===brian zahnd===
Brian Zahnd is the founder and lead pastor of Word of Life Church, a Christian congregation located in the heartland of America in Saint Joseph, Missouri. For 31 years, Brian and his wife Peri’s vision for the church has been to be an authentic expression of the Kingdom of Jesus in a modern world. Brian is known for his focus on embracing the deep and long history of the Church and wholeheartedly participating in God’s mission to redeem and restore His world. Brian and Peri founded Word of Life Church in the autumn of 1981 with a handful of other young people in an old Methodist church building. For years, the church struggled to draw members. But as Brian began to be formed in a spirit of faith and prayer, the church proceeded to grow dramatically. After years of moving and expansion, the church moved to its present ministry campus on the east side of the city in 2006.
The Cross Is Poetically Profound. But Prose Can Help Us See It Clearly.
It would be natural to assume that Brian Zahnd, most recently the author of The Wood Between the Worlds: A Poetic Theology of the Cross, is a megachurch pastor. After all, he’s published half a dozen popular books and has a large following online. But the “gigantic” parking lot of Zahnd’s church in Missouri was “desolate” when journalist Tim Alberta visited while researching his own recent book. “There must have been spaces for 800 vehicles,” Alberta observed, but maybe a tenth were occupied.
(Christianity Today 2/8/24) READ MORE>>>>>
It would be natural to assume that Brian Zahnd, most recently the author of The Wood Between the Worlds: A Poetic Theology of the Cross, is a megachurch pastor. After all, he’s published half a dozen popular books and has a large following online. But the “gigantic” parking lot of Zahnd’s church in Missouri was “desolate” when journalist Tim Alberta visited while researching his own recent book. “There must have been spaces for 800 vehicles,” Alberta observed, but maybe a tenth were occupied.
(Christianity Today 2/8/24) READ MORE>>>>>
In my mind, church is not the goal for Easter Sunday.
Encountering Jesus is. In his recent book, “When Everything’s on Fire,” Brian Zahnd suggests that it is really important to distinguish between three separate entities: Jesus Christ, the church and Christianity. Sometimes we conflate these three as one thing without thinking about it. Maybe you’ve encountered Christians. Maybe you’ve even been to a church. But you have yet to encounter Jesus. How do you know if that’s happened? Trust me – when divine love swallows your soul, wounds, warts and all - you’ll know. Listen, when that stone was rolled away from the tomb on Easter morning, it was not the religion of Christianity that crawled out – Jesus did. It was not the church that emerged – Jesus did. Christianity and the church came later, but only because Jesus, and Jesus alone, emerged from that tomb first. Which is why emphasizing an invitation to church on Easter Sunday might be misplaced.
-Michell Arndt; Star Observer; Pastor's Viewpoint: The ‘un-church’ Easter invite 4.9.23
Encountering Jesus is. In his recent book, “When Everything’s on Fire,” Brian Zahnd suggests that it is really important to distinguish between three separate entities: Jesus Christ, the church and Christianity. Sometimes we conflate these three as one thing without thinking about it. Maybe you’ve encountered Christians. Maybe you’ve even been to a church. But you have yet to encounter Jesus. How do you know if that’s happened? Trust me – when divine love swallows your soul, wounds, warts and all - you’ll know. Listen, when that stone was rolled away from the tomb on Easter morning, it was not the religion of Christianity that crawled out – Jesus did. It was not the church that emerged – Jesus did. Christianity and the church came later, but only because Jesus, and Jesus alone, emerged from that tomb first. Which is why emphasizing an invitation to church on Easter Sunday might be misplaced.
