A tribute to John Maxwell

I never thought I would be posting a tribute to John Maxwell on these pages. This in no way means that I recant calling him a pansy and a wuss. He still is both of those for not coming to Toronto after the SARS outbreak. But I do have to pay tribute to him. Contrary to what I expected, Maxwell fills me with hope. Why? Maxwell is the embodiment of what Robert Webber calls the pragmatic evangelical. It would have been so easy for him to organize a conference and outline 21 immutable laws for the emerging leader, and the thing is – he probably could have filled the place by himself. But Maxwell didn’t do this. Instead of trying to impose old solutions to a new world, Maxwell took the back seat and let others like Rob Bell and Ron Martoia do the heavy lifting. If Maxwell, the embodiment of the modern church, can step aside and allow new voices to talk about how to meet the challenges of this transitional age, then I have some hope (however faint) that the modern, pragmatic church can step aside and begin to hear what these new voices have to tell us.