Michael's Blog

Book Review: Finding Our Way Again by Brian McLaren

For much of my life as a follower of Jesus, I've regarded spiritual disciplines as legalistic to-do lists. They were other opportunities for me to fail -- I don't pray enough, I don't read my Bible enough, I don't fast (ever really), I don't... I used to think the problem was with spiritual disciplines themselves, but I have come to learn that my challenge was the lens through which I viewed spiritual disciplines. Finding Our Way Again by Brian McLaren was a big help in pushing me over the edge to embrace spiritual practices!

Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices is the introductory book in a new series of books called The Ancient Practices Series. It is published by Thomas Nelson. The general editor is Phyllis Tickle.

I found the book to be very well written and easy to read. I grew up in a low-church faith tradition, so the only spiritual practices I came in contact with were prayer and Bible reading. This work expanded my understanding of spiritual practices and helped me discover more spiritual practices. The most helpful thing for me was how Brian McLaren provided a framework for understanding the process of spiritual growth and how spiritual practices fit into that. The following diagram illustrates what I learned from Brian.

As a follower of Jesus, my aim is to become more like Jesus in everything I say and do (seems like a long road some days). Becoming like Jesus involves engaging in three essential tasks, under the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit. One task is soul cleaning, and it's just like cleaning up a home that has been neglected to make it a suitable place to live. Another task is illumination or taking in the light of Jesus. Once the house is cleaned up, you fill it with light which chases out the darkness. A final task is becoming one with God. I don't mean that in a metaphysical, kind of new agey, way. The more time you spend in God's presence, casting off the sin that so easily entangles and Son-bathing in the light of Jesus, you begin to see what God see, love what God loves, break over what breaks God's heart...you become more and more like Jesus. Spiritual practices are tools that the Holy Spirit uses in this process of spiritual formation. The cool thing is, we don't have to be passive recipients of the Holy Spirit's work. As we take it upon ourselves to engage in spiritual practices, we are inviting the Holy Spirit to work in our lives. To be clear, I don't believe we are "working" our way into Christ-likeness - No, it is God who causes growth. What we are doing is putting ourselves in a place where it is easier for the Holy Spirit to work. Spiritual practices are our invitation to God to clean us up, fill us up and use us to God's glory.

McLaren then groups spiritual practices into three categories. Contemplative practices, communal practices and missional practices. I'll let you read the book to find out what these are. They will also be the subjects of the other books in the series. There will be 7 more books in the series. The titles are:
- In Constant Prayer by Robert Benson
-Sabbath by Dan B. Allender (2009)
- Fasting by Scott McKnight (2009)
- The Sacred Meal by Nora Gallagher (2009)
- The Pilgrimage by Diana Butler Bass (2009)
- The Liturgical Year by Joan Chittister (2010)
- Tithing by Douglas LeBlanc (2010)

I recommend Finding Our Way Again, especially to people who grew up in church traditions where ancient spiritual practices were not taught or observed by the congregation OR you were taught spiritual practices in the context of should/ought/guilt/shame. It is an excellent place to start! The lens through which McLaren views the practices is very winsome, encouraging and life-giving.

Book Review: The Forgotten Ways

Even if you don't know what an "adaptive challenge" is, if you are a follower of Jesus in a traditional church in America, I bet you have sensed it. Most people I talk to sense that the traditional church and the larger culture are talking past one another, if they are even talking at all. Popular methods of church growth offer to help solve the problems, but there are serious issues with popular church growth methods in terms of reproducibility, sustainability and actual transformation (people and communities).

In The Forgotten Ways, Alan Hirsh lays out a road map for reclaiming the "Apostolic Genius" that God has placed in the body of Christ. It will help you understand why the popular modes of church today are missing the mark. It will also help you understand a different mode of church that recaptures the hope, vision, mission and energy of the early church (and contemporary multiplication movements in China). This book lays out a clear path towards a missional-incarnational church. It is also filled with stories about faith communities who are living this out and resources for further learning.

I recommend this book to pastors, church leaders and any followers of Jesus who want to be part of a powerful Jesus movement. The most significant challenge of the book is its assessment of where we are. If we are as entrenched in the attractional-institutional mode of church as Hirsh believes, and I think we are, we have significant and rocky terrain to travel. The most significant being reactivating followers of Jesus as missionaries and not passive recipients of religious goods and services.

