Brian McLaren: Is Renewal Enough?

This post is from the defunct blog “Dying Church”

Brian McLaren is sometimes criticized for not being anti-institutional enough. He addressed this issue recently:

I believe that many Christians can and should find ways of living the faith that are radically different – and along the lines of what you lay out in your question. If they do this in an "anti-institutional-church" mode, their influence on the institutional church will be slight; in fact, they may inspire a reaction in the institutions that take them farther in the opposite direction. But if they follow the lead of St. Patrick and St. Francis, by living in a radically new way while simultaneously speaking "blessing" to the church – the possibility is great for a lasting impact, in my opinion anyway.

As others have noted, the institution is not the problem. Whenever two or three are gathered, you have the start of an institution. The challenge is to continue to die to ourselves and to stay on mission wherever we find ourselves.