Brian McLaren is one of the leaders of the Emergent Church movement. Here, in the Wittenburg Door, McLaren talks about what it was that caused him to shift away from evangelical orthodoxy:

DOOR: So, what do you believe is the real scandal of Jesus' message that you explore in The Secret Message of Jesus?

MCLAREN: It's that He isn't talking about just going or not going to hell after you die. He's talking about a radically different way of living. He's talking about changing the world and living in a subversive and radical way in this world. That's what His pregnant phrase "kingdom of God" involves.

DOOR: As you finished The Secret Message of Jesus, what was the most significant insight for you?

MCLAREN: I began the book with the hypothesis that the message of the kingdom was at the center of what Jesus taught. By the time I was done, I was convinced it was in the center of not only what He said but also what He did. Obviously, parables are short, fictional ways of describing the kingdom, but as I wrote the book I came to understand the miracles as signs of wonders of the kingdom, and I understood the crucifixion and resurrection as a prophetic dramatization of the kingdom. The pervasiveness of it really hit me. I ended the book with more questions than I began with regarding how the message of the kingdom relates to eschatology. I'm still thinking that area through.

What is absolutely clear is the call to join Jesus in a radically different way of living in the kin-dom of God. What is not so clear, and leaves many more questions than answers, is how this message relates to the doctrines of orthodox Christianity.