Resurrection Life

Through the River: Understanding Your Assumptions About Truth by Jon & Mindy Hiebert with Dr. Paul Hiebert: A Review

I like the way people like Jon and Mindy Hurst work. I appreciate people who can take complicated and misused or abused concepts and place them in a context in which they might be rationally considered, discussed, and enacted. The Hurst's have done this with the hot-button concept of truth in their book Through the River. From Pilate's question to the arrested Jesus, "What is truth?" to our post-modern contemporary skirmishes between individuals and denominations, truth is a concept that often resists the close scrutiny we assume we must have all given it at some point in our lives. The Hurst's have come along with the analogy of River Town and the three populations that represent three distinct ways of looking at the truth. Assumptions that we make about ourselves and others views are the basis for many of the tensions that arise between people. The Hurst's ability to describe the philosophical areas of Positivism, Instrumentalism, and Critical Realism are a great launching point for serious communities to learn to engage each other with love to truly advance the cause of Christ.

I am, of course, concerned that those who most NEED this book will not be the ones who READ this book but one can always pray, right?

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Simple Life: Time, Relationships, Money, God by Thom and Art Rainier: A Review

Simple Life is a big book. That was my first impression. My second was this: those authors must have a sense of humor if they think I have the time to read this book on creating a Simple Life!

The reality is this, something is wrong with how people are living life and the Rainer's (father and son) have not only put their finger on the problem, as many have, but, have even done research into the issue with a strong sample and a margin of error of 2.9%.

Their research showed them four areas that people generally find themselves yearning for something simpler: Time, Relationships, Money, and God. The interesting thing about people who are mired in the morass of busyness is this: what of what they are doing can truly be called bad? Work to provide for family? Sports to stay healthy and active? Schoolwork to get good grades and get into college? These are the very issues that church pastors and leaders bump up against all the time... and your members' level of church involvement is not going to figure large into their future earnings or the school their child is going to get into... so what we are left with is a diagnosis that we hear all the time as church leaders. We're TOO BUSY! So, what to do about it? Yell louder, lay bigger guilt trips? Close up shop?

Well, first thing, get this book... read it. Yes, it is thick; but it reads fast. Even the analogies make sense; I'm sure a couple of them will show up in a future sermon or two.

The authors have four core ideas around which the four areas for simplification circle. The foundational key is to remember that this process is a *journey* and that in itself is a freeing idea!

The first idea is *clarity*. Clarity means we know where we are going. The authors challenge the readers to develop an actual plan, when one follows a plan change results. When we don't the status quo reigns supreme.

The second idea is *movement*. Congestion is bad. A congested sinus will get infected. Congested traffic causes heart attacks. The authors show the readers how to use intentionality and incrementality to knock down the roadblocks to change and simplification. We all know that one big systemic change is way too tiring and scary to attempt and here is a way to get at real change in small, noticeable ways.

The third idea is *alignment*. Lives get out of alignment slowly and usually unnoticeably. Debt doesn't just show up overnight just like my spare tire didn't. You don't get overbusy in one day either. Eliminating some of the GOOD STUFF is key to aligning our lives around what really matters to us!

The final idea is *focus*. Focus means that some things just don't get done no matter how good they are.

The entire book is written about the dash. The dash. You know, that hash mark between your birth and death date that will appear on your grave marker one day? How are you going to live your life in that dash? And, when the sleep of blessed death comes to you one day, how will you be remembered? As one who was overbusy or one who learned how to life a life that mattered, a life that was lived according to why God created us in the first place?

Technorati Tags: Simple Life, Thom Rainer and Art Rainer

The Rise and Fall of the Christian Coalition by Joel Vaughn: A Review

The Rise and Fall of the Christian Coalition by Joel Vaughn is an insider's account of the political machine known as the Christian Coalition. The Coalition experienced a meteoric rise in popularity and power in the 1990's under the leadership of Ralph Reed and Pat Robertson. Vaughn's book is an insider's tale that is great for those who truly enjoy "inside baseball" in the world of politics and the Christian conservative movement.

I found this book to be not only engaging but it is replete with teachable moments in regards to a. anyone thinking of starting a political movement b. anyone who works in the grey areas of church and politics and c. yet another warning to anyone involved in an organization that is personality driven on the necessity for succession planning years in advance.

My two criticisms of this book are that there are numerous typo and editorial gaffes (one being the misspelling of my former senator Rod Grams' name) and that, while organized along a timeline, the book itself seems unfocused at times. Vaughn sometimes seems to have an anecdote that had to be in the book and so he squeezed it in disrupting the natural flow of the story itself.

That being said, I was interested to see just how political, rather than religious, the Christian Coalition was. It truly showed me that in politics, which is a zero sum game, often the teaching and life of Jesus are supplanted by "issues" based movements. I wonder if Jesus would have been able to write this book, or start this movement, with chapters detailing how big his movement had become, which famous names had signed on, and how much money was coming into the downstairs countroom on a daily basis.

