Time to Move In!

Well, you can tell by my absence that I've been a little busy the last two weeks. After four weeks of sheetrock dust, painting, contractors and hanging doors, Cedarbrook Church is now moving into our home (even as I write). Right now the children's ministry is setting up shop while carpet is still being laid and the floors are being stripped and waxed. The plasma TV is being installed in our lobby and the move crew and band are trying to figure out how to make church work in a banquet center..

Though exhausting, this renovation has gone surprisingly well...all in four weeks. We've now doubled our seating capacity and provided our children with a beautiful new home. I guess I better get to work on that sermon for tomorrow!

Celebrating the Past

I've asked people to share their experiences at Cedarbrook. I hope you'll add yours. Here's one for you...

I just want you to know that Cedarbrook Church, as a whole, has ministered
to my heart in so many ways.  Though DivorceCare I have made wonderful
friends ...  along with the gift of being able to give back some of what God
and Godly people have done for me.  Through your seminar and meeting
withJayne in TPM, I have had tremendous healing from wounds of the past. 
Through worship and sermons on Sunday morning, I have grown in my
relationship with God.  Through helping out in children's ministries I am able
to see the excitement and  innocence of the children and their ability to
trust and believe so easily that it inspires me to be more like them.  Through
 the leadership conference, I gained insight and a much better understanding
 of our Cedarbrook roots. And now I have begun the Breaking  Free women's
 group with Jayne and I already am feeling a bond with the women there.
Cedarbrook is such a welcoming church with such a focus on getting people
emotionally healthy.  Though I loved my church in Nevada where I had been
 a member for about 9 years,I feel much more a part of Cedarbrook. 
Cedarbrook is my church and I love it here.

Preparing to Change

I shared twelve tips to prepare for change on Sunday. You can download the whole message but here are the "tips" to keep in mind...

1. Spy out the land. Get used to the change by exploring it in advance.
2. Celebrate the past. Make sure you bring good closure to what was.
3. Move on from the past. Celebrate the past but don't get stuck there.
4. Start strong. Weak starts lead to weak (or no) finish.
5. Celebrate small victories. If you wait, you may never celebrate at all!
   
6. Communicate, communicate, communicate. The good, the bad and the ugly.
7. Remember the vision because vision leaks. Keep the big picture in mind.
   
8. Change together. Change goes better with friends.
9. Don't quit, innovate. Use your frustration to resolve problems, not run from them.
   
10. Include others along the way. Change is a great time for others to join.
11. Enjoy the change. Different is only bad if you make it bad. Choose to enjoy it.
12. Stay flexible because cheese moves!

In order to "Celebrate the Past" I asked people to send me their comments about how God has touched them at Cedarbrook. Here's the first email back...

I started going to Cedarbrook in the theatre on mother's day a year ago, and this church and it's atmosphere overall helped me come to Christ. The people were so nice and caring that I couldn't leave there. But then I would love to see more people experience the love and compassion of God and Cedarbrook. So since God has moved our cheese we still follow wherever he moves it from here to eternity.

The mall will bring so many oppotunities to expand the church. We'll have the experience of shoppers watching the t.v.s and maybe joing us in the actual service. It's exciting to me because it's a chance to change lives forever!!!

Prime Coat is on

We spent the week mudding and sanding the walls. Whew! That's a lot of work. Now the easy part...painting.

The prime coat is on and I saw the first color hit the walls as I left today. Starting Monday we will be in painting and clean up mode to get ready for the carpet.

If you know anyone who would be willing to donate their installation labor let us know! We've gotten hundreds of hours of labor donated so far. It would be great to save the installation cost as well.

People have donated doors and lumber, trim. Fantastic!

New moved date: October 15th. We still need to get up to code with fire alarms and sprinklers, plus new duct work has to go in since we will have high volumes of people in there.

Have you stopped by yet? Have a look and see how you might chip in!

Painters, Laborers Still Wanted!

The walls are up but now the finer details kick in.

We need people to finish sanding and mudding yet today and then tonight we hope to start priming the walls. Can you help? We need equipment too if you've got it.

