Today in Maidstone was great! I’ve been to quite a few conferences where I have really looked forward to stuff and left a bit deflated and thinking ‘yeah … and?’ where ‘new’ thoughts have not been new, where speakers have not really known their stuff and where the day was all a bit drab.

Today was an exciting day, a challenging day, a day where I both agreed, disagreed and laughed at the different emotions and thoughts welling inside of me.

It was great to catch up with old friends like Mike, Sally, Peter, Darren, (another) Mike and others. Always good top be able to chat to people that you have not seen for a while and catch up on lost time.

Today Brian McLaren said some very interesting stuff. The great thing is that this whole day is being followed up with a blog called Together for the Kingdom and soon you will be able to download an mp3 of the talks. Supporting Brian McLaren today were Graham Kendrick, Graham Cray and Eric Delve. It was good to hear their support and the insights from Graham Cray were deep and worthwhile as they always seem to be.

There was so much said, and I am just going to share one bit here that excited, scared and challenged me. I am unsure whether it challenge me due to my tradition, or whether it’s because deep down I think what was said was wrong? I like what was said, and it makes sense, but it also possibly leaves us open to confusion.

Brian spoke about 5 turnings where we need to ask 5 questions:
what is theology?
what is the gospel?
what is our eschatology?
how do we use scripture?
what kind og God is God?

I was struck by all, but particularly at how we use scripture. Growing up in the evangelical charismatic wing of the church has always meant that the Bible is important. This is the word of God and gives the last word on everything. The Bible is the authority on which we base all we do – so in that way I have seen it as the last word on everything. If we had a question, the first place to go is the Bible as that will have the last definitive word on it. If the idea, word of prophecy, or whatever does not fit with scripture then it cannot be right. I have grown up in a tradition where we ‘weigh’ everything with scripture.

Today Brian McLaren suggested we might need to change how we view and read scripture. He outlines how the Bible is a dialogue and suggested we see this in the OT with different books seemingly disagreeing with each other. They are in dialogue rather than contradiction. He gave Job as an example where what was said by the friends sounded right; he then backed that by Proverbs saying the good are blessed whereas Ecclesisates tells us that is not always the case – as was Job’s experience.

Brian went on to say that if the Bible is to be seen as dialogue then we should use it as a starting point, rather than as an end point. This way, the Bible gives the problems rather than the answers, arguments and discussion are a success as we engage because the Bible is there to bring us into dialogue to work out the Kingdom of God together.

I like the sound of this, but I also worry. If the Bible is the start, then what do I now use as guidelines? My evangelical tradition, and in my personal case the charismatic wing of it, has protected itself by weighing things against the standard, fixed, last word of the scriptures. If we are saying the scriptures are the first word then where does that leave us? From where can we now draw our baseline? From where do I draw a standard? Should we even be concerned by that?

I’d be interested what others think.