Each chapter includes a spiritual practice to ensure your soul gets the nourishment it needs. Forging and maintaining a life-giving connection with God is the best choice you can make for yourself and for those you lead. " Highly recommended
I find the cover of this book telling...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLz72f75nyU An awesome Furious Longing book trailer
http://www.davidccook.com/catalog/resources/samples/105875.pdf
Skye Jethani has authored a new book The Divine Commodity. It's a top rate examination of the forces that are unintentionally (and in many cases, intentionally and by design) shaping the church in the west along the lines of consumerism.
(Please- feel free to make comments or ask follow up questions in the comments! Skye should be checking in periodically with the conversation)
Skye: I’ve heard this argument before—both in ministry books and in discussion with church leaders. I usually have to follow up by asking, “Define what you mean by ‘works’?” The response is typically something related to increasing church attendance. “We started offering coffee and flexible worship venues and it worked. Our attendance is up 38 percent.” Or, “We did a sermon series about having great sex and we had to start a third worship service because it was so popular. It worked!”
It’s hard to disagree. Yes, using consumer-driven principles works if your mission is getting butts in seats. There is no more effective tool to build institutions than those devised by consumerism. But that is not the mission that Christ has given us. He’s commanded us to “go and make disciples.” (One of the great problems the church faces, which reveals our captivity to consumerism, is the popular belief that disciples can only be made by getting butts in seats and through the construction of large program-driven institutions. This is one falsehood tackled in my book.) Consumerism can build institutions, but it cannot build disciples of Jesus Christ. This is because the fundamental values of consumerism are utterly at odds with the values of Christ’s kingdom.
Consumerism advocates the sanctity of personal desires. Christ calls us to surrender our desires, take up our cross, and follow him. Consumerism says a person’s value is determined by his/her productivity or usefulness to me. Christ says all people are inherently valuable—even those the world kicks to the curb. Consumerism puts the consumer at the center of the cosmos and sees God as a divine butler or spiritual therapist we employ to make our lives better. Christ calls us to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength—to put him at the center of the cosmos and organize our lives around his will, not our own.
We have a tendency to celebrate church leaders who have managed to draw a large crowd to their church. But this is hardly an accomplishment in a culture where a few bottles of Diet Coke and a pack of Mentos mints can draw a crowd. The fact that a few thousand people might show up on Sunday to hear you talk seems less impressive when you consider that we live in a society in which millions of people will tune in to watch Sanjaya sing on American Idol.
Aggregating an audience isn’t successful ministry. Fostering women, men, and children toward deep, internal, and unyielding communion with Christ that transforms their lives and produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—that is ministry worth celebrating. To do this work we don’t need the self-centered methodologies of consumerism, but the counter-intuitive and foolish ways of God’s kingdom. And this is exactly why I wrote The Divine Commodity—to show the weaknesses of employing consumer models in ministry, and point in a new direction.
Skye Jethani has a great new book The Divine Commodity, discussing "consumer Christianity." Others have tackled the subject, but probably not with as much style and imagination.
"A growing number of people are disturbed by the values exhibited by the contemporary church. Worship has become entertainment, the church has become a shopping mall, and God has become a consumable product. Many sense that something is wrong, but they cannot imagine an alternative way. The Divine Commodity finally articulates what so many have been feeling and offers hope for the future of a post-consumer Christianity.
Through Scripture, history, engaging narrative, and the inspiring art of Vincent van Gogh, The Divine Commodity explores spiritual practices that liberate our imaginations to live as Christ's people in a consumer culture opposed to the values of his kingdom. Each chapter shows how our formation as consumers has distorted an element of our faith. For example, the way churches have become corporations and how branding makes us more focused on image than reality. It then energizes an alternative vision for those seeking a more meaningful faith. Before we can hope to live differently, we must have our minds released from consumerism's grip and captivated once again by Christ. "
Some other recommendations: "This book is a top-rate exploration of a critical subject by a really good writer. In this book Skye Jethani skillfully guides us in what it means to be faithful disciples in a culture that has literally sold its soul to the devil of consumerism. The Divine Commodity is a great antidote for the venomous spirit of our age." "Jethani has written a summoning, thoughtful, often humorous report on the pathology of consumerism among us, and its enormous capacity to shape our lives. More than that, he ponders the resources of faith that enable one to resist the power of commodity and to embrace an alternative life in the world. This is as good a book on the pervasive power of consumerism as I have read. Jethani calls things by their right names, and imagines how differently our society could be shaped. This will be a welcome read for those who are willing and able to see us as we are...and still to hope." "In this well written and thought provoking book, Jethani prophetically calls on American Christians to wake up to the extent to which we've been co-opted by the values and ideology of consumerism. Jethani makes a compelling case that this isn't simply a matter of Christians spending too much on themselves (which is true). Consumerism is a diabolic cancer that is subtlety undermining the core values and practices of the Kingdom. All American Christians need to read, discuss and digest this book!" "Navigating American consumerism requires both the aptitude of a scholarly mind and the observational skills of a "culture junkie." Skye Jethani exhibits both in his book The Divine Commodity. With care, subtlety, cultural savy and theological acumen, he guides us through the consumerist maze that threatens Christian discipleship in our day. In so doing, he makes The Divine Commodity a primer for discerning a new Christian faithfulness amidst the market forces that so dominate American life today." Next up: Skye stops by...
-Alan Hirsch, author of The Forgotten Ways and reJesus
-Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary
-Gregory A .Boyd, pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota and author of The Myth of a Christian Nation
-David Fitch, Lindner Chair Evangelical Theology Northern Seminary
I am loving this book.
Each chapter includes a spiritual practice to ensure your soul gets the nourishment it needs. Forging and maintaining a life-giving connection with God is the best choice you can make for yourself and for those you lead. " Highly recommended
Confession- I haven't finished reading this book yet, but I'm enjoying it a lot and have read enough to want to recommend it.
"In the tradition of C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity and G. K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy comes this illuminating collection of thoughts on faith in a postmodern world.Not the Religious Type bridges the gap between the two communities in which many of us live--the secular and the religious--and suggests a new, unexpected way of seeing the world and our place in it.
Whether we're the religious type or not, there's a certain part of each of us that invariably wonders if it's true--if there's a God we can connect with who is alive and active, with the kind of perspective on our lives and futures that we could never have on our own.
As Dave engagingly explores these most important questions, he invites his readers into "a new and warmer spring," a way of thinking that will help both secularists who never imagined they would become people of faith and also people of faith who perhaps haven't experienced all from God that they've hoped."
The section on Peck's stages of belief and how they apply to the move from a rigid faith to a state of questioning and then on to a more mystical place of belief again was worth reading the book just for that- very helpful in understanding the kind of city I'm living in and what kind of church we need to be... Check it out:
Dustin Bagby, one of our elders at Evergreen, has posted an interaction with Doug's A Christianity Worth Believing, particularly with Doug's view of sin and separation. Worth a read!
But when Oregon Public Broadcasting called me last week and wanted to know if I'd be on their Friday show with Shack author William "Paul" Young to talk the "Religion to Relationship" transition and about the Shack specifically, I figured I better read the book.
Tomorrow(Aug 1st) from 9-10am I'll be on OPB's Think Out Loud show talking about my journey from mega to pub church, the emerging church in general and about you all 
One of the tangents they want to pursue is the influence of The Shack on the emerging church. It's actually written and self-published by a guy here in Portland and has been a bona-fide phenomenon in the publishing world- selling half a million copies and counting with little or no advertising.
