Brian McLaren

Brian D. McLaren ( born 1956 ) is an American pastor and representatives of the emerging church movement. The American Time Magazine calls him one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in the USA. He is the founding pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in Spencerville, Maryland.

Life

McLaren studied at the University of Maryland, College Park and graduated with degrees in Technical English (BA summa cum laude in 1978 and MA 1981). His focus he put on medieval drama, poetry of romance, modern philosophical literature, and the novels of Walker Percy.

After McLaren taught English for several years, he left the university to the Cedar Ridge Community Church to found, a non-denominational church in Maryland. Meanwhile, the community has grown to several hundred members. 2004 McLaren received an honorary doctorate from Carey Theological Seminary in Vancouver.

Since the 1980s, McLaren supports the creation and development of new communities. Despite fierce criticism from evangelical leaders McLaren is a popular speaker at seminars and conferences where he speaks and Others, especially on issues such as community, mission, postmodernity and social justice. McLaren is one of the leaders of Emergent Village, a platform for missional Christian leaders. In autumn 2007, McLaren was invited to speak at events in Marburg, Hamburg and Erlangen, which were organized by the German network Emergent Germany.

McLaren is married and the father of four adult children. McLaren is also a musician and songwriter.