We'll be rolling the walls so we need people to tape, roll and trim with a brush.

It looks like we can get a good price on carpet...around $5/yard. If you have connections to beat that or for installation, please let us know.

We also got a lot of free trim. And now we are hoping for cabinets to be donated for each children's room.

The back room needs lots of mudding work...we left that for now but if you are available to work at those walls, that would be great.

Please stop in and see what's going on. You might be able to help or note what you have that's needed. It's fun seeing so many people contributing in so many ways! Thanks.

As for a move in date...it WON'T be October 1. We've put it off until at least October 8.

Still Lots to Do!

The work continues! I just got back from mudding the walls. It's amazing how the work slows as you get to the details. So, if you know how to finish sheetrock, head on down to the mall. The joints need sanding and second/third coats. Thanks.

With all the man/woman hours being donated, we are saving thousands of dollars. And with financial gifts, we will be able to add those special touches. Someone handed me their "birthday money" today to help finish off our space. It's the cumulation of those kinds of sacrifices that make a work like this so special.

I'm having trouble uploading pictures. I'll keep trying!

The Walls Are Up!

This is Dave last Thursday giving everyone the details on the work. Today, all the walls are up and the electrical is in. Amazing!

Corey is on the right. He worked all last night...says he only needs two hours of sleep and he's good to go. He hit a vein with some steel and sprayed blood all over the floor...took a trip to the ER but he's okay.

Tomorrow the sheetrock goes up. We are going to let people print the name of a friend they'd like to come to Christ on the sheetrock this Sunday. We'll bring on twelve foot sheet to church. Come with names!

Plans Approved...we have lift off!

11:14 a.m. Dave Johnson just called and the state approved our plans and we are good to go. Dave and Corey Amundson laid out the walls last night and tonight (7:00ish) the framing team and hospitality teams will be showing up for phase one.

Please pray for two things:

• that we can get into the space by October 1 or at least close. A delayed possession could cause us to lose momentum and I like momentum!!
• that funds will come in to make this renovation a "knock your socks off experience" when you visit Cedarbrook. We have budgeted for the basics, but I'd love to carpet this space and have a big children's jungle gym or something awesome when kids first walk in the space. If you have a heart to contribute to this I appreciate it greatly. You can send checks to Cedarbrook Church at N6714 470th Ave., Menomonie, WI 54751.

I'll be updating you with pictures over the next week. Thanks for checking in. Please stop by. And if you want to work, just show up. We'll find something for you to do!

Makeover Starts This Week!

Dave Johnson, project manager for our new Mall Makeover, has been busy, busy, busy pulling together bids, volunteers and city/state approval for this operation. It's a LOT of work!!

Wednesday: The state is scheduled to review and hopefully approve our building plans.

Thursday: We hope to receive the approval FEDEX'd to us so the city can grant us a building permit.

Thursday or Friday: We hope to start construction!

Dave met with over 40 people last Thursday who are eager to get to work. We have teams and team leaders for...

• framing (with steel) (Corey Amundson)
  
• hanging sheetrock (Brian Hartz)
  
• taping/sanding sheetrock (maybe you?...contact Dave)
  
• painting and decorating (Michell Scott)
• promotions (Remy)
• hospitality (Judy Abel)

If you want to get involved, contact Dave at johnsdb@gmail.com.

I hope you'll at least drop by to see what's happening! Stay tuned, I hope to add some "action" pictures as the walls go up.

Extreme Cedarbrook Makeover - Mall Addition

You may have noticed that my blog had a conversion experience recently. It went from "Thinking Outloud...about Faith" to "Thinking Outloud...about Cedarbrook". Up until now, it's been a discussion of faith and church issues. But, at least for the next six months, it will be specifically Cedarbrook related.

Moving to the mall will be a big change for us and I want to have a "communication center" where people can go to get updates and send me feedback. Change is hard but setting up a good flow of communication will smooth the bumps. The quicker we can deal with problems the better. I've found that most problems can be eliminated or at least reduced if we address them as quickly as possible before they become a big irritation. So, help us all out and give me your feedback along the way!

