Does Post Modern Christianity Need a Priest?



Posted: Thursday, May 21, 2009

by
Sonrise Bible Studies

Is Brian McLaren missing the point? "In one sense, we preachers are right: it's dangerous out there for Christians. It's easy to be conformed to the world, to lose our distinctive identity and mission.

But we preachers are missing the point when, instead of using all our powers and gifts to infuse people with a sense of Christian identity and mission, we opt for isolation." [1]

Do the powers and gifts of the preacher (or priest or clergy or pastor) determine Christian identity and mission?

Isn't it missing the point to think of Christianity in terms of parishioners and preachers (McLaren's designations) or the more traditional: clergy/laity distinctions?

McLaren correctly challenges the preacher's justification: "a bad faith is better than a lost faith" (p. 130). But, who gave the Christian preacher the permission to make such a choice in behalf of others in the first place?

Jesus' prayer, "Sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth." was addressed to the Father, not the preacher. Does the clergyman hear God's truth in a way that is unavailable to anyone else? If so, then all are dependent upon the clergy for protection (whether by a good or bad faith or isolation or identity). If not, all Christians are responsible for their own choices.

Christianity does not include the limited priesthood that existed in Judaism. I appreciate the direction McLaren takes in this chapter, but I think it is "missing the point" to endorse a role of the pastor in post modernity that existed in modernity (and most other nities). Otherwise, I fear that the adventures of post-post modernity may include the realization that we post moderns merely discovered new ways of missing the old points modernity missed.

[1] McLaren, Brian D and Campolo, Tony, Adventures in Missing the Point, p. 133. Zondervan: Grand Rapids , 2003.

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