I'm going to blog it (when I finish reading it), but my question for you is: how many of you "emerging" types have read the Shack and what did you think? (if you answer the second question- use broad strokes- we can deconstruct/really get into it on my review...)
New Testament Scholar Ben Witherington demolishes Pagan Christianity...
Frank Viola is a sharp person, but neither he nor George Barna really interact in this book with the scholarly literature that would call into question their strident claims and theses. They are arguing a particular case, and so they largely cite sources that support their case, for example Robert Banks’ work on Pauline house churches comes in for heavy usage. Their claim to present us with bare historical fact and to stand always on the Biblical high ground needs to be seen for what it is from the outset--- good and powerful rhetoric meant to warm the cockles of the hearts of all who affirm Sola Scriptura, but when one actually examines some of the major claims closely, they will not stand close and critical scrutiny...
"One of my mentors contrasts deciding and trying with training. Deciding is necessary, he says. Nobody finds out they've accidentally trained for a marathon for six months without intending to. But deciding isn't enough, as all of us who have decided to lose weight know. I could even add to my deciding a healthy dose of trying: Sincerely! Passionately! With great commitment and resolution! But unless I put between my decision and the starting line sufficient training of the right sort, it will be 'Marathon- 26.5, Brian- 0'
That same mentor defines training like this: employing appropriate actions within our power by which we become capable of doing things currently beyond our power, and by which we become people we are currently incapable of being. Those "appropriate actions" we could further define as practices. And the community of people who teach us the practices we could define as a community of practice that carries on the tradition...
Most of the truly important skills we learn in life come through training, practice, and tradition or community. For example, we didn't learn to speak our native tongue by deciding or trying, but by training. We didn't even realize we were in training, and our parents (who were the community of practice, carrying on the tradition of English or Chinese or Zulu or whatever) probably didn't even realize that they were training us most of the time... Similarly, when they withheld something from us until we said 'please' and 'thank you,' they were the community training us in the tradition of community, and we were practicing so that courtesy would become natural to us.
It took a couple of years of practice, but in the process, largely without realizing it, we became fluent speakers of our native tongue, and maybe courteous people, to boot. Without the community, without the tradition, and without the practice neither possibility would have been actualized."
-Brian McLaren, Brian McLaren: Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices
Just did... and lost... an interview with Brian McLaren.
Had a sweet set-up through my phone into the laptop and recording via GarageBand.
Here's a hint- if you get an error message 30 seconds into a GarageBand recording, and click "Continue" thinking that since you still see the little timeline running along, picking up your vocals that you are actually recording something
... even 30 minutes of great something with a particularly influential somebody...
Don't believe it.
Argh.
I'll say more about it soon. It's good. I showed it to someone today and 30 seconds later they walked over to their computer and ordered it on Amazon. It's that good.
Stupid computer.
Okay- I know I've been pokey about getting to the New Christians and A Christianity Worth Believing.
Sorry.
Just been pokey in general...
I want to wrap up one and bridge to the other... first, some general comments.
I liked The New Christians. The book has roughly three movements, not so much segregated or delineated, but... The first third is some interesting history of Emergent, with much of the behind-the-scenes thinking and feeling filled in. I was especially glad to read a balancing perspective on what's now risen to the status of "lore" in modern-day evangelicalism: Mark Driscoll and his exit from the original group the would become Emergent.
The last part of the book is a helpful look at various emerging church communities and how they live out their community lives.
The real meat of the book, I think, is in between.
The middle part of the book tackles various themes of theology, truth and objectivity and how "emergents" tend to come at the issues differently. If anyone is going to have problems with the book, it will be here. Jones tries to take a "middle way" approach (something I very much appreciate).
The inherent problem with a middle way approach , however, is that it's highly dependent on what you plot as being the end points of your spectrum. Put John Piper on one end of your spectrum and Rick Warren on the other and you'll get a very different "middle" than if you put Rick Warren on one end and Marcus Borg on the other.
On the spectrum of liberal to conservative in Christianity, we not only tend to lean towards one end or the other, I think we tend to "write off" those at the farthest end from the side we lean towards. So, folks on the more conservative side of the spectrum, even in the emerging conversation tend to view guys like Borg and actively lesbian Unitarian pastors with the same suspicion and through the same lens that those on the more liberal end of things tend to view fundamentalists with big black King James Bibles, wives who don't wear pants and more Old Testament sensibilities when it comes to various social issues... as "sub-Christian."
Let me confess- I haven't read The Shack yet.
I'm actually afraid to.
I have it sitting on my shelf- it was sent to me for review... The thing is, I know a bit about the plot, and to be honest, since having kids, I have a really hard time with books/movies that portray horrible things
happening to children. The idea reading a book in which the murder of a little girl is discussed is honestly terrifying to me.
But...
500,000 copies of a self-published book! Man. Talk about phenomenon.
So, yeah- I'll read it.
One of these days.
One of my favorite Professors in Seminary was/is Dr James DeYoung. Dr DeYoung was writing about postmodernity, finding meaning in Scripture beyond the obvious, and the role of women in leadership when the emerging church was just a gleam in Brian McLaren's eye.
My understanding is that he's known the author of the Shack for many years, sat in theological discussion groups with him on many occasions... and has now published an extended interaction with the Shack: The Back of The Shack.
He's even set up a site to talk about it, with a number of linked (positive/negative) reviews...
TheShackReview.com
I got a copy of Doug's new book in the mail yesterday: A Christianity Worth Believing: Hope-filled, Open-armed, Alive-and-well Faith for the Left Out, Left Behind, and Let Down in us All
Started reading it while watching the news after dinner and just kept going all the way through American Idol.
It really is great...
I'll write more on the book in a bit- when I've read more and we're not in the middle of Holy Week... But, I think it will do what Doug does best- answer some questions, pose even more, but most of all, send your thinking to places you never would have gotten to otherwise. You need to check this out, whether you are a fan, a critic, or just someone who needs a picture of A Christianity Worth Believing: Hope-filled, Open-armed, Alive-and-well Faith for the Left Out, Left Behind, and Let Down in us All.
I think everyone who grew up in church should read the account of Doug's conversion. It's pretty rare to read the story of someone coming to Christ who has grown, matured, gotten theological education but hasn't forgotten what it was like to enter the entirely foreign world of faith as an unchurched person. Too often, all that growth and maturity and theological education has the practical effect of whitewashing the memories of first encountering Christ and overlaying all sorts of theological concepts and thoughts that weren't there... Doug recalls the amazing parts and the painful parts of becoming a Christian, and anyone who wants to help other people do the same would do well to read his story...
And, at the very least, it's entirely refreshing to read a book by someone who doesn't think the world in general and Christianity in particular is going to hell in a handbasket.
You can actually read the first chapter here
Keller's new book the Reason for God is out- you should probably check this out. Here's the man talking about the book.
Okay- I was an hour and a half into trying to finish my review of Pagan Christianity, but I'm bailing out now.
I'm sorry- the Adventure in Missing the Point that this book represents is simply too ridiculous to keep reading, much less put that much effort into writing about.
What I hate most about this book is that I have a deep love for the church and a serious desire to see it recover more organic, less-institutional forms of community life. I also have a desire to see it exercise biblical forms of church life, including the development of elders and other leaders and honestly, I think that Viola is so far afield in these areas and actually works against much of it...
His view of the pastorate, of elders, of what organic church could and should be is so narrow, and so ungenerous to any other way of seeing it, while at the same time so over-the-top self-important ("READING THIS BOOK TAKES COURAGE") that it makes me want to slam my computer on the floor, and I've already done that once in the last few weeks, so...