Vaughn did not intend his book to be about the religious and theological importance of the Christian Coalition, but as a pastor I have to step back and wonder just how useful it is for the Church to become involved in politics at all? It seems to me that it is the Church that gets used in those moments (and I'm talking about the liberal AND conservative churches and politicians) and left behind for whatever the next hot-button issue is or whichever organization will attract money and votes.

Regardless, I do find that this book was moderately insightful and definitely informative. This book would be a good read in a political science course of an undergraduate institution or by any leader who is building a movement of his or her own.

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Theological Interpretation of Scripture by Stephen Fowl: A Review

Theological Interpretation of Scripture

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Finding An Unseen God by Alicia Britt Chole: A Review

"Finding an Unseen God: Reflections of a Former Atheist" (Alicia Britt Chole)

This book is a memoir as well as a work of apologetics from a woman who spent her first 20+ years of life as an Atheist: first the quiet kind and then, in college, as a robust debater.

Interspersed in the tale of her conversion are stories of her childhood, her family, her acting out as a young girl, the unexpected death of her father and a life lived in several different homes in several different states. At no time in her retelling of these stories can we find an ultimate reason for her atheism and even her conversion... and for that I am thankful. This book is not about any formula for converting someone nor is it a self-help book to hand someone else in a crisis of faith. This book is one woman's story, simply and quickly told, and an experience of faith that has everything to do with God and the power of prayer.

Chole's writing is brisk and emotive. The chapters are short and sweet. There are moments when she turns to a more didactive mode of writing, in essence teaching the reader about religion and one chapter that nearly takes the entire book of the tracks on the perils of pluralism.

All in all this is a good, not great, book. It could easily be turned into a book for discussion using the questions that Chole intersperses throughout her prose.

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The Furious Longing of God by Brennan Manning: A Review

Before we go any further I want to say two things that I have never said about a book on "spirituality" or "religion" or "theology"
1. I read this book in one sitting.
2. I found myself passing the book to my wife to read a paragraph or two, she would read a bit further, find something else amazing, and pass the book back to me.

In short, this book is the good stuff.

Brennan Manning is the author of The Ragamuffin Gospel, if you haven't read it you can pretty much guess what that one was about from the sound of the word "ragamuffin". Ragamuffins are the lowly, despised, rejected ones of the world, you know, the ones God favors, the ones that Jesus sends us to bring back into the house, the ones we miss over and over again. Well, while that book may have described a recipient of the Good News, The Furious Longing of God is their creed.

In this book Manning presents a God, Father, Abba who longs so furiously for His children that he comes and gets us. This is a book that will blow the dust off of the faith while convicting us in our stupor.

Each chapter has two discussion questions, so this book may be used in a small group. Warning to all "small group pastors" out there, if you release this book into a small group it may end up being like throwing a grenade with the pin pulled. One way or the other, something's going to happen. I will quote one of his discussion questions:

"There is the 'you' that people see and then there is the 'rest of you'. Take some time and craft a picture of the 'rest of you.' Just remember that the chances are good it will be full of paradox and contradictions."

I appreciate Manning's going after this idea of the reversing of the arrows in terms of our relationship with God. For all of our seeking and fasting and "spiritual development" there is this lost (to us) idea of the gathering storm of bliss in the revelation that God longs for you, little ragamuffin you, right where you're at. Questioning you, fundamentalist you, absent for these many days you. You. Read it, pass it on, take Manning's suggestion and drop it in a used book shop or leave it at the coffee shop. Obviously all of our sermons and long range plans aren't doing the trick, here's a try from a slightly more chaotic and oh-so-needed point of view.

"The Furious Longing of God" (Brennan Manning)

Technorati Tags: Book review, Brennan Manning, life, religion

Thoughts on Organic Community: Participation

In this chapter Myers dwells on the idea of "responsible anarchy" which is a way of saying that community needs to be about individual participation rather than representative participation.

In short, church leadership spends way to much time "getting" people to participate rather than trying to understand "how" people participate.

People want to be a part of something in organic ways and not as a cog in a "master plan".

Healthy organic environments have five elements:
1. People participate as individuals not as teams or groups
2. People participate in a decentralized, local way
3. People participate with the whole of their lives
4. People participate in a way that is congruous with they way they are asked
5. The aggregate of participants becomes "known" as the team or group acts, thinks, and makes decisions.

The above are direct quotes!

When I've been a part of a church-directed group it has almost always felt like "work". It's one more thing on my plate and I have to clear out everything else on my mind or heart to be a part of it. It is a duty not a joy. I realize that this is because I'm being asked to work for someone else's plan and not what I feel I am called to do! I think this is the feeling of the majority of church-folks who are enlisted to check a box on a card to fulfill a need that the church feels but not one to which I am called.