If you have read the book, what do you think? If not, read it and then let me know what you think...

Book Review: The Tangible Kingdom

I just completed The Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay.

I confess that I bought the book not really knowing what it was about. It had a cool title and it was endorsed by Leadership Network and I like their stuff. That said, I was blown away by the content of the book.

While many people complain about the current "church" models that are beholden to "christendom", Halter and Smay show you what a missional community actually looks like. It is a perfect complement to Alan Hirsh's book The Forgotten Ways, which I am reading now. Alan gives us a theoretical framework, born of his experience and study, for missional praxis. Hugh and Matt show us what that looks like in their missional-incarnational community in Denver.

The best way I can describe what they do is they remove the "institutional jungle gym" that people have to climb through to come to Jesus in our traditional church models. That is not to say that they do not have values and structure, they do. They are just more "organic and natural" than what we often do in churches. Followers of Jesus are to live out Kingdom values IN the world, so why are our structures and programs always taking people out of the world and into a special building or an environment that most non-Christians would find odd (think about your average non-Christian in your typical "Christian" inhabited small group).

I think they rightly conclude that the much of what contemporary churches do is attempt to get people to "come to church". However, what Jesus calls us to do is GO! The problem is, church institutions require so much time and attention that God's people can't go! At the same time, our culture continues to drift further away from the values that would cause the average person to "come to church" to begin with.

I think it is important not to talk about the church in terms of "life" and "death". I think particular modes of church will cease to be effective and eventually will cease to exist. I would say a vast majority of American churches are in that boat. Some are closer to the edge of the waterfall than others, but they are all flowing down the same stream. The answer is not tweaking the field of dreams - if we build it they will come - model, it is to get on a different boat in a different stream altogether. The Tangible Kingdom is a must read if you want to get on a different boat in a different stream. It points to a mode or way of doing church that joins the followers of Jesus with those who don't follow Jesus in a way that is natural, hospitable, spiritual deep and transformative.

Even if you are knee-deep in "attractional modes" of church (how do we get people to come to church) you should read this book. It will give you a crash course in other modes of being church, modes that might ultimately be life-giving and transformational!

"minimize the consumer-church mentality"

I am currently reading The Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay. I resonate with much of what they are saying.

I got a kick out of this from page 54:

"

As Adullam (link on "sites I like") began to grow and Christians started to find us, we felt quite a bit of pressure to make sure people were introduced to our values, particularly our values related to being a 'sent' community. I set a 'two-visit' rule. That is, if someone came to check us out and I knew they came from another church, I'd invite them out and have what is affectionately know as 'the talk.' During the talk, I'd make sure I mentioned a few things. Here's a sampling;

'I just want you to know that we're not a church, we're a mission to Denver. I don't feel any compulsion to feed you spiritually, but I will look after your spiritual formation. I believe you won't grow unless you live like Jesus lived and try to do what he did with people. This mission probably has nothing to offer you. However, I'm interested in finding out if God brought you to us, and what your part of serving this city might be.' I go on to suggest that they won't fit with us unless they are willing to open up their homes and lives to Sojourners and participate in a missional community within the city.

As you would expect, about 50 percent of the people who get the talk don't come back... My intentions aren't to intimidate or frighten people, but to minimize the consumer church mentality and to find the people who are ready to embody or live out our values."

More than getting a kick out of what Hugh and Matt write, I think this approach challenges contemporary understandings of what it means to be a successful church in our culture. It turns church growth on its head by saying numbers don't matter, mission matters. We want as many people as possible who are ready to embody the values of Jesus in real life. We want as few "Christians" as possible who come with a bib on and wait with open mouths to be fed.

Name one instance in the gospels where Jesus allowed someone to take him off mission? I can't find any. People mattered to Jesus in a way that we can't even imagine. His love for people is a love that flows out of his very being. And yet, he lived with an unwavering commitment to accomplishing his mission, even when that meant the immediate circumstance led to loss (think of the rich young ruler, or the time that everyone left him because of a hard teaching, Peter trying to keep Jesus from the cross, or...). He did that because he knew the best way to reach as many as possible was accomplishing his mission.

What are your thoughts?

What are your thoughts?

Book Review: The Shack

I just completed The Shack by William P Young. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.

It is a difficult book to explain.

