Dear Mr. McLaren

I know most folks like to just call you Brian like you’re their long time pal or something-but I hope you don’t mind if I don’t pretend. I’ve read a bunch of stuff you wrote (I paid for most of it). It’s pretty good usually although you might want to be a little more colloquial – especially in that New Kind of Christian series (that’s lame sarcasm).
I guess I only really have one question for you when it comes right down to it.

What’s it like to be a lightening rod?

You write down and say a lot things other people would like to say but can’t or won’t. You raise a lot of questions in people’s minds that make them nervous and defensive. You have a way of playing with the ideas around faith in God that reminds me of a cat with a bag of catnip. I think that makes some people nervous because they thought God was all, shirt-and-tie. Actually, I think the things you say and the way you say them makes some people so afraid that they get angry at you.

So I wonder what it must be like to go to bed at night and contemplate the people who might have gotten mad at you. Do you ever wonder about the ones that react to your ideas that you never get to hear about? Because it happens – let me tell you it happens!

And do you ever wonder whether you might have chosen the wrong approach? Because sure there are lots of people wondering the same things you have been wondering. But is it better not to wonder those things out loud? Do you ever wish you would have kept quiet? Probably would have been a quieter lifestyle? Do you ever worry that when people hear your questions they might actually get so turned off from faith that they will never wander down those paths again? Because if I were you, I would wonder all that and more.

See I know that you’ve got some awesome people that have your back: Grenz and Hauerwas and McKnight and Oestreicher and Jones and Wright and Campolo and Wallis. So that’s gotta feel good – you know more confident. So maybe when you have all those people to bank on then it’s easier to be provocative and stuff…

Now I don’t chase down all the rabbits from every trail that you have ever raised a question about. I don’t agree with some of the conclusions you come to. (Sometimes I even get bored with your style of writing – sorry.) But when I read “A New Kind of Christian” several years ago something happened. I felt like somebody finally understood me and that all the whacked out ideas and questions I had about my own faith and my own ministry were somehow legitimate. It sorta felt like what I imagined redemption must feel like – legitimate.

I have gotten myself into some pretty nasty pickles because I tend to question what seem like sure/certain things (I guess I am not the only one). Some people even have said that I question people just for the heck of it – you know Devil’s Advocate. And too often I have waded in over my head on a topic and found myself defending a stupid point of view. I think I have probably made some people frustrated with me at times. I have probably developed the reputation for being the one who is always taking the other side and that is not an easy thing to get rid of. But personally I have always hoped that people who were genuinely interested in find the truth would want to investigate and prod and poke around the edge to figure things out better. I have learned that some people are really not that comfortable with prodding and poking and they end up thinking that I’ve lost it – you know – gone liberal, soft, even heretical. Has that ever happened to you?

Anyhow, it happened again. Someone quoted you and suggested that you were off the deep end. Basically, that always seems to suggest that the rest of us who might like the questions you raise are sinking as well. It’s too bad. It makes for a deep sense of sadness inside me. I really think it distracts us from getting on with being the people we were meant to be.

Thank you for being willing,



Dale