Organic community demands of its leaders to let go of the reins and see where the Spirit is blowing in the gifts and talents of the people who have gathered in that particular space at that particular time.

Well, you might say, how does one measure these things and how can we be accountable to one another?

Thankfully, Myers will address that in the next chapter. What we measure and how we measure it will be a reflection of what we think is important. Are numbers important or are the *stories* important? How much of the Book of Numbers was devoted to numbers and how much to the story of God's relationship with Israel?

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Organic Community: Patterns

Myers' chapter on Patterns is simple yet subversive. He lifts up the age-old dialectic between "prescriptive" and "descriptive" communities. Using family as a model the healthiest families are ones that realize that each member is an individual. In my own life I can tell you that our daughters are two different kids and they each must be parented in different ways. That doesn't mean one set of rules for each but it does mean that I don't make Berit follow Liv's schedule and visa versa (I can only imagine trying to get Liv to go to sleep at 7!). We recognize that patterns are different for each person. We follow descriptive models for how we wish our family to be within which each of us is a free individual yet members of each other.

So why then do congregations force individuals into prescriptive programs that hinder individual freedom and, in fact, cause awkward or uncomfortable interactions that one must bear to get "through"... confirmation being a prime example? The church growth movement is another prime example. All of these models, all of these books, all of these programs that will "work"... and yet, what we forget, is that those books are usually written about the experience of ONE community of individuals that found something that worked for them! We take a descriptive experience, package it up, sell it, and market it. A pastor or leader then buys that book and it becomes a prescription for a community that is made up of completely different individuals in different contexts and different reasons for being there.

Organic community seeks to look for many patterns to connect people to God and each other.

Small groups are another model that works for some but not all. What worked for some becomes institutionalized into, sometimes, the *only* way of belonging to a community.

Myers lifts up Edward Hall's idea of "proxemics" or how people use space. There are four ways we use space: public, social, personal, and intimate.
Healthy people need connections across all four proxemics.
Public belonging: think sports team fans who wear the jersey. This identifies them as part of a tribe but usually no more than that.
Social belonging: Places you reveal small bits of yourself. Your hairdresser, personal trainer, work colleagues. Social belonging gives you windows or opportunities to decide to move into more personal or intimate belonging. Social space also helps us practice our story.
Personal: More private stories are shared. Think of your close circle of friends or the friends who know more about you then anyone else and hold that in trust.
Intimate: These are the people who know the real you. All of your warts and pimples, joys and sorrows. There are very few of these intimate relationships in a person's life. Healthy people have very few of these so you do not need to manufacture them to be a healthy person.

Now you can't manufacture a prescription to move people from one space to another! that would not be organic. It is simply helpful to know and realize that forcing people into spaces they are not asking for nor are they ready for is traumatic and manipulative. I have had that reaction in terms of Teen Encounter Christ weekends where young people are forced from public space (high school) to intimate space in the matter of three sleepless nights and days.

Church leadership can respond to this not by manipulation but by being open to creating spaces that reflect people's needs and then watching to see how they are used. What would it look like for a new member class not to be assigned a small group but to be introduced to the congregations spaces and patterns and then watching how those members interact with them? All connections are important, Myers reminds us, so remove the bottom-line discussion and start to be curious about all of these individuals God has called into your community. What do they have to offer? What is their story? Where are there connections to be made?

Myers key terms for this idea is "relaxed intentionality"... create the environment and then validate people as they naturally connect to each other in public to intimate ways. And one must never forget that God is mixed up in this work as well! Why try to take His hand off the wheel? Our catechism in the Lutheran Church teaches us that the Holy Spirit, "calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies us." Why do we so often, as church staff or leadership, try to be the ones who call? Who try endless ways of "gathering" busy folks until we are the ones who burn out? Who take it upon ourselves to enlighten the masses and then decide what it means to be a true "member" of the Church?

That's the main reason I wish to see myself as an environmentalist in the church not a programmer or even a "leader". The leadership can intentionally work to create these spaces and help folks off the assembly-line mentality of the church as factory rather than a laboratory or a greenhouse where God is at work, not us!

Technorati Tags: Joseph R. Myers, organic community

Salvation on the Small Screen: a Review

"Salvation on the Small Screen? 24 Hours of Christian Television" (Nadia Bolz-Weber)

Nadia is one of the new emerging church leader-type folks who are surprising the status quo by how seriously they take the Church, theology, and the future of both! I will admit that I was not excited to read this since I usually swim in cynicism and irony but was pleasantly surprised not only by Nadia's tone (respectful yet critical) but by the depth and breadth of the things that she was able to do using the idea of watching 24 hours of TBN as her coat-hook. From that little hook she hung biography, theology, criticism, a peek into the life of a mom-pastor, and a culture slam for us who think we have all the answers. I highly recommend this book!

You can also get to her awesome blog by clicking on Sarcastic Lutheran on my blogroll.

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The Church

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