Welcoming Brian McLaren to Claremont

Most of us will never make a “Most Influential” list in Time magazine, but a new trustee at Claremont School of Theology did just that.  In 2005, Brian McLaren was named one of the “25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America.”  And today he’s one of the newest members the Board of Trustees at Claremont School of Theology.

Depending on whom you ask, Brian is either a prophet or a heretic, a conservative or a liberal, a peacemaker or a rabble-rouser.  In fact, he’s probably most of these on any given day.  By all accounts, Brian’s a successful pastor, influential author, insightful intellectual, prolific blogger, and provocative speaker who is often considered one of the “founding fathers” of Emergent Christianity. I encourage you to pick up one of his books, such as A New Kind of Christianity or his most recent, Naked Spirituality.

Without a doubt, Brian shares the forward-leaning spirit that has always characterized Claremont.  He’s passionate about finding the overlooked ways of Jesus in a diverse and conflicted world.  And he asks those of us who are followers of Jesus to seek our place within what he calls the ecology of God.  (Take a few minutes to watch him discuss this provocative theme in the video below.)

Brian McLaren recognizes that Claremont School of Theology is a place where this authentic search for the way of Jesus can take place in earnest.  We welcome his poking and prodding as we educate the next generation of leaders to follow the examples of Jesus in a multireligious world.

RETHINK EVERYTHING

Are we trying to control God's system or find harmony within it?