Brian McLaren has been posting excerpts from his forthcoming book on his blog. Some of them have been really juicy morsels. You never know whether this will be like a preview of a film, with all the good bits already out there before you see the real thing, but in McLaren’s case, I doubt it. I am looking forward to reading this one, as I think it will be an important book.

Today the issue he touches on is community- and he even coins a new phrase to suggest the call of Jesus on how we collectivise our lives and hopes- how we learn together. I kind of like it. We so need to find new ways to understand how we do community…

This inward transformation, of course, requires community, an expanding network of connectivity that perhaps could be captured by a term like “ortho-affinity” – a good and right way of relating to one another in communities of faith and in relation to those outside our faith communities (including those who consider themselves our enemies). (29)

From A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith (available February 9, 2010)