I'm pleased to announce that we've hired Dave Johnson to be our project manager for the mall remodeling project. Dave immediately got a brainstorm that will make it extra fun. He's calling it the Extreme Cedarbrook Makeover - Mall Addition! Dave is not only a former building contractor but he has spent years equipping short term mission teams to serve over seas. This project should be piece of cake!

You can learn more at Dave's blog. I'm sure he'll be updating everyone soon on details for the makeover. If you would like to offer your volunteer services, his email is on the blog.

Keep coming back for up to the date information on the move!

Answers About Moving to the Mall

I'm back! This has been the fastest summer of my life! I spent a great deal of time getting work done to prepare our church for the fall, squeezed in some writing, some vacation and a lot of time watering my garden!

This post is going to be Cedarbrook specific. So those of you that like to check in from out of town might find this entry totally irrelevant. Cedarbrook is moving from renting a movie theatre to leasing space in the local mall. I want to address a number of questions about that move. So here we go...

1. Why are we moving?

• The biggest reason is to make more seats available. During the school year, we are often at capacity (200) and it's not very welcoming to come into a church that is full. The message is "We are happy the way we are. We don't need any more people." Since that is not true, we needed to find some place bigger. The malls banquet center can seat 400 comfortably, even more if necessary. That means we could grow as big as 1000 with two services on Sunday, more than double what we can do at the theatre.
• The second reason is better children's facilities. We've been using the theatre hallway for our nursery from day one. It's adequate, but in the winter it's cold. Many people have chosen to not attend CB for this reason alone. At the mall, we will have a very large space that will be built with kids in mind. Parents will love it.
• The mall also gives us more options. Right now our youth groups are renting two different facilities in town. We'll have enough room to house them in the mall if that's what the new youth pastor wants. Plus, we have the banquet center reserved for not only Sundays but holidays (Thanksgiving Eve, Good Friday, etc.). Up until now, we've always been limited to Sunday's only. Other groups (like Mom's) will be able to use it during the week. We've also worked it into the lease to rent the banquet center for as little as $25/hour if it's not previously booked. This will be great for other meetings we want to have.
  
• Set up and take down will be easier. With our own retail space, we can store all of our equipment and just have to put it on carts to transport it across the hall into the banquet center vs. putting things in and out of a trailer. This will save both wear and tear on the equipment as well as the movers. We also have until 1pm to finish, so we can have longer services and not feel so rushed. Plus, the mall will let us set up on Saturday night if the banquet center is not booked. All in all, it's a good deal for us.

2. Where is the space and what does it cost?

• We will be leasing the old Ben Franklin space, right next to the Bowling alley. This is very convenient to both the banquet center and the back entrance and the mall restrooms. We had originally wanted a smaller space but we feared running out of space and then having our rent double plus another renovation cost. It was cheaper to secure a bigger space from the beginning and do one renovation. (We looked at this space in the begining but thought it too expensive. Since then, they reduced it's size by adding a wall and so the rent was cheaper.)
  
• We worked a backloaded lease that starts at $2500/month and works it's way up to $5200/month the last year. This allows our finances to grow as we grow. The monthly average over the three year lease is $4250. That's an all-inclusive price, including heat and electricity, common area expenses, parking lot upkeep and use of the banquet center. It may sound expensive, but this is an outstanding price.

3. Wouldn't it be better to take that money and invest it into a building now or at least save the money?

That's a good question. We have all thought this one through and in this case, it's better to lease for a few reasons...

• It buys us time. It's like a young couple renting an apartment when they are first married to find out where their jobs will be and what size family they want before they buy a house. Buying too early can waste money because you might buy something that doesn't fit your needs. Cedarbrook is still learning who God wants us to be. Will we be a church of 1000? 1500? Will we be a church of 400 that starts other churches? We aren't sure yet and so we don't want to build too soon. We also aren't sure what ministries to build for because they seem to be added monthly!
  