-Michell Arndt; Star Observer; Pastor's Viewpoint: The ‘un-church’ Easter invite 4.9.23
A house of faith, rebuilt better
If Christian faith is something to be constructed, then there is no bigger threat than deconstruction. Critics who identify weaknesses — philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche or Jacques Derrida — are enemies of the faith. The biblical imperative to “always be ready to make your defense” (1 Peter 1:15) indicates Christians should be equipped with arguments to ward off these enemies. After all, any weakness in the structure threatens the gospel, which rests somewhat precariously at the top. But what if the structure really does have weaknesses? Then the critics aren’t so much enemies to be vanquished as friends from which to learn. Deconstruction isn’t so much a threat to the gospel as a step toward a more authentic expression. So argues Brian Zahnd in When Everything’s on Fire. While Zahnd is not affiliated with the Anabaptist tradition, he has earned a reputation as something of a neo-Anabaptist guru. He is the lead pastor of the nondenominational Word of Life Church in Saint Joseph, Mo., and author of popular books like Unconditional? The Call of Jesus to Radical Forgiveness and A Farewell to Mars: An Evangelical Pastor’s Journey Toward the Biblical Gospel of Peace.
(AnaBaptist World 5/22/22) READ MORE>>>>>
If Christian faith is something to be constructed, then there is no bigger threat than deconstruction. Critics who identify weaknesses — philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche or Jacques Derrida — are enemies of the faith. The biblical imperative to “always be ready to make your defense” (1 Peter 1:15) indicates Christians should be equipped with arguments to ward off these enemies. After all, any weakness in the structure threatens the gospel, which rests somewhat precariously at the top. But what if the structure really does have weaknesses? Then the critics aren’t so much enemies to be vanquished as friends from which to learn. Deconstruction isn’t so much a threat to the gospel as a step toward a more authentic expression. So argues Brian Zahnd in When Everything’s on Fire. While Zahnd is not affiliated with the Anabaptist tradition, he has earned a reputation as something of a neo-Anabaptist guru. He is the lead pastor of the nondenominational Word of Life Church in Saint Joseph, Mo., and author of popular books like Unconditional? The Call of Jesus to Radical Forgiveness and A Farewell to Mars: An Evangelical Pastor’s Journey Toward the Biblical Gospel of Peace.
(AnaBaptist World 5/22/22) READ MORE>>>>>
“Progressive fundamentalism is just as false and destructive as conservative fundamentalism” --Brian Zahnd
Many other Christians and people of faith, however, strongly oppose Christian nationalism. In 2019, a group of Christians published a letter condemning Christian nationalism and calling it a “persistent threat to both our religious communities and our democracy.”
“As Christians, we must speak in one voice condemning Christian nationalism as a distortion of the gospel of Jesus and a threat to American democracy,” the letter read.
A number of Christian leaders publicly criticized Pence’s replacement of Jesus with the American flag in his speech, describing it as a form of “idolatry” and as blasphemous.
“Glad Pence seems to know Scripture; grieved & appalled he’d believe substituting ‘Old Glory’ for ‘Jesus’ wasn’t blasphemous and equating the freedom Paul was referring to with civil liberties,” tweeted Greg Jao, senior assistant to the president of InterVarsity, an evangelical Christian organization.
“This is Babylon. This is idolatry,” tweeted Brian Zahnd, pastor of Word of Life Church.
--Emily McFarlan Miller and Jack Jenkins; Christian Headlines; Citing Scripture, Pence Switches out Jesus for the American Flag in Convention Speech 8.28.20
“As Christians, we must speak in one voice condemning Christian nationalism as a distortion of the gospel of Jesus and a threat to American democracy,” the letter read.
A number of Christian leaders publicly criticized Pence’s replacement of Jesus with the American flag in his speech, describing it as a form of “idolatry” and as blasphemous.
“Glad Pence seems to know Scripture; grieved & appalled he’d believe substituting ‘Old Glory’ for ‘Jesus’ wasn’t blasphemous and equating the freedom Paul was referring to with civil liberties,” tweeted Greg Jao, senior assistant to the president of InterVarsity, an evangelical Christian organization.
“This is Babylon. This is idolatry,” tweeted Brian Zahnd, pastor of Word of Life Church.