I'm out.
I leave this book with the knowledge that from here on out, when I begin speaking about "organic" church, I'm probably going to have to explain not just what I mean (which I'm used to) but what I don't mean. And that's what really gets me most about this...
Too many good concepts absolutely ruined by this book.
For those hungry for more, click here, here, and here.
And if you are as tired of thinking/reading about this book as I am, click here for something infinitely more spiritually and intellectually valuable.
Here's a cool deal...
What if the Bible were arranged more chronologically (and logically)? What if books that originally formed one unit were again reunited? And what what if we left off all the verse/chapter/paragraph headings and just red it as it was originally written- as whole books?
That's what the TNIV Books of the Bible does...
From the publisher's website:
The Books of the Bible
project encourages better Bible reading, particularly by emphasizing
the reading of whole books. The result is an inviting and clean visual
presentation of the Bible, in Today's New International Version (TNIV), that can be understood and enjoyed more easily. The Books of the Bible differs from the format of most current Bibles in significant ways:
Here's a type sample
Looks cool and would be especially good for devotional reading
Rock on.
Out of Ur on the huge shortcomings of Pagan Christianity...
My concern with this book is that it is not what it claims to be. Viola argues that he has presented a careful and thorough exploration of Scripture and Church history. He simply hasn't.
In the chapter “The Pastor,” Viola’s entire biblical argument against the modern pastorate is based on the fact that the word “pastor” appears only once in the New Testament. He does reference (in parentheses) several other passages, as some of you have noted. But he does not interpret them and allow them to challenge his conclusion. Consider the following (Look these up; I can only list them):
o James 3:1
o 1 Timothy 3:1; 5:18
o 1 Peter 5:2
o 1 Corinthians 9:9Taken together, these passages don't mean that the pastorate ought to look like it does today. But they do make the issue more complicated than Viola acknowledges.
Regarding church history, Viola says there was no official leadership in the church until the second century. However, Clement of Rome, in the late first century, spoke of the office of bishop (and its "dignity") as if it were established fact (see his Epistle to the Corinthians). Viola also fails to acknowledge that the need for official leadership arose, in part, as a safeguard against heresy—serious heresy, like denial of the deity of Christ.
Viola glosses over the tremendous complexities of historical shifts, as the one from Roman persecution to Constantinian support of Christianity. The clarity of hindsight tells us that Constantinianism did untold damage to the church. But the church fathers must have imagined the shift as the fulfillment of God's kingdom on earth. It is little wonder, then, that they took full advantage of their liberty and built churches where they could gather in peace.
By failing to deal seriously with the messiness of history, Viola is woefully ungracious to the historical figures themselves. Men like Athanasius, John Chrysostom, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa and others in those early years of priesthood felt the full weight of their responsibility as shepherds of men’s and women’s souls. They made mistakes, to be sure, but they are brothers and sisters in Christ and, as such, deserve to be read sympathetically.
Viola’s use of sources is also a bit irresponsible. He relies too heavily on secondary sources. Other times he cites authors who do not support the whole of his position. Karl Barth (p.122), for example, disapproved of the clergy-laity distinction, but he worked firmly within the established church. After all, his magnum opus was entitled Church Dogmatics.
While failing to reference key Scriptures and glossing over historical complexity, Viola pronounces his interpretation as if every other is heresy and abomination. I could ignore the cavalier tone if it did not claim to be “immovable, historical truth.”
Read the rest here...
You didn't think I was done with "Pagan Christianity?" Christianity, did you?
(Hoped, maybe...)
(Before we dive back in, it's interesting to see others sharing some of my same concerns about not only the long leaps of logic involved in Pagan Christianity, but the general tone. See, I'm not crazy.)
The next two chapters deal with Dressing Up For Church (an issue consuming the minds and thoughts of millions and tearing congregations around the country apart at the seams) and "Ministers of Music: Second Class Clergy" a chapter title perfectly designed to ding the already fragile egos of music pastors nationwide :)
But seriously, folks...
Chapter 5 is a fine run down of the whole idea of dressing up for church in general, and clerical garb in particular. It's an interesting study and mostly helpful, but...
Again, the whole "early church as perfect church" bias shines through.
"...[D]ressing up for church smacks against the primitive simplicity that was the sustaining hallmark of the early church. The first-century Christians did not 'dress up' to attend church meetings. They met in the simplicity of living rooms. They did not dress to exhibit social class. In fact, the early Christians made concrete efforts to show their absolute disdain for social class distinctions."
(This last claim is footnoted. Apparently, this absolute disdain was displayed through "drop[ing] their general family name, which indicated their social status. They also called one another 'brother' and 'sister.'" Man- freakin' class warriors, those first-century Christians...)
Why quote this section? Do I think we should "dress up" for church? Well, if you call jeans, a button up shirt (I learned the hard way -the lapel mic looks very goofy clipped on t-shirts), sneakers and about half the time a ball-cap dressing up, then I guess I dress up.
No- I don't think there's much to dressing up for church and I really don't think much of clerical robes and such.
But the whole picture that's being pushed here is just silly.
Robbymac has read more books by Frank Viola than I... and so has seen that what I've seen in Pagan Christianity? is really a pattern that's discernible across a number of Viola's works...
And because it made me laugh and laugh, I'm just going to go ahead right now and nominate this post by Robbymac as the best response to Pagan Christianity? yet written.
More non-Pagan Christianity? news...
from Tony Jones' new book The New Christians:
"The second characteristic of emergents is a high- if tortured- desire for inclusion. In interviews, similar comments were repeated in all eight churches: 'openness,' 'nonjudgmental,' 'wherever you are on the journey,' 'inclusive.' But they were quick to point out that this doesn't necessarily mean liberal or relativistic. One emergent stated 'Just because our church is open to various viewpoints doesn't mean that anythng goes. We really believe things. We just also really believe that we might be wrong.' This is a tricky middle path between the certainties of evangelicalism and the openness of liberalism, and the jury is out as to whether this middle ground is really a tenable place to stand."
I appreciated that last line more than just about anything I've read from "emerging church" literature recently. We talk the game of a "chastened epistemology" pretty well, but when it comes down to it, we tend to proclaim things just as certainly as those in the church structures/paradigms we're trying to move away from.
So, to hear someone like Tony say (in effect) "Were trying to plot a middle course and it may not work" is really refreshing to me. It's putting that particular value into action where it really counts- not just telling others not to be so sure of themselves and their projects, but admitting: What we're trying to build might not hold.
The fault lines have begun to show between the "emergent" and "emerging/missional" camps... Issues of universalism (which really deals with the issue of "to what END are we "missional?" and the place of evangelism in our communities) and how we think of homosexuality ("Welcoming but not affirming" vs "Welcoming AND affirming"), among others are already showing the even within this "third way" kind of movement, there are and may always be left/right polarities.
In chapter five of "Pagan Christianity?" Viola takes on the "Pastor."
Oh, Frank...
"So prevailing is the pastor in the minds of most Christians that he is often better known, more highly praised and more heavily relied upon than Jesus Himself."
When I was in College, I can remember being around some folks, and in the midst of our conversation, apparently I made a number of derogatory remarks about myself and men in general. After maybe one too many remarks from me like that, one guy looked at me and asked "Man... What did she do to you? Must have been something bad..."
Halfway through this book I'm starting to wonder who the pastor was that hurt Frank Viola so badly...