First, it is a novel. It's the story of a man and his family in the midst of tremendous tragedy. It is also a story about where God was and is in their lives and circumstance. On this level, it's a good story that will keep you turning the pages.

Second, it is deeply theological. Within the narrative, the author seeks to explain/illustrate deep theological truths in a way that we can begin to get our heads and hearts around. By putting theology in the context of this specific story, we can begin to see what it means that God is good, God is sovereign, God is loving and people are free. On this level, The Shack tackles tough questions without resulting to slogans, sound bites and proof texting.

Third, it is deeply relational. A friend of mine once told me they were going to write a theology of relationships. I'm not sure how that is coming, but The Shack accomplishes just that. What does one God revealed in three persons really mean? How does that work? What does it mean that Jesus is closer than a brother? What does it mean when we say the Holy Spirit indwells us? What does it mean when we say God is eternally present? Where is God in the midst of tragedy? On this level, the book gives a fresh picture of what it means to be in relationship with a God. It also gives us a fresh look at the trinity - God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit.

Fourth, it is a book about trust. We use the word "faith" a lot, but I've always understood faith as an active and ongoing trust in God. Do we really trust God? Do we really believe God is good? These are important questions and themes that run throughout the book. They are answered by giving us a glimpse of how God may be present and at work even when we don't see it.

Fifth, it is a book about judgement, power and control. This theme hit me the hardest as I read. How often are our relationships about power and control? How often do we judge others without knowledge? How often do we judge God in our attempts to control our own lives?

Sixth, it is a book about mutual submission as a better way. All the things Jesus said about the greatest being the servant of all is demonstrated through the narrative. When there is love and trust and service, no body has to be in charge. Power and control are our responses to a world where God is not trusted and people are trying to go it alone.

Seventh, it is a book about the full impact of human rebellion and the love of God. The world is broken. We are broken. But God loves us.

I'm going to stop there. Go to theshackbook.com for ongoing discussion. The book is causing quite a stir. Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Seattle fame doesn't like it. You can find his critique on youtube. Having read the book, his assessment seems a bit weak (almost as if he didn't read the book), but that's another issue.

I would love to see a book on the theological underpinnings of the book. I found the theology to be both orthodox and fresh. Young is seeing these things in the context of real life, not the ivory tower, which makes the theology come alive. Writing a book with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit as main characters takes courage. I'm glad he did.

If you have read The Shack, let me know what you thought. If you haven't, I highly recommend it.

Best last lines of a book...

I just finished reading The Catcher in the Rye for the first time. I didn't get into literature too much in high school and college, so I'm catching up (no pun intended) on some classics. I'm especially interested in great books that have been banned at one time or another in our culture.

In my opinion, the last lines of The Catcher in the Rye are among the best last lines of any book I've read. It's almost as if J. D. Salinger started with those lines and then wrote a whole story that would make sense of those lines.

I've read a few interpretations of the novel by others. Some of their stuff is way over my head. To me it's a story about how Holden navigates the painful world of intimate relationships. He craves intimate relationships because he is terribly lonely and isolated. At the same time, he keeps others at a distance by picking them apart for all their "phony" behavior. That serves to protect him from grief and loss when relationships break.

That's why you don't tell anyone anything, right? "Because when you do, you start missing them." Even the simplest act of sharing your story with another person begins a human relationship that carries the possibility of pain and loss. Being with people is risky. How much do we risk? How much of ourselves do we offer others? What's the cost of being close?

Anyway, just some questions as I think about The Catcher in the Rye. I haven't even started thinking through the whole reason for the title - the way Holden sees himself and his role in the world.

If you've read the book, let me know what you think.

Book Review: Jesus for President

I love to read. I'm also aware that there are more good books than time to read them or money to buy them. So there are few books I would consider a must read. Jesus for President is one of them.

Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw delivered an excellent work on many fronts. First, they do an excellent job of placing the story of scripture, from beginning to end, into their original context. They aren't the first authors to do a good job with that, but they are the first ones that do it in a way that is deep, complete and accessible to the average reader. Second, by putting the scriptures into their original context, it reveals the deeply political nature of God's creation, Jesus life, death and resurrection and God's Kingdom. Third, in the process of reading the book, I became acutely aware of how national politics competes for our allegiance. As a follower of Jesus, we are called to something much larger than American politics and the best the empire has to offer. We are called to follow the slaughtered Lamb. It's hard to believe how EASY it is to lose sight of the King we are called to serve and the Kingdom we are called to represent in the midst of empire.

