Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Shane Claiborne @ Lake Avenue Church, Pasadena, CA


Shane Claiborne spoke last Sunday night at Lake Avenue Church's "Warehouse" service. Somehow he smiled more than this picture shows. A gracious, endearing guy. In mid lecture someone came up and tried to take the mic from him apparently to add his two cents (the young man seemed a bit confused) and Shane handled it very graciously, offering a hug but not the mic. This seemed to be enough.

If we're going to have someone to represent my generation of Evangelicals, I'm proud to have someone more concerned with being faithful to Jesus than the teachings of the American church; more concerned with being kind and gracious than being "right." In particular I found helpful his advice on how to avoid bitterness towards the church when it looks unfaithful to the gospel (at least to us). He said that sometimes the church is something of a dysfunctional parent that we still have to love, even though we don't always agree with everything she does. Amen. He cited Augustine: "The Church is a whore. But she's my mother."

Also, be sure to compare what I will now be calling "Emergent Frames," in both Ryan Bolger's and Shane Claiborne's glasses.

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