• It is a shame and a sin that persons with homosexual orientation are usually forced to discover and use their gifts outside the church.
• Maybe the lack of The Feeling is actually a wonderful gift, a saving grace, a needed interlude so that you and your congregation don't become infatuation addicts. (McLaren)