Take John Howard Yoder, make it easy to read and understand, and you have a good sense of what the authors accomplished in Jesus for President. With Zondervan as a publisher, a whole generation of mainstream evangelicals will be exposed to a depth and breadth of teaching about Jesus, politics, peace, the Kingdom of God - stuff that is not approved by the empire. Stuff more likely to create a movement of radicals (like the Anabaptists) than a group of docile "Christians".

On a final note, the design of the book was incredible - more like art or a scrapbook than any book I've ever read. The book is also just a starting point. There are many resources to track down. Many stories of faith communities to explore. It's the start of a conversation, not a one-sided presentation of "the way things are."

Read Jesus for President...

A joke I like...

In Jesus for President, by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw (a book you must read) they told a joke I liked. It goes like this...

"It was a busy day in heaven as folks waited in line at the pearly gates. Peter stood as gatekeeper, checking each newcomer's name in the Lamb's Book of Life. But there was some confusion because the numbers were not adding up. Heaven was a little overcrowded and a bunch of folks were unaccounted for. So some of the angels were sent to investigate. And it wasn't long before two of them returned. 'We found the problem,' they said, 'Jesus is out back lifting people up over the gate." (Jesus for President, Claiborne, Shane and Haw, Chris, pg. 290)

In a world where religious folk seem bent to identifying who is "going to hell" or who the infidel is, it's a refreshing reminder that Jesus came so people could be WITH God. I just love the image of Jesus in the joke. A savior that never stops!

Book Review: Lord, Save Us From Your Followers

I just finished Dan Merchant's book "Lord, Save Us From Your Followers" The title is actually a bumper sticker that I first heard about from a friend in Portland (That's where Dan's from). The subtitle of the book is a question; "Why is the gospel of love dividing America?"

To be honest, this book is a bit hard to describe. I found it a joy to read. It is easy reading but deals with some very heavy subjects. I found myself laughing at points and deeply moved at others. The point of the book is that people who disagree need to stop talking at each other and start talking with each other. It's a plea for us to connect first on the basis of our common humanity and the reality that God made us all and Jesus died for us ALL. Because followers of Jesus claim to follow Jesus there is a greater responsibility on us to love others as Jesus loves. However, we often fail miserably and seem all too comfortable shouting obnoxious, unloving, one way messages on our car bumpers (things like "God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve).

It is the only book I have ever read that goes to all sides of an issue and asks them where they are coming from. He interviews people in the street, Tony Campolo, Al Franken, Michael Reagan, Sister Mary Timothy, Ron Luce and others. If you are not familiar with the names, trust me they represent the continum from liberal to conservative to transvestite nun. In doing so, Merchant models how you can engage in conversation with people you disagree with in love. It is brilliant.

There is even a comic strip right in the middle of the book and a very helpful bumper sticker quiz. I scored in the "step up and take a stand for something" category. I think it's because no matter what I think of the slogans, I will not put a bumper sticker on my car. The closest I come is a subtle white "apple" logo that matches my plain white mini-van.

I highly recommend the book. Chapter 12 "The Confessional Booth" is courageous and worth the book. The best thing about it is how it maintains the balance between solid content and light hearted, don't-take-yourself-too-serious, humor. It helped me look at my own actions and measure them against the Jesus I follow. I have some work to do. Humor works that way. What starts out as a quirky guy in a hazmat suit plastered with bumper stickers turns into a deep and moving exploration of why people who are supposed to love God and neighbors are so stinkin' mean (myself included).

Jesus for President

Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals hit the book shelfs - now it is on mine.  I started reading it yesterday and it's hard to put down.  It is narrative theology at it's best, connecting God's story to our world in a way that makes sense. 

The first think you will notice when you pick up the book, however, is fantastic design.  It is unlike any "book" I have ever seen.  I'm not sure I want to read black words on a white page ever again.  If you are familiar with GEEZ magazine, the page layout/design is similar to that.

That's all for now...when I finish the book, I'll write a more complete review.  To be sure, Shane and Chris stand as a tremendous challenge to the status quo.  Following Jesus is much more than the American dream sanctified with the promise of heaven at the end.  I like they way they define the church, government and politics.

There is also a website that provokes along-side the book http://www.jesusforpresident.org   and a speaking tour coming soon to a city near you!