Brian D. McLaren

Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, pastor, and networker among
innovative Christian leaders, thinkers, and activists.

He is a frequent guest on television, radio, and news media programs.
He has appeared on many broadcasts including Larry King Live, Religion
and Ethics Newsweekly, and Nightline. His work has also been covered
in Time (where he was listed as one of American's 25 most influential
evangelicals), Christianity Today, Christian Century, the Washington
Post, and many other
print media.

Born in 1956, he graduated from University of Maryland with degrees in
English (BA, summa cum laude, 1978, and MA, in 1981). His academic
interests included Medieval drama, Romantic poets, modern
philosophical literature, and the novels of Dr. Walker Percy. In
2004, he was awarded a Doctor of Divinity Degree (honoris causa) from
Carey Theological Seminary in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

From 1978 to 1986, McLaren taught college English, and in 1982, he
helped form Cedar Ridge Community Church, an innovative,
nondenominational church in the Baltimore-Washington region
(crcc.org). He left higher education in 1986 to serve as the church's
founding pastor and served in that capacity until 2006. During that
time, Cedar Ridge earned a reputation as a leader among emerging
missional congregations.

Brian has been active in networking and mentoring church planters and
pastors since the mid 1980's, and has assisted in the development of
several new churches. He is a popular conference speaker and a
frequent guest lecturer at seminaries and denominational gatherings,
nationally and internationally. His public speaking covers a broad
range of topics including postmodern thought and culture, Biblical
studies, evangelism,
leadership, global mission, spiritual formation, worship, pastoral
survival and burnout,
inter-religious dialogue, ecology, and social justice.

McLaren's first book, The Church on the Other Side: Doing Ministry in
the Postmodern Matrix, (Zondervan, 1998, rev. ed. 2000) has been
recognized as a primary portal into the current conversation about
postmodern ministry. His second book, Finding Faith (Zondervan, 1999),
is a contemporary apologetic, written for thoughtful seekers and
skeptics. His third book, A New Kind of Christian
(Jossey-Bass/Leadership Network, 2001) further explores issues of
Christian faith and postmodernity, and won Christianity Today's "Award
of Merit" in 2002. His fourth, More Ready Than You Realize: Evangelism
as Dance in the Postmodern Matrix (2002) presents a refreshing
approach to spiritual friendship. A is for Abductive (coauthored with
Dr. Leonard Sweet, Zondervan, 2002) and Adventures in Missing the
Point (coauthored with Dr. Anthony Campolo, Emergent/YS, 2003) explore
theological reform in a postmodern context, and a sequel to A New Kind
of Christian, entitled The Story We Find Ourselves In (Jossey-Bass,
2003), seeks to tell the Biblical story in a new context. He is one of
five co-authors of Church in the Emerging Culture (Emergent/YS, 2003).

His 2004 release, "A Generous Orthodoxy" (Emergent/YS/Zondervan), is a
personal confession and has been called a "manifesto" of the emerging
church conversation. The conclusion to the A New Kind of Christian
trilogy was released in 2005, entitled "The Last Word and the Word
After That" (Jossey-Bass).

"The Secret Message of Jesus" (W, April 2006), explores the theme of
the kingdom of God in the teachings of Jesus. "This book was written
for a broad audience," he explains, "from the
spiritual-but-not-religious to Christian pastors and leaders.
Everything I've written to this point has been a preparation for this
book."

His books have been or are being translated into many languages,
including Korean, Chinese, French, Swedish, Norwegian, and Spanish. He
has written for or
contributed interviews to many periodicals, including Leadership,
Sojourners, Worship Leader, and Conversations.
Many of his articles are available at www.brianmclaren.net. He
is also a musician and songwriter.

He is on the international steering team and board of directors for
emergent, a growing generative friendship among missional Christian
leaders (www.emergentvillage.com, www.emergent.info). He is also
active in global networking among emerging leaders (amahoro.info).

He serves as a board chair for Sojourners/Call to Renewal (sojo.net),
and is a founding member of Red Letter Christians, a group of
communicators seeking to broaden and deepen the dialogue about faith
and public life. He is also a board member for "Orientacion
Cristiana," and formerly served on the boards of International Teams
(www.iteams.org) in Chicago, Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle
(mhgs.edu), and Off The Map
(off-the-map.org). He has taught or lectured at several seminaries in
the U.S. and abroad.

Brian is married to Grace, and they have four young adult children. He
has traveled extensively in Europe, Latin America, and Africa, and his
personal interests include ecology, fishing, hiking, music, art, and literature.