Product Description

A Leadership Network Publication

A New Kind of Christian′s conversation between a pastor and his daughter′s high school science teacher reveals that wisdom for life′s most pressing spiritual questions can come from the most unlikely sources. This stirring fable captures a new spirit of Christianity––where personal, daily interaction with God is more important than institutional church structures, where faith is more about a way of life than a system of belief, where being authentically good is more important than being doctrinally "right," and where one′s direction is more important than one′s present location. Brian McLaren′s delightful account offers a wise and wondrous approach for revitalizing Christian spiritual life and Christian congregations.

If you are interested in joining a discussion group devoted to a A New Kind of Christian please visit groups.yahoo.com/group/NKOC.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20042 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
This is a milestone in interfaith relations –– a warm hand reaching out to other men and women in this Abrahamic family of faiths. (http://www.readthespirit.com/explore/2008/06/187–conversatio.html)

From the Back Cover

A New Kind of Christian

Book One in The New Kind of Christian Trilogy

The first installment of Brian McLaren′s trilogy recounts a lively and intimate conversation between fictional characters Pastor Dan Poole and his daughter′s high school science teacher, Neil Oliver. They reflect together about faith, doubt, reason, mission, leadership, and spiritual practice in the emerging postmodern world. A New Kind of Christian offers a tale of hope and spiritual renewal for those who thought they had to give up on faith, God, and church.

"A New Kind of Christian is a landmark in twenty–first century Christianity. This book has and will continue to provoke conversation, debate, even conversion. McLaren charts a new course for the faith. In short, he is a prophet, and this is a prophetic text."
—Tony Jones, author, The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier

About the Author

The Author

Brian D. McLaren is a speaker, author, activist, and networker exploring the intersection of Christian faith and contemporary life. He has written or co–written over a dozen books, including A Generous Orthodoxy, The Secret Message of Jesus, and Everything Must Change. For twenty–four years, he served as the founding pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in the Washington–Baltimore area. He was named by Time magazine as one of America′s twenty–five most influential Evangelicals. He is a founding member of emergentvillage.com. See www.brianmclaren.net. .

About Leadership Network

The mission of Leadership Network is to identify and connect innovative church leaders and provide them with resources in the form of new ideas, people, and tools. Contact Leadership Network at www.leadnet.org.

Customer Reviews

Best Christian book I've read in a while...
Firstly, I have to confess, I'm not a big fan of reading Christian book- generally I'd rather go to the source. And that's kind of what this book is partly about- taking off our 'modernist' glasses & trying to look again at the breadth of Christianity. This is the first book I've read about the emergent/ missional movement so I don't know how well it represents that view, but there was nothing in this book I found scary. I'm from a conservative charismatic branch of the church (New Frontiers) so I guess some of my friends might not agree with everything, but a sense of grace pervades the book, without turning 'liberal'. I plan to read this again very soon using the study guide in the back to think a little more deeply about some issues. I'll definitely be buying the other books in this series...

Thought provoking and the conversations really helped me
I found the conversations in this non-fiction is amazingly similar to what was going on in my life at the same time. This book encouraged me to step out and share my "changing thinking" with another friend. What I began thinking and wrestling with turns out to be more common than I thought. My wife's concern was similar to that of the wife in the book. I understand now why Rob Bell and his wife started reimagining what a church could be like after wrestling in thinking and conversations like those in this book.

I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 simply because I thought some of the natural conversations with jokes could have been written a bit better. This is not to say I can do a better job, it's just that it felt lame at a two or three points for me. These aside, this book is creatively written to be realistic in characters and thoughts. I thoroughly enjoyed it and have already recommended to my wife who is reading it now. Thanks Brian, I'll be reading parts 2 and 3 soon enough.