Oct
22
2009
Max McLean
Evangelicals often talk about wanting to be “in but not of” the world, influencing culture with contextualized communication that does not compromise our commitments.
Earlier this year I interviewed Max McLean about his use of God-glorifying art in the public square–in particular, his presentation of the entire Gospel of Mark in Chicago, one of the most popular theatre cities in America. I just heard today that Max received the Jeff Award for best solo performance. Hats off to Max and his team–taking the gospel to the public square, and doing so with excellence and care.
In a week or so Zondervan will release a new book by Max (co-authored with Warren Bird), entitled Unleashing the Word: Rediscovering the Public Reading of Scripture.
Paul instructs Timothy to devote himself to the public reading of Scripture (1 Tim. 4:13)–and frankly, there aren’t many resources out there to help us in this important duty of gathered church life. As Tim Keller says about this new book, “Max’s book will help your church restore this neglected worship practice. There’s nothing else like it.”
It also comes with an illustrative multi-session DVD that helps to apply the book in practice.
You can read the table of contents and some of chapter 1 online.
3 Comments
One thing I have always wondered is why evangelicals have adopted the phrase “in the world but not of it.” This idea may be found in the Bible (Romans 12: 1-2), but the phrase isn’t there; in fact, the wording is used by a lot of different religions (such as Sufi mysticism within Islam).
Though I absolutely agree that Christians who are thusly called ought to influence culture for the sake of the Gospel, I also wonder if it might be best to adjust out verbiage a bit for the sake of clarity. After all, though we are not of this passing sinful *age*, we *are* “of” this world, as in planet Earth. When Christ redeems and remakes His universe, blending it with a new Heaven (Revelation 21), we will certainly be both “in” and “of” that world. So perhaps we could say instead “in this age, but not of it”?
Regardless, I look forward to learning more about Mac McLean’s book. His reading of Scripture (especially the ESV) is my favorite.
The language comes more from John’s Gospel. See, for example, John 17:15-16, where Jesus says his followers “are not of the world” but that Jesus wants them to be in the world.
Ah, I had missed that — it is closer to the wording of the phrase. Though I don’t want to nitpick, using the phrase without distinction between “world” and “age” would reinforce the subconscious assumption among many Christians that the physical world will end and everyone will go off to an ethereal Heaven, which is where they truly belong. Thus, confusion about the physical resurrection of God’s creation and the human body goes unabated.
Yet this is one of the “issues” I believe God wants me to focus on now — many will have no problem with the “in but not of” phrase.