• It builds a support base. I'm friends with a number of pastors who are building right now. They are about double our size, around 800 on a Sunday. When they did their fundraising they were both able to raise just under one million dollars. Church buildings today run around three million and up. There's no way we could support that kind of price tag today. The mall will be an excellent interim venue for us to meet to grow to that 800 size before we talk about building.
• It saves us money. The debt service on one million dollars alone would be $5,000/month. That's not principal or utilities for a building or salary for the necessary custodian, or upkeep on the building. Buildings are very very expensive and it would be very risky of us to venture into a building effort now before we have the revenue flow we need. Over three years we will only spend $150K on rent. In light of what a building will cost, that's a good deal, giving us the time we need to plan well for the future. Staying at the threatre isn't the answer because we would not grow in people and therefore financially. We'd just plateau.
  
• It helps us focus on people not bricks. Because we aren't servicing a huge debt, we can hire staff and send people to New Orleans and rent buses for our youth group and offer Comedy Clubs at the Mabel Tainter, and on and on.... If we don't have the cash flow, all that will stop and our church life will suddenly become all about the building. No one wants that. A building is good, butat the right time.

4. When will we build then?

• The best case scenario is that we grow quickly after the move to the mall and can then start planning to build the last year of our three year lease. This is a little optimistic but not impossible.
• We want to pay off our land debt first. You'll be hearing more about how we plan to do that in the Fall after we get moved in to the mall.

5. What about the sound and sight concerns in the banquet center?

• Sound and sight lines are the biggest challenge of the move. We've been in a premium space the past four years ( A little spoiled by church standards!). In some ways, it will feel like a step down, but we believe that we are geting back much more than we are giving up. We already have some ideas to improve the sound. And for sight lines, we hope to recruit a camera crew so images of people on stage can be projected on the screens (multiple) throughout the banquet center. We've prided ourselves on being innovative so I see these difficulties as challenges that we can overcome if we put our minds to it! We welcome your ideas to overcome these problems.

6. What kind of help do we need to pull this off?
Thanks for asking!!!!

• We need carpenters to put up walls and sheetrockers to finish the walls and painter to paint the walls.
• We need designers to help Children's Ministries create an attractive, dynamic space that people in the mall will be drawn too.
• We need a new set up crew to help put up and take down chairs.
• We need more children workers and teachers because they want to expand the classes.
• We need sound, tech and camera people. We will train! This is a big part of offering an excellent Sunday experience.
  

These are the pressing needs right now.

I'll stop here although I'm sure you have more questions. You can either e-mail them to me directly or post your comment/question below. Keep coming back as I'll be adding more Q & A over the coming month.

It's Summer & Welcome Applicants!

There's nothing worse than a blog that isn't current. I mean, that's what they are about...current thoughts on current issues.

Well, my current issues over the next few weeks are vacation, painting my house, writing, planning the coming year and trying to keep my flowers from drying up! So, pardon my spotty entries this summer. I apologize in advance.

I'm also in the process of hiring a youth pastor. Welcome to applicants checking out my thoughts. Please flip through the archives to find my reflections on church. You can start with "The Contrarian's Approach to the Da Vinci Code" at 2006-05-07. It captures my philosophy in a nutshell.

It's important that you get a feel for my approach to church because there is a distinct culture at Cedarbrook that you will either love or hate depending upon your church background. So, I'm just trying to save us all some time! (Another good thread to follow is "Why I Don't Like Church" at 2006-01-08 below.)

Gnostic Gospels and Women

Much has been made of the gnostic gospels, and specifically the Gospel of Thomas. Dan Brown implied that the gnostic gospels were written before the biblical gospels and that they promoted the idea of the sacred feminine. Plus, many people have advocated the inclusion of the Gospel of Thomas into the Bible.

Here are a couple of gnostic writings that are worth reflecting on before we put too much stock in their value...

Simon Peter said to them, ‘Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of the life.’ Jesus said, ‘Behold, I shall lead her in order that I may make her male, that she too may become a living spirit which resembles you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Gospel of Thomas. 51.18-26

Flee from the madness and bondage of femininity, and choose for yourselves the salvation of masculinity. Zostrianos 130.5-8

These writings might be interesting to study various religious thought. But they fall short of being inspired...by quite a bit.