The main thesis of this chapter is: "There is not a single verse in the entire New Testament that supports
the existence of the modern-day pastor! He simply did not exist in the
early church."
So where did we get pastors?
Glad you asked.
In chapter five of "Pagan Christianity?" Viola takes on the "sermon." And again, here is probably where we are closest. I've written a lot about recovering interactivity and dialogue in sermon. We try to do this weekly-
sometimes more, sometimes less. But we always try to do what the people did in Nehemiah: "So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading."-Neh 8:8
Our elders try to do what Paul instructs in 1 Tim 4:13: and "devote [ourselves] to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching."
We follow Paul's example and use dialogue (Acts 20:7- the word for talk there is "dialogue"), but we try to avoid his example and speak for so long that people actually die (Acts 20:9).
We generally follow the New Testament pattern of "one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation God has given..." (1 Cor 14:26)
I'm not going to work through all of Viola's assertions in this chapter- some are good, some seem silly (like calling the sermon "unscriptural"- again, I know he says he MEANS extra-biblical... but does he not realize how the vast majority of people read this??? Unbiblical= wrong= sin), but I will say this:
We all know they exist, right?
It's been interesting over the years to hear and read Mark Driscoll's side of his "break" with the Leadership Network group that would later become Emergent Village. He's always stated that he walked away from the whole thing over theological differences.
I have heard the other side of that story from numerous mouths who were also there and knew that there was discomfort on both sides- and that, in fact, the rest of the group felt...
Well, I guess you'll just have to read Tony Jones' new book The New Christians to get the rest of that story :)
Yeah, I know... I'm mean. So sue me.
| |
And now, in non-Pagan Christianity news...
I'm really enjoying Tony Jones' new book The New Christians. I had a bit of trepidation on picking this up- I wasn't sure if I'd get treated to another late 90's, early 2000's version of "Here's what the post-modern shift is all about!" And while there are elements of that here, it's really the next stage in that discussion- describing the Left-Right polarity in America ad in Western Christianity and how emerging church folk are trying to work past that:
"So these two boxers, "Liberal" and "Conservative," tired, bedraggled and lacking enough power to land any more punches, come back to the center of the ring for the next round of their eternal match, and they can do little more than grasp at each other, wrap each other up. There's a lot of clutching and grabbing, and an occasional shouting match on Larry King Live, or Hardball with Chris Matthews. The referee can't separate them, and neither of them has enough strength to land the winning blow. But they keep fighting.
Meanwhile, a generation of Christians aren't even boxing anymore. They're flying kites. They've entered an entirely different conception of what game we're really playing. They've opted out of the boxing match between liberal and conservative. They're finding a third way between the bipolar strife that has racked our churches and our society."
It's good writing, some good storytelling and some good challenges to those on both sides of the Left/Right spectrum, followed by discussions of theology, post-objectivity and truth.
The only thing that bothers me (and Tony and I have been around this bush before, so I won't go into it too much) is that with this book all vestiges of "emerging" are gone. It's now "Emergents," "Emergent Christianity" and "Emergent Church."
I've often thought that a too-strong tie between Emergent Village (the organization) and the emerging church (the overall movement) was a net-negative in that it made a small group of folks the de-facto spokespeople for us all, and subjected everyone who wanted to be along for the ride to endless confusion between EV and everyone else and between what we actually thought and what critics thought Brian McLaren (and others) thought.
Whew.
My hope was that Emergent Village would change their name, or at least settle for talking about the "emerging church" so as to avoid the appearance of branding, but...
Anyway- it seems like a really engaging book, one that I'm looking forward to working through.
I think you should check it out.
... on Pagan Christianity?
(I'm linking to the reviews that are similar in conclusion to mine, mainly to counter the idea that "some", namely me, are taking statements out of context, twisting Frank's words, etc.)
This is a seriously good review by Trevin Wax: "Pagan Christianity, if taken seriously by many Christians, will not lead to a renewal of the church, but to ecclesial amputation - as more and more disenchanted church members abandon their church families in order to seek after the “pure church” of the first century. They will keep chasing the pot at the end of the rainbow, only to find it eludes them because it doesn’t exist."
iMonk makes me laugh: "The sermon is pagan. The book that tells you the sermon is pagan is not. No one should be the designated song leader. Instead, whoever is
rude, loud and mentally ill should be allowed to lead. Do not
discourage them, as this is hierarchical and pagan.
Restrooms are pagan. Do not use them.
Church should have no hierarchy at all. Please invite me to your conference where I won’t say this, or anything else.
All routine in worship is wrong. In fact, follow the following suggestions to be truly Christian:
Bill Kinnon gives "a response to Frank's writing style. He writes as a "true believer." The house church movement is the "right way" to do church and everything else is the wrong way. Let me be blunt. I find the writing style grating and arrogant. And even after losing my affection for the megachurch world a number of years ago, I still found Frank's style off-putting. That style is alive and well in PC."
Joe Thorn here, here and here (This is awesome: "I do not want to dismiss the authors’ concerns, but it’s hard for me to take them seriously when they so grossly overstate things.Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy provocative books. I want others to challenge me and force me to re-think my practices and beliefs. The problem for me is that the book reads more like an ecclesiological version of the Loose Change conspiracy theories concerning the 9/11 attack. A lot of information is collected, assumptions are made, and in the end the final interpretation of history is simply wrong. Not only does their attempt to uncover the truth fail, but more importantly I fear their legit concerns will be ignored by many while others will read the book as gospel because it presents itself as unquestionable history with Barna’s research seal of approval.")
Len Hjalmerson says in the comments to this post: "In the
end, I wish this book would go away. No disrespect to Frank, George,
yourself and endorsers, some of whom I know and love. I’m not convinced
that polemic is all that helpful within this conversation around the
gospel and culture. I would rather have careful and respectful
dialogue. I fear that the approach Frank and George have taken, broad
and sweeping statements.. will only create bad feelings and division."
Darryl Dash: "Barna and Viola have raised some valid issues. Some dynamics of church
life that should be present often aren't. We need to take these
seriously. But they don't make their case, and their conclusion
ultimately falls short. There is room for all kinds of churches,
including the institutional. What matters more than structure is the
life contained within, and that can come only from God- who, it seems,
is more than willing to give us that life."
Okay- I thought the next two chapters of "Pagan Christianity?" would be ones I could wholeheartedly get behind, being as they are, critiques of the evangelical order of worship and sermon- two things that Evergreen does fairly differently than your standard evergreen church (see here for a run down on a typical evergreen morning)
But, alas... twas not to be.
Chapter three is a fairly long treatise on the origins of the "order of worship." You know,
Hymns/singing
Scripture Reading
Choir music
Pastoral prayer
Sermon
Prayer
Offering
Benediction.
Viola takes offense at this. "You can scour the Bible from beginning to end, and you will never find anything that remotely resembles our order of worship. This is because the first-century Christians knew no such thing" (pg 50)
You know, the further I get in this book, the more Viola sounds like someone who buys the Regulative Principle. He says he doesn't, but to be honest, he sure talks like he does.
Let's get into the main parts of "Pagan Christianity?," starting with chpt 3: The Church Building.
Here, Viola does have some good things to say, and some challenges, particularly as regards how much is spent on buildings and structures by the Church in the West. But as is quickly being seen here as SOP (standard operating procedure) he buries all the good points he makes under an almost intolerable load of garbage- overstatements, mis-implications and outright non sequiturs.
A number of people have commented here and elsewhere, that you have to look past the "overstatements" in "Pagan Christianity" and once you do that, there really are some good ideas in the book.
