Brian McLaren in Brisbane

I went to hear Brian McLaren speak on Thursday night at a World Vision event. I think I must be part of a very small set of people who have gone to hear both Mark Driscoll and Brian McLaren speak in the last year :-)

Brian is a brilliant presenter; his communication ability amazes me. I really like his thinking about the nature of God's kingdom coming - what it might look like for God's will to be done on earth. He presented Colossians 1:15-20 in a way that highlighted the comparison/contrast with Roman "gospel" proclamation concerning the emperor, as he was discussing the concept of a controlling story that would bring about the living out of God's will on earth. I was a little disappointed that he passed very briefly over "firstborn from among the dead" - I think the resurrection is perhaps the most powerful element in such a programmatic narrative - but his presentation really helped me think about a lot of things and I hope I can learn from his presentation style.

It was a real pleasure to be able to meet Brian briefly afterwards as well - he's an exceedingly warm individual.