The Dead Sea Scrolls and Dan Brown

If you don't know church history, Dan Brown's historical talk is breath taking...shocking. He makes you feel like a fool for having believed the church's lies all these years. But, let me ease your mind. Dan Brown either is a terrible historian or a great marketer (maybe a little of each!).

After Leigh Teabing tells Sophie the "truth" about how Constantine made up the idea that Jesus was divine (see post below) he "verifies" it with this statement...

Fortunately for historians, some of the gospels that Constantine attempted to eradicate managed to survive. The Dead Sea scrolls were found in the 1950’s hidden in a cave…in the Judean desert…, these documents speak of Christ’s ministry in very human terms. … The scrolls highlight glaring historical discrepancies and fabrications, clearly confirming that the modern Bible was compiled and edited by men who possessed a political agenda- to promote the divinity of the man Jesus Christ and use his influence to solidify their own power base. P. 234

Well, the only “glaring historical discrepancies and fabrications” are from Brown. Nothing in the paragraph above is true. What’s wrong with what he said about the Dead Sea Scrolls? It says that the Dead Sea scrolls speak of Christ’s ministry in very human terms...but that’s impossible. The Dead Sea Scrolls were written before Jesus was even born! They say nothing about Jesus or the early church, let alone the humanity of Jesus. Oops. I guess we weren't supposed to know that!

Have you picked up on Brown's literary manipulations that reinforce his "historical" aura? He starts out by saying..."Fortunately, for historians..." Whew. Yeah. Good thing for those scrolls, otherwise we might have someone trying to lie to us about the truth! Then he talks about "glaring" discrepancies that "clearly" show the truth. I guess the old saying works for Dan...if you tell a lie long enough eventually people will believe it's the truth. I hope you don't!

Da Vinci "Facts": Is Jesus Merely Human?

Here's an excerpt from my sermon yesterday discussing some of the misinformation found in The Da Vinci Code. Read or download the full text here...

In The Da Vinci Code book, the character, Leigh Teabing tells Sophie that it was at the Council of Nicea (AD 325) that the delegates voted on the divinity of Jesus.

…Constantine needed to strengthen the new Christian tradition, and held a famous ecumenical gathering known as the Council of Nicea… At this gathering, Teabing said, many aspects of Christianity were debated and voted upon – the date of Easter, the role of the bishops, the administration of sacraments, and of course, the divinity of Jesus….Until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by his followers as a mortal prophet…a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal…Jesus’ establishment as the Son of God was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicea.” And Sophie says, “Hold on. You’re saying Jesus’ divinity was the result of a vote? Teabing replies, “A relatively close vote at that.”

This couldn’t be farther from the truth. There was no discussion at the Council of Nicea over whether or not Jesus was God. This is one of the most misleading "facts" in the book. Every early follower of Jesus believed that Jesus was God. That was without question. The discussion at the Council of Nicea was over the nature of Jesus’divinity and humanity. There was a group of people known as Gnostics who didn’t believe that Jesus was fully human. They believed that he only appeared to be human. To them, it was impossible for God to appear in the flesh because flesh was sinful. And so – that was the argument of the day. Not if Jesus was God but if Jesus could be both fully God and fully human.

Da Vinci Code Movie Review

I looked forward to the Da Vinci Code movie. Even though I disagreed with the theology and reworking of church history, I enjoyed the book. But I left the theatre on opening night feeling flat. I'm not sure what the problem was. I think the acting was fine. It held fairly true to the book. (I was actually a bit shocked because the movie was almost exactly how I had imagined it would be when I read the book). My guess is that there were some problems inherent to the fact that it was based on a book.

I'm not a fiction reader so I have rarely seen a movie based on a book I've read. I love a good movie, especially suspense movies. But having read the book, there was no suspense. I was never on the edge of my seat. And I kept noticing all the things omitted in the movie that were in the book. You can't help that. The book is over 450 pages. To do justice to the book you'd have to have a "24" version of the movie. So, all the interesting details from the book, especially about art and history, were gone.