Well...
I'm certainly going to try. No, really!
But here's the thing.
What if the whole premise of the book is not just an "overstatement"... but a kind of big, huge, whopping over-reach of such grand proportions and sheer arrogance that whatever good is said later is completely eclipsed by the magnitude and complete nerve it takes to open one's mouth (or type on one's keyboard) and make such an Al-Gorsian I-Invented-The-Internet kind of statement?
You know... what if?
Before we go chapter-by-chapter, I just wanted to deal with a couple of key statements.
The first is arguably the central tenet, the supporting pillar of the whole book. It's found on page xx of the intro, written by Frank Viola, and it says this:
"We are also making an outrageous proposal: that the church in its contemporary, institutional form has neither a biblical nor a historical right to exist."
Again, I'll give you a moment to go back and read that again. Slowly.
Okay- got it?
1st Baptist down the street? Illegitimate.
Willow Creek? Saddleback? Illegitimate.
Mars Hill (pick one)? No right to exist.
Okay, everybody... shut 'em down!
Seriously- party's over. We're done here.
Please do as Frank has done and leave "the institutional church to begin gathering with Christians in the New Testament fashion..."
Can someone call Rick and Bill and let them know? And you better break the news to Mark Driscoll. This is really gonna hit him hard.
Viola is absolutely correct about one thing, though. This is an "outrageous" statement.
("Outrageous - greatly exceeding bounds of reason or moderation")
So far beyond the pale is this central tenet of the book that I have trouble taking the rest seriously- even on the parts where I might agree.
And the whole book seems BUILT on silly, misguided ideas like this and like "Nothing so hinders the fulfillment of God's eternal purpose as does the present-day pastoral role."
Really?
"Nothing"?
NOTHING?
So... ME. I'm doing more to hinder God's purpose in the world than say... sin, than Satan, than brokenness and selfishness and all the other crap out there.
Little old me?
Like I said before- Whoa.
I'm trying to think about how best to blog on Viola and Barna's new book "Pagan Christianity."
I say that because I had a feeling this book would "disturb" me, and so far, it has accomplished exactly that.
And what really gets me is that is exactly the author's (at least, Viola's) intention. That's what I take from the following breathless prose: "We now invite you to walk with us on an untrodden path. It is a terrifying journey where you will be forced to ask questionsthat probably have never entered your conscious thoughts. Tough questions. Nagging questions. Even frightening questions. And you will be faced squarely with disturbing answers. Yet those answers will lead you face-to-face with some of the richest truths a Christian can discover...
However, if you choose to "take the red pill" and be shown "how deep the rabbit hole goes"... if you want to learn the true story of where your Christian practices come from... if you are willing to have the curtain pulled back on teh contemporary church and its traditional presuppositions fiercely challenged... then you will find this work to be disturbing, enlightening and possibly life changing."
In the words of Neo...
Whoa.
Of course, I don't think I'm disturbed like Frank wanted me disturbed, but we'll talk more about that later.
Let's rewind.
"Ironically, having set out to transform culture, both liberal and conservative forms of Christianity in North America today find themselves transformed by late-capitalist, liberal-individualist culture during the last century. It is little more than empty rhetoric, then, for liberals and conservatives to claim to be transforming culture and to accuse those who reject the Christ transforming culture model as irresponsible and irrelevant. What could be more irrelevant than Christian leaders who beg the government to pass laws to coerce their own church members into caring for the poor or refusing the abortion temptation, when those Christian leaders cannot convince their own flocks to do these things on the basis of the Bible? There is a glaring parallel between liberal Christians lobbying the government to tax the capitalists in their own flocks and redistribute the money to the poor, on one hand, and conservative Christians lobbying the government to outlaw abortion, so members of their own flock will not have it as an option. No wonder politicians often have so little respect for religious lobbyists."
-Craig A. Carter, Rethinking Christ and Culture
"But no matter how we write the history, we must face that we live in a society whose intellectual elites are united in little except a common conviction that Christianity is intolerant and backward and, therefore, represents a barrier to social progress. Privatized Christianity can be tolerated, but Christianity must be banished from the public square, except when trotted out as part of a civil religion designed to rally the citizens in time of war.
The Christianity against which they have reacted, of course, is the Christianity of Christendom: the Christianity of ruling elites and state churches, the Christianity of violent coercion and intolerance, the Christianity of power and privilege, the Christianity of racism, patriarchy and colonialism, the Christianity of the Inquisition and the Holocaust. Christendom Christianity is weighed down with so much cultural baggage that it could not, under present conditions, become dominant in Western culture again without being perceived as a tool of totalitarianism.
But the gospel of Jesus Christ is not Christendom Christianity. The gospel is good news for the poor. The gospel is countercultural, nonviolent and subversive of empire. The gospel empowers women, teaches the equality of all and identifies with Jews as brothers and sisters The gospel works by persuasion, tolerates rejection, and respects even those who do not listen. The gospel creates genuine community out of those who, humanly speaking, have little in common. The gospel is of no use to most political rulers because it outlaws violence and renounces greed. The gospel identifies with no culture exclusively but is embraced by individuals and minority group in every culture all over the world. The gospel has never disappeared through the long centuries of Christendom, despite everything."
-Craig A. Carter, Rethinking Christ and Culture
Dustin congratulated me on my chapter in Out of the Ooze, commenting "Congrats! I mean, it's not "The Relevant Church" but it's pretty cool." The Relevant Church of course is that volume with contributions from the likes of Mark Driscoll, Karen Ward and of course, our own Dustin Bagby, lovingly referred to therein as "the Rock Star."
Well...
No, it's not The Relevant Church, but then again, did the Relevant Church ever win a Major Award?
Because another book I wrote a chapter for won a major award. And no... it's not a Lamp. :)
I wrote a chapter for the experimental Voices of the Virtual World. And it (the book as a whole, not just my bit) has now won a Society for New Communications Research Award of Merit. From the press release:
The Society honors innovative individuals, corporations, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions and media outlets that are pioneering the use of social media, ICT, mobile media, online communities, virtual worlds and collaborative technologies in the areas of media, marketing, public relations, advertising, entertainment, education, politics and social initiatives. The award winners were announced at the Society’s awards gala at the Colonnade Hotel in Boston, Mass on December 5th, 2007.
Very cool. If you haven’t already, you can purchase the book here. All proceeds from the sale of the book go to the Not For Sale campaign.
I have a chapter in the just published “Out of the Ooze- Unlikely Love Letters to the Church From Beyond the Pew”, a collection of articles from The Ooze. It's my essay "Just Who Is Emergent Anyway?" written a couple of years ago in response to many who were jumping on the "Let's light some candles and call it Emerging!!!" bandwagon.
The book is divided into sections: Awakening, Rethinking, Experiencing, Wondering and Responding. Other authors include Andrew Jones, Bill Dahl, Frank Viola, Peter Walker, Lan Hjalmerson, Alan Hartung, John O’Keefe, Spencer Burke, Lisa DeLay and Sarah Raymond Cunningham. Spencer is the general editor and I'm truly impressed and grateful that he'd want my contribution, even after the fisking I gave him over "Heretic's Guide to Eternity."
A blurb from Alan Hirsch, author of The Forgotten Ways:
“Out of the Ooze is a collection of the writings from various exiles, mystics, poets, and dreamers of the postmodern church. As such, it gives eloquent voice to the rich litany of interests and concerns of a generation. Eclectic, edgy, intelligent, and generative, this is a book that will help the reader better understand the ardent search for a place to stand that so characterizes the Western church in our time.”
