Words from Brennan Manning

I have seen Brennan Manning's The Ragamuffin Gospel in bookstores and on bookshelves for years. It is one of those few books that I have seen quoted all over the place - in academic books, among musicians, in devotional works, etc. For whatever reason, I have never had much interest in reading it. I found it at the incredible Goodwill in Lewisburg, TN last year (I've found lots of gems there the past few trips) and it's sat on my shelf since.

Last week, I met with one of the senior citizens who meets in our senior small group on Tuesdays, and we decided that we would study Manning's book. I took up chapter one this morning to prepare some opening thoughts for today's study before everyone has their copies. What a way to begin the morning! I can't believe I have waited so long to delve into this work. It has been a refreshing breath of air to my spirit. I am looking forward to reflecting on it in the coming weeks.


I have been busy working through several books lately and have had some blogging topics come to mind. I had planned to spend some time reflecting on a series of articles in this week's Columbus newspaper, following a priest through his seminary trainging at the local Pontifical College. I just finished reading Mike King's Presence-Centered Youth Ministry that had left an indelible mark on my understanding of youth ministry, and coupled with the articles reflecting on entering the priesthood: giving up a family, sex, ten years of your life to training, I started thinking about how seriously I have taken my role as minister/pastor/priest. King notes how when he is in the presence of a Hindu priest he feels like he is in the presence of a holy man, but in the presence of an evangelical minister he feels like he is in the presence of a car salesmen.

It seems to me The Ragamuffin Gospel is going to be just what I need to re-engage my spiritual fervor and remind me of what undergirds my purpose and my position. I found the ending of the first chapter especially compelling:

"Because salvation is by grace through faith, I believe that among the countless number of people standing inf ront of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hand, I shall see the prostitute from the Kit-Kat Ranch in Carson City, Nevada, who tearfully told me she could find no other employment to support her two-year-old son. I shall see the woman who had an abortion and is haunted by guilt and remorse but did the best she could faced with grueling alternatives; the business-man besieged with debt who sold his integrity in a series of desperate trasnactions; the insecure clergyman addicted to being liked, who never challenged his people from teh pulpit and longed for unconditional love; the sexuall-abused teen molested by his father and now sellign his body on the street, who, as he falls asleep each night after his last 'trick,' whispers the name of the unknown God he learned about in Sunday school; the deathbed convert who for decades had his cake and ate it, broke every law of God and man, wallowed in lust and raped the earth.
"But how?" we ask. Then the voice says, "They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
They are there. There we are - the multitude who so wanted to be faithful, who at times got defeated, soiled by life, and bested by trials, wearing the bloodied garments of life's tribulations, but through it all clung to the faith.
My friends, if this is not good news to you,you have never understood the gospel of grace."
p. 32 - 33

That reminds me of something a friend told me last week that is especially convicting for my conservative friends, "If Jesus were here to today, you know the kind of people he's be with? He'd find a gay Latino who was in this country illegally, who was suffering from complications from an abortion she had, and had a rare disease that was only cureable by advances in stem-cell research.

Now . . . I must rush back to my suburban existence . . .

Reflection from The Shack author, Wm. Paul Young

Last night Mary Beth and I went to hear Paul Young, author of the book everyone has now heard about, The Shack. The church was charging $10 a person to hear him, which was kind of a bummer, but I have to tell you it was totally worth it. You never know what you are going to get when you go to hear an author speak. Most authors make their money by writing and are not dually blessed with the gift of speaking. Young, however, was quick to point out that he is not an author, but became one on accident. He was humorous and engaging throughout.

He took a few questions from the audience about the book (there were probably about 700 or 800 of us there) and then segued into some personal reflections from the book. If you have done research on him, then you probably know a lot of this, but it was all new to me. He had written the book for his children, not intending that anyone else would ever see it. He has six children (I think he said six), and The Shack was a gift to each of them, and some of their close friends, as the result of a long process of Young's travel back toward his shack. The symbolism of The Shack is especially poignant after hearing firsthand its background.

The entire discussion was worthwhile, but I'll try to offer a few random tidbits from the night that I found memorable. If you haven't read the book, I really would suggest it. Very enjoyable and thought provoking - and if you are a Christian, everyone's talking about it, so join the discussion!