Now, because of that, the movie wasn't nearly as controversial as the book was. The book went on for pages "documenting" the Holy Grail theory with interesting "facts". But, in the movie, the Grail theory was reduced to the idea of Leigh Teabing and came across far fetched and inconceivable where as in the book the theory is promoted by not only Teabing but Langdon and came across with much more authority. In fact, in the movie, Langdon actually challenges the theory, an obvious concession to the fury over the book. If you hadn't read the book, you'd probably wonder what all the fuss has been about because it appears obvious that the theory isn't true. Both Opus Dei and Teabing were skating on the edge of insanity.

I don't know how to rate The Da Vinci Code. If you've read the book, my guess is that you'll be entertained but not impressed. If you haven't read the book, you'll probably find it interesting but leave confused because there wasn't much explanation about the Opus Dei clandestine meetings. You'll want to go back and read the book to answer all your questions.

If your friends are looking for someone to join them, I'd go. Otherwise, wait for the video.

Dialoguing about the Da Vinci Code

Here's the last installment of the interview with Brian McLaren in Sojourners magazine;

SJ: In light of The Da Vinci Code movie that is soon to be released, how do you hope churches will engage this story?

McLaren: I would like to see churches teach their people how to have intelligent dialogue that doesn't degenerate into argument. We have to teach people that the Holy Spirit works in the middle of conversation. We see it time and time again - Jesus enters into dialogue with people; Paul and Peter and the apostles enter into dialogue with people. We tend to think that the Holy Spirit can only work in the middle of a monologue where we are doing the speaking.

So if our churches can encourage people to, if you see someone reading the book or you know someone who's gone to the movie, say, "What do you think about Jesus and what do you think about this or that," and to ask questions instead of getting into arguments, that would be wonderful. The more we can keep conversations open and going the more chances we give the Holy Spirit to work. But too often people want to get into an argument right away. And, you know, Jesus has handled 2,000 years of questions, skepticism, and attacks, and he's gonna come through just fine. So we don't have to be worried.

Ultimately, The Da Vinci Code is telling us important things about the image of Jesus that is being portrayed by the dominant Christian voices. [Readers] don't find that satisfactory, genuine, or authentic, so they're looking for something that seems more real and authentic.

Left Behind vs. the Da Vinci Code...

I'm continuing the Sojourners interview with Brian McLaren. Enjoy...

SJ: Do you think the book contains any significantly detrimental distortions of the Christian faith?

McLaren: The book is fiction and it's filled with a lot of fiction about a lot of things that a lot of people have already debunked. But frankly, I don't think it has more harmful ideas in it than the Left Behind novels. And in a certain way, what the Left Behind novels do, the way they twist scripture toward a certain theological and political end, I think Brown is twisting scripture, just to other political ends. But at the end of the day, the difference is I don't think Brown really cares that much about theology. He just wanted to write a page-turner and he was very successful at that.

SJ: Many Christians are also reading this book and it's rocking their preconceived notions - or lack of preconceived notions - about Christ's life and the early years of the church. So many people don't know how we got the canon, for example. Should this book be a clarion call to the church to say, "Hey, we need to have a body of believers who are much more literate in church history." Is that something the church needs to be thinking about more strategically?

McLaren: Yes! You're exactly right. One of the problems is that the average Christian in the average church who listens to the average Christian broadcasting has such an oversimplified understanding of both the Bible and of church history - it would be deeply disturbing for them to really learn about church history. I think the disturbing would do them good. But a lot of times education is disturbing for people. And so if The Da Vinci Code causes people to ask questions and Christians have to dig deeper, that's a great thing, a great opportunity for growth. And it does show a weakness in the church giving either no understanding of church history or a very stilted, one-sided, sugarcoated version.

