A little nondenominational church finished its 10-year anniversary celebration this weekend in a big way, with appearances by a globe-traveling popular Christian writer and the son of a famous televangelist couple.

Brian McLaren, author and leader in the emerging church movement and one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in the U.S. according to Time magazine, spoke at Open Door Community Church in Sherwood on Saturday about the positive changes he sees in modern Christianity.

McLaren stepped down as pastor of his Maryland church in January to travel to more than 20 countries this year. Around the world, he said, he has seen people who are leaving the institutions of organized religion but meeting in regular small groups to talk about God. Such groups sometimes lead to more people choosing Christianity than participants saw in their former churches, he said.

McLaren alluded to the loose term "emerging church" by comparing it to growth rings on a tree. As new Christian groups form and older groups change, he said, a new ring of the tree of Christendom is added. "That's the life of the tree lived in relation to today's weather conditions." And those modern bodies, grappling with current culture, "have more in common with each other than with those a few rings in." he said.

He also sees people migrating across the boundary lines of lables such as "evangelical," "liturgical" or "charismatic" to find each group "brings treasures from its background. They're saying, let's imagine a new future together."

That future is partly the subject of his latest book, The Secret Message of Jesus. Put very simply, he studies the phrase "the kingdom of God" and Jesus' tendency to wrap teachings in parables, and concludes that Jesus meant for his followers to work for a kingdom here and now on earth.

McLaren said Jesus loves people as they are but expects them to continue taking small steps towards loving others better - steps that sometimes mean listening more than talking.

"Just because you have a personal opinion, you don't have to bless other people with it." he said.

McLaren also gave the sermon Sunday morning. Though he has pastored for more than 20 years, he still resembled the college English professor he was before that. Wearing a tweed coat, he introduced the text from Mark 15 and asked the audience questions. He got applause when he bolstered a comment about literal and figurative biblical interpretation with a paraphrase from C.S. Lewis: "People who don't know how to read grown-up books shouldn't."

It was McLaren's first visit to the church, which pastor Randy McCain started after he was fired as music minister of a Sherwood Presbyterian church because he is gay. Many of the church's 100 or so members are also gay. But McCain stresses it's not a gay church. He calls it "a grace church," where God's grace is available to all.

Jay Bakker, son of divorced televangelists Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Messner, also spoke Sunday. McCain said he was a fan of the couple's PTL TV show; while introducing Bakker, he recalled Tammy Faye's signature line as she looked directly into the camera: "God loves you just the way you are. He really does."

"I can't tell you how many nights that got me through," McCain said.

Bakker called his mother's stage IV colon and lung cancer "the worst thing I've ever seen in my life," yet said it had strengthened his faith and brought him closer to his family.

Bakker has a small church called the Revolution Church, which meets on Sunday afternoons at a Brooklyn bar called Pete's Candy Store. About 15 to 20 people usually attend, he said, but more listen to sermons through the church's web site. Revolution also had congregations in Atlanta and in Charlotte, N.C.

His journey away from and back to Christianity and his work with Revolution are explored in a six-part documentary, One Punk Under God, starting on the Sundance cable channel Dec 13. Each episode will also be available the day after it airs at iTunes.

The second episode was filmed partly at Open Door. He credits the church for influencing his thinking on homosexuality and praises it for being a "meeting place for God's people who have been hurt and rejected and wounded. God's doing something in this little purple church that's life-changing."

Peggy Campolo, an evangelical Baptist speaker and writer, attended the weekend's events but did not speak publicly. McCain called her "the patrol saint of Open Door." for encouraging him to start the church.

Her husband, Tony Campolo, is also an evangelical writer and speaker. The couple sometimes speak together on issues of homosexuality - Peggy is in favor of gay marriages; Tony believes gays should be celibate.

Peggy Campolo began correspondence with McCain after he wrote to her husband. She called McCain "more led to help and shepherd people to Jesus than anyone I'd ever met."

She first met him when the church marked its fifth anniversary; an autographed poster of her from that event hangs in the church.

"I'm kind of an oddball because I'm for Jesus and the Bible and gay rights," she said. "I do what I do because of my belief in Jesus, not in spite of it."

Campolo attends an American Baptist church in Pennsylvania and said if she lived here she'd attend Open Door, where "my friends have taught me to be honest," she said. Her husband "said he's never seen people who were so happy to be in church," she said. She said she's been criticized for her support of gays and that contributions to her husband's mission work had decreased because of it.

Nashville songwriter Chip Davis also sang Saturday and Sunday. His songs have been recorded by stars such as Kenny Rogers and Reba McEntire; in January he will release his first CD. His song "That's Not What I Meant" was inspired by news of preacher Fred Phelps' protesting at soldiers' funerals. It's sung from Jesus' point of view: "You ask for forgiveness, but I've never seen you repent. You can't hate in my name. That's not what I meant."