The first question of the night was about the name of the Holy Spirit in the book. The origin came from a phone conversation Young had while working in his previous job with someone in India. He asked her for the different names they had for the wind in Hindi. Sarayu seemed perfect - that unexpected but refreshing wind that all of us love (think of a hot day when it is almost unbearable - and then the freshness of the breeze). I thought it was great!

Another asked whether he was concerned with the controversy the book had stirred. Nobly, he answered that rather than disappointed, he was excited by all the discussion the book had stirred. He did note that some of the criticism had gotten personal which he regretted, but the vast majority of it had been the work of God. He told specifically of a women who had emailed him and just railed the book as a "juvenile piece of trash." Young promptly responded by pasting several responses from others who had emailed him responding with thanksgiving for the life it had breathed into their spirituality. The woman responded by asking for his forgiveness.

William Young spoke humbly as a guy whose life's baggage was now out in the open for all to see. He acknowledged that he had created something that was now way bigger than he was, and his role was to sit back and watch God work, something He is clearly doing.

With all of that said, the true highlight of hearing Young speak was gaining valuable insight into where the concept of the shack came from. The book amounts to the closing chapter of the healing process he and his family went through. Young was the overlooked child of missionaries in New Guinea where he grew up in a terrible environment. His perspective was a reminder to me to never neglect your family "for the work of the Lord." Quite the contrary, Young's father treated him harshly and allowed him to be severely molested throughout his childhood by the tribal people. Young tells the story of burying this trauma deep below the surface of perfectionism he constantly kept up through his young life.

He eventually married and his whole life of deception and duality culminated with a three-month affair his wife uncovered, setting off 2 years of hell. His wife was committed to keeping the family together, and so committed to being together and spent the next two years beating Young up emotionally and spiritually. She told him she would never believe anything that came from his mouth again - and who could blame her. The process of counseling was intense and long - he spent 8 months in intensive counseling with a counselor Young believes saved his life. He tells the story of his counselor, whose family life Young knew nothing about because of counselor-patient protection, whose son was addicted to narcotics, accidentally killed his father. This crushed Young to the point he could not go to the funeral.

The two years sped through eleven long years of healing and dealing with the matters of the shack, and finally came around full circle when he received a letter speaking to an incredibly healing a woman had received after her son had inadvertently killed her father. Young knew immediately the similarities were too close for this to not be the same person. He emailed her back and asked for her phone number . . . what an incredibly story of grace! He went on to talk of how his marriage was better than ever (something he said at least 10 times at the close). That the woman with whom he had an affair with had a daughter who was now a close friend of their own daughter and regularly at their home. Again, an incredible story of grace.

It was enjoyable and uplifting to hear the incredible story that now is being told all over the world. Hopefully Christians can focus on that and not let our divisive and obnoxious tendencies prevail as they so often do.

I was drawn to my own shack even deeper through Young's personal testimony. I thanked God then and there I didn't have to endure the journey that he has, and I thanked God that he has delivered him from his. However, it still left me to confront what is in my own shack that so often I want to avoid and change the subject. I continue that journey and need prayers in doing so.

Beyond Cognition

I am realizing more and more every day just how cognitively driven my faith has been - the faith that was imparted to me has been. It was drilled into my head, usually subconsciously - the more you know about the Bible, the better off you'll be. It's almost as if I came to expect that there would be a test given at the gates of heaven and if I knew enough, I'd get in, but if I didn't, there would be big trouble. Now, we would never admit this. We knew (again, cognitively) that we were saved by faith - but again, even this was just a matter of fact - cognitive knowledge.

And now I'm learning to see the Gospel as so much more than cognition. As a matter of fact, how much cognition is there? The Gospel, as Paul writes it, is simple: Christ, the God-man, came in the flesh, died on the cross, and was raised from the dead. If we could just focus on that! Why do we allow so much of the other stuff bog us down? That is the core of the Gospel. If a person is baptized as an infant, does that threaten the core of the Gospel? I don't know that it does. In all cases they are acting in a desire to appease the God of the Gospel. Do some come closer than others? Sure. It is unsettling, it is confusing, but it seems to be more in line with the biblical story than where many Christian groups find themselves currently.