On the other hand, it's important for me to say I don't think anyone can learn good church history from Brown. There's been a lot of debunking of what he calls facts. But again, the guy's writing fiction so nobody should be surprised about that. The sad thing is there's an awful lot of us who claim to be telling objective truth and we actually have our own propaganda and our own versions of history as well. Let me mention one other thing about Brown's book that I think is appealing to people. The church goes through a pendulum swing at times from overemphasizing the deity of Christ to overemphasizing the humanity of Christ. So a book like Brown's that overemphasizes the humanity of Christ can be a mirror to us saying that we might be underemphasizing the humanity of Christ.

see full article here

McLaren on the Da Vinci Code

One of my favorite contrarian's is Brian McLaren. Someone passed along an interview that he did in Sojourner's Magazine. I'd like to share a bit of it over the next few days...

SJ: What do you think the popularity of The Da Vinci Code reveals about pop culture attitudes toward Christianity and the church?

Brian McLaren: I think a lot of people have read the book, notjust as a popular page-turner but also as an experience in shared frustration with status-quo, male-dominated,power-oriented, cover-up-prone organized Christian religion. We need to ask ourselves why the vision of Jesus hinted at in Dan Brown's book is more interesting, attractive, and intriguing to these people than the standard vision of Jesus they hear about in church. Why would so many people be disappointed to find that Brown's version of Jesus has been largely discredited as>fanciful and inaccurate, leaving only the church's conventional version? Is it possible that, even though Brown's fictional version misleads in many ways, it at least serves to open up the>possibility that the church's conventional version of Jesus may not do him justice?

SJ: So you think The Da Vinci Code taps into dissatisfaction with Jesus as we know him?

McLaren: For all the flaws of Brown's book, I think what he's doing is suggesting that the dominant religious institutions have created their own caricature of Jesus. And I think people have a sense that that's true. It's my honest feeling that anyone trying to share their faith in America today has to realize that the Religious Right has polluted the air. The name "Jesus" and the word "Christianity" are associated with something judgmental, hostile, hypocritical, angry, negative, defensive, anti-homosexual, etc. Many of our churches, even though they feel they represent the truth, actually are upholding something that's distorted and false. I also think that the whole issue of male domination is huge and that Brown's suggestion that the real Jesus was not as misogynist or anti-woman as the Christian religion often has>been is very attractive. Brown's book is about exposing hypocrisy and cover-up in organized religion, and it is exposing organized religion's grasping for power. Again, there's something in that that people resonate with in the age of pedophilia scandals, televangelists, and religious political alliances. As a follower of Jesus I resonate with their concerns as well.

see full article here (you have to sign up for the Sojourners email to view it.)

The Contrarian's Approach to the Da Vinci Code

I'm a contrarian by nature. Whenever I see a rush of people headed in one direction, I tend to question "group think" and assume there is good reason to consider going the opposite direction. It's not always the case. But it's a good exercise to keep me intellectually honest.

Currently I see a rush to judgment in the Christian community regarding the Da Vinci Code. Spin the dial (do radio's still have dials?) on any given day and you'll find radio shows offering convincing evidence that Dan Brown has distorted the facts of both the Bible and Christian history. It's a hands down, in your face, slam dunk affair. Any moderately educated believer can refute Brown's "facts".

But when I see that, it makes me cautious. When things are that easy, I wonder if maybe I'm missing the point. Maybe "refuting the errors" of the Da Vinci Code isn't the way to go. Maybe that's the wrong tack to take. The contrarian in me says that it might be wise to affirm the "truth" imbedded in his errors. What do I mean?

The Da Vinci Code is a page turner, not just because it's a thriller. It's a page turner because Brown captures the essence of many concerns about God and faith. We have seen so much hypocrisy, so much hype, so much spiritual abuse in the church that many of us now stay away from God, faith and church all together. Brown captures that sentiment. So, my sense is that the true "trap of the devil" in all this might be for the church to run around with their fact books pointing out error. In some very real sense, that's the very thing that Brown is exposing in the church. It's that critical, power hungry approach to "unbelievers" that most people find so offensive.

So, what's good about the Da Vinci Code? If we listen, what's good is that it clues us in to the disillusionment and discontent among the masses about God, etc. We can point out how wrong Brown is and think we've "won" or we can pull a chair up along side our friends and say, "Tell me more. I really want to hear why you struggle so much with the church".

At least, that's the contrarian way...