Check it out here
"Prayer is the application of the heart to God, and the internal exercise of love."
- Madame Guyon
For those interested in something a bit different than today's Prayer of Jabez/How to Have Your Best Life Now manuals or wanting to read a primer on contemplative prayer, this book is a great place to start.
This is a new reprint- a "Special Journal Edition" with plenty of blank pages and places to record thoughts on Madame Guyon's ideas on the stages of prayer. Not a long read, but much to chew on, think over, put into practice and make a part of one's prayer vocabulary.
"If any will pursue the little path I have pointed out, it will lead them to intuitive prayer. God demands nothing extraordinary nor difficult; on the contrary, He is best pleased by a simple and child-like conduct.
That which is most sublime and elevated in religion is most easily attained: the most necessary Sacraments are the least difficult. It is thus also in natural things: if you would go to sea, embark on a river, and you will be conveyed to it insensibly and without exertion. Would you go to God, follow this sweet and simple path, and you will arrive at the desired object, with an ease and expedition that will amaze you."
Check it out:
"Here's why I'm telling you this: taskmasters are masters of half-truth. They couch their harangue in just enough reality that the whole thing has the ring of authenticity. It's true, in part what they say: there is no end of things to do. I am a touch on the lazy side and disguise this with busyness. There is a crowd of people disappointed with me, who find me, by turn, indecisive, despotic, timid, rash, evasive, blunt, foolhardy, wise in my own eyes, foot-dragging, impulsive. I do procrastinate overmuch and at the same time make too many snap decisions. Most of my life is unfinished. Many of my efforts are slapdash and slipshod.
It's true.
So? The lie mixed in here is that, because it's true, I have no right to rest.
And actually, that's true too. I have no right to a lot of things: my health, my home, my family, my salvation. May as well add rest to the list.
But thank God that God could care less about our rights. What God cares about, and deeply, is our needs. And it's this simple: you and I have an inescapable need for rest.
The lie the taskmasters want you to swallow is that you cannot rest until your work's all done, and done better than you are currently doing it. But the truth is, the work's never done, and never done right. It's always more than you could finish and less than you had hoped for.
So what? Get this straight: the rest of God- the rest God gladly gives so that we might discover that part of God we're missing- is not a reward for finishing. It's not a bonus for work well done.
It's a sheer gift. It is a stop-work order in the midst of work that's never complete, never polished. Sabbath is not the break we're allotted at the tail end of completing all our tasks and chores, the fulfillment of all our obligations. It's the rest we take smack-dab in the middle of them, without apology, without guilt, and for no better reason than God told us we could."
-Mark Buchanan, The Rest of God
"Why does church matter? Because 'church' names the people of God who make known God's love for the world in Jesus Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit....
First, I am convinced, with many others, that the good news of Jesus Christ is fundamentally not a new set of ideas or system of belief but the grace of God made known in human lives. The church is the body of people who believe the good news and are chosen by God to bear witness to it. The church's witness bearing is testimony not to its own life but to God's grace in its life. Since that grace is the good news of Jesus Christ, it bears witness to the entire history of Christ's coming, including his continuing work through the Holy Spirit in the power of the resurrection. That grace of the gospel is both judgment and redemption. The judgment of grace reveals our sin, so that we may confess, repent and be forgiven. The redemption of grace is the transformation of our lives into a new people. Thus, the good news to which the church is called as witness is fundamentally a way of life. It must be 'acted out'; it must be practiced."
- Jonathan R. Wilson, Why Church Matters: Worship, Ministry, and Mission in Practice
"The reality TV fad exemplifies this merging of entertainment and real life. News organizations
once provided thoughtful commentary
so they could make informed choices, but today, real-life tragedies and the mundane failures and heartaches of ordinary people are hyped like new movie releases, complete with special effects. The normal human response to a person in need is to help, but that is not the case in an entertainment culture. Actor George Clooney observes, "People's misery becoming entertainment, that's what's dangerous. And that seems to be the place we're going." Humans sit in front of television sets, passively watching human misery unfold, while just outside their door, a real person faces the same problem and there is no one to help them because we're all preoccupied with our favorite characters on reality TV.
When diversion becomes a way of lfe, we avoid the very issues to which we should be most attentive. We are diverted from the grim, unpleasant truth that our lives lack meaning without God, that consumption does not satisfy, that the differential between wealth and poverty is unjust, that our neighbor is in need, and that the appropriate human response to people in need is sleeves-rolled-up service, not simply watching."
-Dick Staub, The Culturally Savvy Christian
"The second conviction was that my primary pastoral work had to do with Scripture and prayer. I was neither capable nor competent to form Christ in another person, to shape a life of discipleship in man, woman, or child. That is supernatural work and I am not supernatural. Mine was the more modest work of Scripture and prayer- helping people listen to God speak to them from the Scriptures and then joining them in answering God as personally and honestly as we could in lives of prayer. This turned out to be slow work. From time to time, impatient with the slowness, I would try out ways of going about my work that promised quicker results. But after a while it always seemed to be more like meddling in these people's lives than helping them attend to God.
More often than not I found myself getting in the way of what the Holy Spirit had been doing long before I arrived on the scene, so I would go back, feeling a bit chastened, to my proper work: Scripture and prayer; prayer and Scripture. But the and is misleading. Scripture and prayer are not two separate entities. My pastoral work was to fuse them into a single act: scriptureprayer, or prayerscripture. It is this fusion of God speaking to us (Scripture) and our speaking to Him (prayer) that the Holy Spirit uses to form the life of Christ in us...
A few years after writing A Long Obedience I noticed that a lot of people were talking and writing about "spirituality." I thought I knew what they were doing and was delighted that so many allies were showing up in unexpected places. But it turned out that I was wrong. I had read my own convictions into their interests. I thought they were interested in living the life of Christ first hand; I thought they were interested in Scripture and prayer, the most accessible means provided to us for cultivating that life and maturing in it. By and large they were not. The torrent of "spiritualities" that continues both within and without Christian communities, apparently without letup, has little liking for either "long" or "slow."
...[M]en and women who believingly follow Jesus Jesus (what we commonly call "the Christian life" or "Christian spirituality") are best guided and energized by a fusion of Scripture and prayer. For as long as an enthusiasm for Christian "spirituality" accelerates without an equivalent commitment to its means, nothing much is going to come of it. There is virtual unanimity among our Christian ancestors that the means consists precisely in this fusion of Scripture and prayer."
-Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction
In David Allen's very awesome Ready For Anything:
"Fortunate indeed is the man who takes exactly the right measure of himself and holds a just balance between what he can acquire and what he can use." -Peter Mere Latham
I received for review and started a few days ago Ron Martoia's latest book, Static: Tune Out the "Christian Noise" and Experience the Real Message of Jesus
I'm just a couple chapters in, but digging it- the basic premise is that the way we talk about Jesus and our reductionistic take on the Gospel hinders greatly the spread of the real good news.
I think this book followed by McLaren's More Ready Than You Realize
iMonk has done a thorough and thoughtful job of reviewing the book, so rather than spend a lot of time giving you my take, I'll point you to his.
He says "Books that translate the insights of N.T. Wright into the language of non-scholars are proliferating. Ron Martoia’s Static joins that conversation with one of the most readable books you’ll find on the intersection of recent New Testament backgrounds, the meaning of key Biblical concepts and the missional, evangelistic ministry of Christians in a world where fewer and fewer westerners are listening to the claims of Christianity at all.
