Everything Must Change, Part 3

What was the mission of Jesus?  Can you describe it in five words?

McLaren suggests two different ways of understanding the "Good News" of Jesus.

          One view he calls the "conventional view"

          The other he calls the "emerging view"

Summarize these two views.

  

How is your view of Jesus changed when you understand that he lived under the rule of the Roman Empire.

What did the cross mean in the Roman Empire?

          How does it compare with how we understand the cross today?

McLaren says that the emerging view can "help us face and then turn away from at least some of the more disappointing failure that have plagued the Christian religion in its first two millennia" --- do you agree?

          What are some ways that it can do this?

In Chapter 12 McLaren introduces the idea of "junk DNA".  What does he mean as it relates to the Bible?

Starting on page 105, McLaren retells the story of Jesus in Nazareth.  Imagine you were there that day, when you came home and told a family member who wasn't there, what would you tell them?

What does Kingdom of God mean?

Has there ever been a time in your experience when it seemed like God's kingdom lost and other forces won?