McLaren soundbites

I was down at the emergent conference in Teeside today, with a few friends. Well, yesterday technically - we just got home and it's nearly 2am now. It was a great day - not least the conversation in the car (try being stuck in a small Citroen for 6 hours with two theology students, an arabic/politics graduand & your theology lecturer! - torture for some, bliss for freaks like me.)

Brian McLaren was the speaker, and he did three sessions covering a large array of topics. I don't want to indulge too much in present-day hagiography (my wife already teases me enough), but one thing that struck me about the man was the lightness with which he engaged his critics - particularly those who would brand him a heretic and consign him to the hottest parts of hell (literally). While most of the things he was teaching were relatively familiar to me, I thought I'd share a few snippets of his comments, and see what conversations they can start (quotes are as accurate as I could be with pen and paper - sorry Brian if I misquote!):

(on change, and critics of it)
"Resisting change changes the resister... and the change agent"

(on Scripture's content)
"The Bible preserves the voice of the doubter (Ecclesiastes) and even of the wrong (70% of the book of Job)"

(on Scripture as dialogue)
"you don't hear the word of the Lord unless you hear the conversation"

(on Scripture and the church)
"how does Scripture serve the church?" (not the other way around!)

(on Spiritual formation)
"we are all made into the image of the God we believe in"

(on 'Generation Y' and their apparent contentedness)
"What do you give to the person who has everything? A knowledge of who to thank. And a knowledge that it is unsustainable and comes at the expense of others and the earth."

(on the theological task)
"The idea that we have to get it RIGHT is a religiously transmitted disease"

Any of this strike a chord?