For someone not aware that there is a serious conversation going on about how to “re-lexicon” and “re-vocalize” the Christian vocabulary, Martoia may sound like heresy 101. For those who know that the work of Wright and other contemporary scholars is exposing the weaknesses in contemporary popular understandings of key Biblical concepts, Martoia won’t be saying a lot new, but he says it very well. In fact, as a beginning book for a person ready to move into some fairly radical examinations of the way we describe Christianity, Static is excellent."
And Bob says it's worth checking out :)
"Sometimes we focus so much on building a 'healthy church' that we forget to tend to the health of people." - Joe Myers, Organic Community
In the short, 3 year history of our little pub church, I've put only two books in the hands of our elders (I need to do more of this, but...). They were Men and Women in the Church by Sarah Sumner and Doug Pagitt's Reimagining Spiritual Formation (now retitled Reimagining Church). After diving into this last night I think I found the third.
Yesterday I received for review and already read about half of Joe Myers' Organic Community: Creating a Place Where People Naturally Connect 
nothing less than a complete paradigm shift for me in the way that I viewed community and relationships both inside and outside of the church. So... I've been looking forward to this one for awhile.
"When planning for organic community, the question that will move us forward is 'What are we hoping for?' not 'Where are we headed?'"- Joe Myers
I won't get too deep into the book in this post, other than to highly recommend it. I started it last night and am already half-way through, and while not the monster mind-blower of his last one (though it may yet prove to be so) I am already thankful for the thinking it has stirred up in me. I feel like books that prompt me not only to hear and absorb what the author is saying, but prove to be a catalyst for further thought about my community, my ministry are few and far between (at least for me, in this stage of life) so when they come along, I like to recommend them.
A big part of the reason I want to get this into the hands of my elders is that in the early years of evergreen, I was the one pushing/describing/imagining what "organic! non-programmatic!" ministry could be. We had a lot of talks about that as we moved from church of the mind to church of reality. But over the last couple of years, as we've grown, our discussions, both as a community and as elders have tended towards the more practical, less theoretical issues of people and decision-making and the day to day ins and outs of community life. It's been a while since we circled back and focused again on the theoretical underpinnings of simple, organic community. It's probably time, and I think this book will be an excellent catalyst for it.
Myers is a great apologist for the way we are doing church, and what he's advocating, though certainly more easily appropriated in a smaller setting, isn't just for small churches. What he's talking about will push you towards some ways of doing things and away from others, but as with his last book, everyone from big church people to house church people would do well to wrap their heads around what organic ministry means.
His chapter on Participation and how and why people choose to participate is alone worth the price of admission for this book. He details where most "recruiting" in church goes wrong, why people resist it, and the real question you need to be prepared to answer when inviting people to participate in something.
There's a lot of thought that's stirring in me through this and I'll post more soon (I really need to STOP saying that and start doing it, I know...)
Check it out- it's cheap on Amazon- only $11
The IMonk has posted a good interaction with John MacArthur's new book on the emerging church.
An excerpt:
"When he is expounding scripture, Dr. Macarthur is at his strongest. This book contains an excellent study of portions of the book of Jude. Those familiar with Dr. Macarthur’s skill as an expositor and his strong commitment to stay close to the message of scripture will be pleased with this book. Dr. Macarthur does mention that he has covered the Biblical material elsewhere, but this book is more pointed towards the issues of postmodernism, relativism and the emerging church.When Dr. Macarthur leaves his specialty of exposition, he is a different writer, one far less commendable...
The emerging church is the main target of Macarthur’s polemic. Throughout the book, Macarthur returns to examples of the extreme truth-rejecting, certainty-denying tendencies of the emerging church. Of course, for Macarthur, the emerging church is an entity much like a denomination. Brian Mclaren- the major recipient of critical condemnation in this book- is the epitome of the emerging church, but it is just as well defined by a reference to Rob Bell, a second hand description of Mark “the Cussing Preacher” Driscoll and the outrageous definiton of preaching cited from Doug Padgett (sic).
Anyone who knows the emergent church knows that none of these four persons represents anything close to the entirety of “the emerging church.” While Mclaren is an easy- and deserving- target, it appears that almost nothing is known of Driscoll except Don Miller’s description of him, a description Driscoll has commented on at length in an interview with Michael Horton, and if anything is known of Padgett (sic) or Bell beyond what one could read at Ken Silva’s website, it’s not obvious here. The research level in the book seems deficient for a serious study...
I am not in any way writing to defend what Dr. Macarthur condemns. I am not a spokesperson for the emerging church, though apparently that perception is why I received a copy of the book. Many of those persons he mentions deserve to be criticized and questioned. But many also deserve to be heard more carefully and understood better. The research here is not up to the levels of even modest academic examination of the influence of postmodernism or the truth about the emerging, missional conversation in all its expressions."
As I watch the whole thing from well-within the emerging church I become more and more disappointed with this kind of critique, of which MacArthur's book is only the latest... because at a certain point I begin to wonder when "research [that is] is not up to the levels of even modest academic examination" becomes "bearing false witness." I've seen a lot of people less influential and respected than MacArthur do just that, and now?
But the broad brush is easiest, and labeling someone "outside the truth" guarantees book sales. I mean, who's going to buy the "I generally like them but have a few concerns" potboiler? But plenty of people will line up to hear about the next group that's driving evangelicalism into the ditch- mostly because they seem to like hearing about people driving evangelicalism into a ditch. It's a genre now, with it's own built-in constintuency and that pretty much guarantees more of the same from the publishers.
Only problem is when you feed people a consistent diet of that kind of red meat, eventually they start looking at you with hungry eyes as well. Train people to look for, point out, and divide over every doctrinal difference and eventually you'll say something that will have them turning on you.
It's sad that there are now people who will refuse to buy John MacArthur's book on postmodernism/the emerging church and who seem to be ready to throw him under the bus because of his views/comments on eschatology. Sad... and appropriate (in a Gal 5:15 kind of way...)
There have been a few books on "Finding Jesus in the Movies" and such... but to my knowledge (and you can all tell me I'm wrong), none if any have been written by someone like Jeffrey Overstreet, someone who makes a living from his love of film.
Overstreet has written a book called Through a Screen Darkly
Eugene Peterson wrote a blurb for the back:
"While visiting the dark caves of movie theaters, Jeffrey gives articulate witness to what I too often miss in those caves- the countours of God's creation and the language of Christ's salvation. In these theaters, assumed by many to be unholy temples in a wasteland of secularism, he writes what he sees and hears. I find him a delightful and most percipient companion."
Also from the back cover:
"Jeffrey Overstreet, film enthusiast and movie reviewer, takes readers on a journey that spans the globe. From a desert scene in Mongolia to a galaxy far, far away, you'll explore the power of cinematic journeys to introduce life-changing new insights. While visiting the angels of Wings of Desire and the inquisitive British newcomers of The New World, he'll show you how different characters, different worldviews and different experiences offer pieces of a larger truth. Examining methods and styles employed by Martin Scorsese, Tony Scott, Paul Thomas Anderson, Akira Kurosawa and Krzysztof Kieslowski, he highlights the ways in which art and entertainment can both harm and heal. You'll find excerpts from his conversations with directors Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose), Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire) and Patrice Leconte (The Widow of St. Pierre), and producer Ralph Winter (the X-Men series). What makes some films timeless rather than merely popular has everything to do with the way these artists--whether they know it or not--have captured reflections of God in their work.Through a Screen Darkly also includes a collection of recommendations for movie discussion groups, links to frequently updated resources for moviegoers, and meditations on how different films echo the ways in which Christ captured the attention and imagination of culture. You may be surprised by Overstreet's revealing encounters with moviegoers and critics in both mainstream and religious circles. He challenges traditional Christian ideas about art, and coaxes the curious toward bold, rewarding engagement with contemporary cinema. "
If you are at all interested in film, or want to explore doing movie groups as a way to build friendships, but the "discussion" part intimidates you, this looks to be a great resource...