Shane Claiborne is on to something. He's too radical for many folks, and they can easily miss what he's on to. I have a great deal of respect for him and what he's doing with the Simple Way project, but I haven't sold my house and taken my family to inner city Columbus. I see the destitution there nearly every day, and believe me my heart cries out for there and we've had discussions about going down there, but I remain in my suburban comfort shell. But I think I see what he's on to. His message is . . . "let's stop talking, and DO something." Do something. It is the message of the cross. It is a story invoking action. Hearing the Gospel we should be compelled to action. Instead, we have been compelled only as far as belief . . . as statement of fact.

I really believe that Shane Claiborne is what he claims to be - an ordinary radical. That is what more of us need to strive to be. Instead of just doing something, I hear too many people worried about the "red flags." "This sounds like the social gospel, didn't the liberal project fail?" "What about their soul?" "They're just users, we can do more productive things with our money." I would be more interested in these conversations as I think they raise valid concerns, but I'm unwilling to have them with people who aren't doing anything - anything more than "being a good nice person." Shame on us if we think that Christ came and died brining the kingdom of heaven to earth so that we could be nice Christian people. I am looking for examples of nice, Christian people in Scripture and I don't see many there. I see radicals. Men and women who would die for their faith. Who would risk the security of their family for the sake of justice and mercy and kingdom ethics. The kingdom of God is at hand! I love Shane Claiborne's statement, it's one I have adopted into my daily thoughts and prayers, "Another world is possible."

We're not stuck with this one! We're given this one, and as Christians it is our duty to make it look "on earth as it is in heaven." Jesus calls down heaven on earth, not us to a glorious place on high . . . but heaven on earth . . . now! Wow! (By the way, I'm pretty sure I ripped that rant off of Rob Bell in Velvet Elvis, so don't call me a pirate here . . . ha ha). Go and change the world . . . I really and truly believe we can do it . . . we are just going to have to get uncomfortable, unsafe, and unsure.

The Dilemma of Evangelism

The Zoo

This week has been insane busy. We were in Gatlinburg last weekend for Winterfest. Our kids had a great time and it was a neat time. It was beautiful as we got two inches of snow on the ground Saturday. The mountains were incredible. Yesterday I spent time in the office, in the jail, in the hospital, and in the church basketball league - now doesn't that sounds like a day in the pastorate!

I haven't really had much of a chance to hang out with Clark for the past two weeks (with our minister visits going on right now, our weekends have been totally taken up, so I have been trying to squeeze time in here and there), so this morning and this afternoon I took off and he and I took a trip to the Columbus Zoo. We bought a family pass out there for Mary Beth's birthday so we get try to make it out there on occasion. It was a bit nippy out, but there was almost no one there, so it made for a good father and son day.

I've always loved the zoo and I've always loved animals. I think my very first choice of profession as an eight year old was to be a zoologist - that, of course, was before I had a biology class, yuck!

As I've gotten older, one thing that the zoo has been for me is almost a spiritual pilgrimage. It's a time to get away from the ordinary suburban life filled full of cars, shopping malls, and subdivisions, and journey through the animal sampling from around the world. I hate to get all cliche on everyone, but God's creation is truly magnificent. I mean it's incredible.

Clark and I spent a good bit of time standing beside some Asian elephants. It was an incredible time and all these thoughts went rushing through my mind. It was a good moment of allowing the small box I often have the world in, to quickly expand. These huge animals roaming the Asian countryside was a pretty amazing thought in my mind. God's creation is so diverse, so amazing. The details are so painstakingly precise. This was amazingly evident as Clark spent time racing in front of the large oceanic aquarium. Clark in his youthful wonder stared at the many sizes, colors, and shapes of the numerous fish. The complex DNA structure of each one of those fish must be amazing, and yet it was one fish among millions - maybe billions. And, the Columbus Zoo isn't even that large of a zoo.

The world is so big. It is unfortunate that science and faith have been working in isolation for so long. While faith tends to be the Gap God, I don't think it has to be. Science does well to answer the what and how questions, but it doesn't dabble much with the why questions. The what and how of creation are magnificent. We are fortunate to live in a time when I can type this posting and read it from virtually anywhere in the world. Who knows what the future holds. But, as you look around and consider all that is around us, there is that subtle question of why? Why all the diversity in creation? Why all the splendor and beauty? Why the wonderful "circle of life?" God gives meaning and value to all the beauty around us. I am glad to have spent my morning at the zoo being reminded of the wonderful creation God creatively initiated. A trip to the zoo should always accompany a reading of Genesis 1 - 2.

