Adventures in Missing the Point: How the Culture-Controlled Church Neutered the Gospel

I bought this book while preparing to teach a class on the Emerging Church for my seminary. While I am still adapting to Brian McLaren's style, I share a denominational identity with Tony Campolo, so I was happy to find a book that featured both people in dialog. Having established that I'm already biased in favor of the writers, I was extremely happy with the book, both in terms of the positions they took and the general "give and take" between the writers on the various issues. There are a lot of people who are going to take issue with this book, but it tackles things that the rest of the world thinks the church has become blind to, and does it very well. The fact that they could differ from time to time, usually with well-reasoned positions, was very helpful. So here's what I am taking from this book: It's a good starting place for exposing people to some of the dialog that is going on in the Emerging Church; It helped me get some better insight into Brian McLaren's thought by standing him alongside someone I already deeply respect; and it discussed some issues that churches need to stop running from and start talking about. In the process, it might offend a lot of people, but if it gets them talking, it has achieved its objective.

"Adventures in Missing the Point" is one of my favorite books. I'm not saying that I agree with all that it asserts. But the very fact that I don't is the reason I liked it so much. It was challenging and thought-provoking. It offered new and fresh perspectives on traditional Christian thoughts. It seems increasing rare to find a contemporary Christian title that challenges and spurs its readers in such a way. However this book does both. It is the best of McLaren and Campolo wrapped into one.

Reading the other reviews for this book, I'm reminded how WIDE is the space we inhabit under the banner of Christianity. And I am glad it is so. Moreso, I am thankful that individuals like McLaren, Campolo, Leonard Sweet and Dave Tomlinson ("The Post Evangelical") are comfortable with conversational approaches to these difficult issues of transitional cultures, worldviews and religious environments. They seem more than willing to dialogue and face pushback without becoming overly defensive or retaliatory. It is their behavior in THIS regard that I believe will mark a "Postmodern Church" (whatever that really means) as distinctly different from a church entrenched in modernism, which sees all disagreements and pluralist viewpoints as threats to be vanquished. The greatest praise I have for "Adventures in Missing the Point" is how TEACHABLE it is. I regularly bring this book into the Wednesday night Bible Study I lead for high school students, and use the questions raised in the book to generate discussion. The kids don't always agree with it, which is fine, but it certainly sparks discussion, and is clear and simple enough for them to grasp. One of my favorite pieces is the analogy of "The Race" where all of the runners stop running and begin celebrating the moment they cross the STARTING Line. Very poignant. Peter J. Walker www.EssenceProject.blogspot.com

Brian McLaren and Tony Compolo play off each other like a couple of good friends previewing each other's sermons a couple of weeks ahead. One points out structural or logical weaknesses that the other might have overlooked, agrees to disagree on points that connect directly to the reader's life, and (you can bet) greatly influenced what was ultimately presented as a sermon, conference talk, or over coffee with a fellowship group. This isn't a book for the faint-hearted, grey-headed back-bench sitters who think their weekly checks in the offering plate and muttered singing from a 1950's Presbyterian worship book automatically make them a member of the spiritually elect. These guys point out --correctly -- that Jesus of Nazareth tipped over the religious establishment with a new paradigm: "love one another." As we've moved from the Age of Faith (Middle Ages) to the Age of Reason (Enlightenment and 20th C. worship of science) into what is now called the Postmodern era (Primatologist Jane Goodall calls it the Age of Love), we need to take a second look at where the institutional church sits and whether it will journey (as it must?) into the new land and life we were called to when a fellow named Avram first left Ur over 4000 years ago. In their exchanges, our friends on the journey -- Brian and Tony -- help us see the "pillar of smoke by day and fire by night" which they argue presuasively is "the point" that we must not miss (even from the back pews) if we are to truly follow the Way.

This book is a great read. Mclaren's A New Kind of Christian was the first book of his which I read and opened my mind up for this deeper look at the individual issues. I am normally quite a quick reader, however with this I had to spend a lot of time. I found myself only really ever being able to read a chapter a night so that I could have the entire next day a school and work to formulate my thoughts and process what I had read. I found that I tend to agree with Mclaren more than Campolo however Campolos points were interesting because he brought a more fundamentalist point of view to the table, which made the book feel like you were attending a debate.---Incredably mind flexing---definately worth the money.