If you are reading this, then perhaps The Blogging Church
However, chances are, this might be just the book for someone, or a number of someones, you know.
It was a supreme act of will on my part to get my good friend John Johnson to begin blogging. In addition to being the senior pastor of a big church here in town, and a professor of Pastoral Theology at Western, John is also the head of the DMin program which I hope someday to complete. I felt like he wasn't doing enough, so I pestered him until he started a blog. And while he doesn't update it nearly enough, when he has something to say, it's some good stuff.
Anyway, you probably know someone like John who has a great mind, great thoughts, but not enough people get to appreciate them, because the whole idea of blogging seems a bit faddish, or too technical, or whatever. Maybe you've felt like your church community would benefit from a community blog, or having more of the staff enter the blog-o-sphere. Or maybe you'd just like to see what fun would ensue if your senior pastor tried his/her hand at blogging...
Well, here's the book to give 'em.
I was a bit skeptical at first when this was sent to me- seemed a bit like a bandwagon book. But in reading through this, it's actually a nice mix of a philosophy of blogging, interviews with prominant ministry-types who blog, and good technical tips and tricks for getting up and running as well as doing it right/avoiding common mistakes.
I even picked up a couple of tips here and there, and I consider myself at least somewhat facile out and about on the interwebs.
So- if you are looking for an on-ramp, for yourself or for someone else, to the whole blogging thing, this would be a good place to start, I think...
The book also has a good section on podcasting and a really well-done index in the back (e.g. "RSS- being a responsible reader of, 131-134")
Here's an interesting book... (full disclosure: I was sent this for review)
This is one, that on the face of it, I didn't have much interest in. It seemed to be the standard evangelical publishing "Christian life" book. I put it on the stack and just got to it this morning.
But...
The first thing I noticed when I picked it up is that this guy can write. I don't know much about the author, Mark Buchanan, but one thing he did let slip is that he got his start as a fiction writer- and it shows. He know how to put together a sentence, a paragraph, a page. I thought I would skim, but I found myself reading. That's one point.
Within a page or two, a book I thought I probably wouldn't keep started to mentally work its way onto my shelf. That's two points.
And then a book that I thought would sit on my shelf until a later time, started to work its way from the shelf, down next to my reading chair for some morning reading time. That's three.
Hmmm.
At first, as I said, this book looks pretty non-descript. And here I have to lay blame on the publishers... neither the cover shown on Amazon, nor the better cover on the copy I have really convey either what the book is about or really anything that might grab my interest. The title "Hidden in Plain Sight," makes sense when you read the book, but the sub-title "Seven Old Things That Can Make Your Life New," turns me off more than it turns me on... I'm sure the publishers have test-marketed and focused grouped this and there's probably a sub-section of the church going public who will love it as-is, but...
Anyway, what looks at first to be a pretty normal kind of "live the Christian life to the Full!" book seems to actually be something different. A discussion of seven virtues found in the Petrine Epistles, their resonance and place in the Christians life, interspersed with writing on the life of Peter, juxtaposing what we know about Peter from the Gospels and Acts with what he writes later in life.
"The Spirit of Jesus, the one who rescued us, lives in those who embrace Him. By His Spirit we are made new. But that Spirit does not work out of thin air. He does not conjure newness and wholeness out of mere wishful thinking or stern lecturing. God is a God of means, and one of the chief means He uses are disciplines we embrace and practice. We walk a path of fellowship and worship, humility and attentiveness. We soak ourselves in the Word, ground ourselves in prayer, place ourselves in community. The Spirit takes these things, meagre as they are, and works miracles from them. He receives our few loaves and fishes and multiplies them a thousand-fold. But first we bring our loaves and fishes. This book is about bringing those loaves and fishes- seven, to be exact. It's about seven God-given disciplines so the Spirit can multiply our small effort into more than we can ak or imagine. It's about seven seeds we plant and cultivate so the spirit can bear much fruit in us and through us. It's about seven gifts the bride brings to her dowry and then the Bridegroom uses to perfect her. It's about seven virtues."
As I say, I thought this might sit on my shelf until I was ready to preach through 1st and/or 2nd Peter. Now I'm thinking I'd like to read this...
Even more, I'm thinking of a number of people I might give this book to- those people who are on the middle lane spiritually- definitely past the beginning stuff, needing something a bit meatier to chew on, but who may not make it through something like Willard. I love that he grounds this in a journey through some biblical books as well...
Check it out: Hidden in Plain Sight: The Secret of More
Ok... so I just received (full disclosure-for review) the perfect pastor's Valentines gift. That is, perfect whether you are the pastor giving it or receiving it.
What could it be, you ask?
It's My Lover Is Mine: Words And Images Inspired by the Ancient Love Poetry of Solomon
Words directly from Scripture? Sensual (yet not explicit or prurient) artwork/images? This is a book a pastor can feel downright good about giving as a Valentines (or anniversary, or "just because" gift) to his or her spouse and rest in the knowledge that
1. It will increase their knowledge of Scripture (well, one book of it, at least)
and
2. It will increase their knowledge of each other (in the...uh... "biblical" sense)
And okay, it's probably good for other bible-interested lovers besides just pastors, as well :)
Check it out (Valentine's Day is coming soon!):
"As a result of what is too often the large gap between words and actions, some have become extremely suspicious of whether there is even a link between the words Christian and spirituality. In engaging with those who call themselves Christians, they observe hollow and superficial ideologies and practical lives that fail to reflect the face of Christ. A lamentable lack of the reality of love, of authenticity, and the "real" become reasons for avoiding all things and people labeled Christian. This skeptical and increasingly cynical audience still seeks after spirituality, but it begins to abandon any conception of the compatibility of Christian and spirituality.
The more a church functions as an institution preaching its own survival, the less opportunity there is for people to hear the gospel, to experience community life, or to find a loving spiritual home. Entertainment may be there, and the double negative: all or none of the answers to life's important questions could be there, but the reality of holistic, interactive and interpretive living spirituality is acutely absent. Cold, mechanical, forced religiosity or warm, fuzzy superficiality will rightly bring forth suspicion, apathy, ad rejection by those who have valid concerns about what is authentic and true.
Even as Christians today desperately strive for the authentic, they have never been so captured by that which is inauthentic. Thwarted by "shopping" and "shuffle" spirituality, cultural materialism, and the syrupy sweetness of comfortable idealism, living spirituality becomes a mirage, and Christian crediblility wanes."
David Allen: Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and Business of Life
Eugene H. Peterson: The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction
Timothy Ferriss: The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
William H. Willimon: Pastor: The Theology and Practice of Ordained Ministry
Shane Hipps: Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith
Brian McLaren: Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices
Eugene H. Peterson: A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society
Discovering Biblical Equality: Complementarity Without Hierarchy
Alan Hirsch: The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church
Joseph R. Myers: The Search to Belong: Rethinking Intimacy, Community, and Small Groups
Michael Frost: The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21 Century Church
William J. Webb: Slaves, Women & Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis
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