Mirage

I'm glad I made that last post about posting more often . . . anyway . . . the past few weeks have been a spiritual rah rah blur. The misperception regarding ministers is that we should be so spiritual because we get to attend so many spiritual things and be part of so much spiritual stuff. I am beginning to think that that "stuff" and being so invovled in it has a reverse effect sometimes. Over the past three weeks I have been to Oklahoma City to talk with a professor there about working on a "spiritually related" project, to Fallfest in Cincinnati for a "spiritual youth rally" with our middle schoolers, and this past weekend I was in Nashville, TN for the Zoe Worship Conference at Woodmont Hills Family of God for a "spiritual conference." And this Saturday, we will be unloading 1/4 semi load of pumpkins onto our church grounds for a "spiritual outreach" focused pumpkin patch and fundraiser.

Now, with all of these "spiritual" events packed in there together, you'd think that I'd be spirituallly fired up ready to set off a spiritual nuke on the world. Those of you in full-time ministry probably know better. These events tend to run together when this is your life. I live from one event to the next. Whether on the larger scale as discussed above, or on the smaller scale of one sermon to the next, one Bible class to the next, one youth group planned activity to the next, one small group to the next. It's truly amazing how "unspiritual" these things start feeling after awhile.

So what is left then? Are these things all a waste for ministers? Are they all a farce? Am I a psycho. Well, nothing, maybe, probably not, and definitely.

Here is the perfect example of what I am getting at. Just about the time all these events have been going on in my life, I have also began trying to implement the daily office into my routine spirituality (which hasn't been so routine). If you are not familiar with the ancient practice of the daily office, it is essentially the planned suspension of life as you know it during every day, to stop, focus on Christ, the Word of God, and remind yourself of why you take each breath. It is an ancient Catholic practice, that Phyllis Tickle has recently updated and organized from a Protestant perspective. I picked up her The Divine Hours, for autumn and wintertime, which begin in Oct. and have been trying to incorporate that into my daily spirituality. That has been a great blessing and a rejuvenation to my spirituality. The greatest obstacle in maintaining the daily office in the first couple weeks of my trying it? The aforementioned "spiritual events." I love the irony.

A busy spirituality is a fake spirituality. That is what I am coming to believe. I have a busy spirituality focused on programs, events, and structure. Usually the most spiritual moments come in the midst of unplanned, unexpected, and totally unorganized ways. The problem is, I am usually too busy to notice them.

For my self, I offer this prayer: "Be still, and know that I, the Lord, am God."

Simplicity

One of the books that has impacted me the most is Richard Foster's Freedom of Simplicity (see sidebar). I read it a couple of years ago and am revisiting it now. The book was written several years ago and alot of the specific research and such is out of date, but the spirit of the book lives on in me forever. He addresses a topic that I have never much thought about. Simplicity. We live in the age of advancement and complexity. To hear someone speak to the other side of the spectrum is refreshing.

Nowhere is my pursuit of a simple lifestyle more challenged than at the holiday season. This is the time of year where you buy a bunch of things for people who really don't need them, and recieve a bunch of stuff we don't need. Probably the best benefactor of the entire season is corporate America whose holiday sales usually keeps them afloat.

I strive more and more to live a simple lifestyle. More and more I realize that I just don't need much to get by. So many people spend so much of their time puruing more and bigger and better and for what? They put their children in day care. They work hours and hours of overtime. They drive miles and miles to work. They own three cars. They have a ridiculous house payment. After all . . . it's the American way. And it takes alot of soul searching to read the Bible without all that weighing us down.

Take all those influences away and consider the teachings of Scripture:
- "Go and sell all your possessions to the poor" . . . and the rich young ruler went away saddened
- Following the seventh sabbath year was to be the Year of Jubilee where land was restored to its original owners, debts were canceled and, one time in each person's life, they were to be allowed a fresh start
- "I was hungry and you didn't feed me, I was thirsty and you didn't give me anything to drink, I was naked and you didn't clothe me."
- The widow gives her two mites and Jesus points to her as exemplary

Simplicity is a discipline to be admired in others. What do you need? What do I need?
Cable television? That's always the one that's fun to talk about. How badly do you need that? Or what about a television at all? Two cars? Sugar in every bite of dinner? Dessert? The list of questions goes on and on. I think simplicity isn't about attaining some "ultimate life of simplicity" but rather it is about purusing simplicity in every area: diet, clothing, domestics, church, family, work, entertainment, technology, and on and on the list goes.