--Emily McFarlan Miller and Jack Jenkins; Christian Headlines; Citing Scripture, Pence Switches out Jesus for the American Flag in Convention Speech 8.28.20
Rob Grayson
America is an empire, which means the biblical forebear with which it should rightly be most closely associated is not Israel but Babylon. Such is the contention of Missouri-based pastor and author Brian Zahnd in his most recent book Postcards from Babylon: The Church in American Exile, released January 2019. Postcards is also an undeniably political book. I don’t, of course, mean Zahnd advocates for any particular party or policy line; rather, he calls those who profess to follow Jesus to let their politics be shaped first and foremost by the politics of Jesus, otherwise known as the kingdom of God. It is to this, rather than to any nation or flag, that our undiluted allegiance must be pledged. So that there might be no doubt, the book even includes a chapter titled “Trumped”, in which Zahnd spells out just how diametrically opposed the forty-fifth president is to all that Christ and his reign stand for. To be so outspoken about Trump might well draw fire from some quarters of US evangelicalism, but someone has to do it; and here again, Zahnd’s priority is to summon a church that has become enamoured with power and influence at any cost back to faithfulness rather than simply to berate a divisive and dangerous political leader.
All in all, Postcards from Babylon is a bold and timely book delivering a call to faithfulness that is as concerned and compassionate as it is clear and uncompromising. Although, as its subtitle indicates, it is squarely and unashamedly aimed at American believers, readers from other countries will also find plenty to inspire and challenge. Let the one who has ears to hear, hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches! --Rob Grayson; Faith Meets World: Book review: Postcards from Babylon by Brian Zahnd 2.10.19
All in all, Postcards from Babylon is a bold and timely book delivering a call to faithfulness that is as concerned and compassionate as it is clear and uncompromising. Although, as its subtitle indicates, it is squarely and unashamedly aimed at American believers, readers from other countries will also find plenty to inspire and challenge. Let the one who has ears to hear, hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches! --Rob Grayson; Faith Meets World: Book review: Postcards from Babylon by Brian Zahnd 2.10.19
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July 22, 2015: Charisma: What? Evangelicals Come Against Franklin Graham's Views on Islam
And Brian Zahnd, an author and pastor of Word Life Church, said Graham's remarks were nothing short of "xenophobia." Even Chick-fil-A's general manager for leadership development, Tim Sweetman, came against Graham, saying his remarks were "despicable" and the opposite of Christian love and American freedom. |
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Brian Zahnd, an author and pastor of Word Life Church, said Graham's remarks were nothing short of "xenophobia."
Franklin Graham
"We are under attack by Muslims at home and abroad. We should stop all immigration of Muslims to the U.S. until this threat with Islam has been settled. Every Muslim who comes into this country has the potential to be radicalized—and they do their killing to honor their religion and Muhammad. During World War II, we didn't allow Japanese to immigrate to America, nor did we allow Germans. Why are we allowing Muslims now? Do you agree? Let your Congressman know that we've got to put a stop to this and close the floodgates. Pray for the men and women who serve this nation in uniform, that God would protect them."
--Franklin Graham 7.17.15: In the wake of four members of the United States Marine Corps were killed in cold blood—and three others wounded—in an act of domestic terrorism in Chattanooga.
--Franklin Graham 7.17.15: In the wake of four members of the United States Marine Corps were killed in cold blood—and three others wounded—in an act of domestic terrorism in Chattanooga.
Brian Zahnd
Any thoughtful person, no matter their religion or non-religion, knows that you cannot support torturing people and still claim to be a follower of the one who commanded his disciples to love their enemies. The only way around this is to invent a false Jesus who supports the use of torture. (The Biblical term for this invented false Jesus is “antichrist.”)
-Brian Zahnd; Clarion: Journal of Spirituality; 12.11.14
-Brian Zahnd; Clarion: Journal of Spirituality; 12.11.14
| 9/16/2014 Why Those Under the Authority of Scripture Struggle to Speak to Those Who Are Not Took the time to actually watch all of the opening statement of Brian Zahnd in "The Monster God Debate" that took place over the weekend in Kansas City against Michael Brown. Zahnd has engaged in two debates recently, both demonstrating a near fatal case of ACDS (Anti Calvinist Derangement Syndrome), this time the strain that is symptomatic of the modern Marcionites, something he shares in common with Roger Olson. We discussed how these synergists differ from the “traditionalist” Arminians, and started looking at some of his claims and arguments. |
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