I would strongly encourage anyone to read this book. If you don't have the patience for the book, just struggle through the simplicity as it relates to your life. Where can you be more simple? Where, in your life, do the excesses run? What can you weed out? What do you need to learn to live without?

Try fasting from different things. Food, a certain kind of food, television, the internet, movies, the newspaper, the news, sports (ouch, I hate to put that one in there), whatever it is that keeps you from living in simplicity.

Discipleship

Discipleship is a term I don't think I encountered until I went off to college. Yeah, I had probably heard the word brought up in "church-ese" language prayer, but it wasn't until I went to college that I ever gave the word much thought. The Cost of Discipleship by Boenhoeffer is the first extra-biblical place I ever remember seeing the word. It's something that us in Churches of Christ just aren't familiar with.

I've been thinking alot about what our church needs - you do that often as a minister. I have become convinced that we need discipleship. And I'm not passing the buck here - I need discipleship. It is severely lacking in my life. In most churches when great things happen we are quick to "thank you God for hearing us and answering our prayers" yet when we fall short of our prayerful goal our response is, "God has other plans for us . . . this was not meant to be." But what if in fact it was? What if God wanted to work this out, but because of our lack of faith and/or prayers, he didn't let it happen? I'm not sure I'd want to be the one to share that, but it sure makes me think.

"O ye of little faith." I think that is what Jesus would say to me, and I have little doubt that would be his message to so many. Discipleship is following Christ at all costs. It's changing our very livliehood because of who we have met - the Savior. I like to think of it as things should change after an encounter with Christ. Christians should look differently from those who do not know Jesus. But how often do they? How often do I? Too seldom I'm afraid.

I must begin to commit to discipleship, and I hope you'll join me. Our stupid culture let's us settle for things that are cheap and easy. What God offers is so much more and so much deeper - deeper than we can ever imagine, so I need to stop settling for the cheap stuff, and delve into the mystery of God.

Simplifying

Slowly our lives seem to be slipping into a bit of semblence and routine. Mary Beth and I were talking the other day and we realized that we have had family or friends in town every week since Clark was born. That's twelve weeks in a row, we've had someone over . . . no wonder things have been a bit crazy lately.

I finished putting barn siding up in our basement Wednesday. It was so nice to finally get that done. There are two other walls I want to build, but first I need to get over and pick up some more wood. There's always something to do. There's still a half ton of wood laying against our neighbor's fence because I haven't had the chance to borrow a chain saw and get it cut up. Oh well . . . all in good time.

In our Sunday nights with the youth group, we have been using the Winterfest curriculum studying the real master and commander. The classes have been fine, but there hasn't been much cohesion holding the subject matter together each week. I just got finished looking over things for this week and I am pleasantly suprised with the subject matter for the week. I'm not sure what it has to do with the past few weeks, but this week taken on its own is a much needed lesson for our teens.

The topic for the week is materialism. I always crack up at the way that we teach about materialism in this country. We always feel the need to qualify Jesus' teaching. Even the material that we are using for this Sunday night class said some something to the effect of, "Jesus never condemned anyone for being rich." Well that's great, but neither are we. We're dealing with a real problem in the church in this culture. I see it everywhere working in a suburban, affluent, white church. To give you an idea of the affluence in our church, with a regular attendance of 140 members, our weekly budget is about $5,000. There are many churches twice our size without that kind of weekly budget. We don't often make our budget, but the ambition is there.

So . . . the optimistic side of me says to be glad that I work for a place with so many generous people. However, there is so much more we could do. We turn people away for benevolence each and every week. We don't give food away. We don't help with bills. We don't help with gas. Gas prices are $2.25. It costs us over $50.00 to fill up our cars. We can barely afford that, but it's interesting that few people in our churches ever consider how that effects the folks that already aren't making it.

The very concept of what we think we need is twisted. Mary Beth and I have recently grown disconent with our current lifestyle. We have too many things in our house. So . . . we have been going room by room, clearing things out that we just don't need. Sure, we have a lot further to go. There are many things that I just can't part with, that I really don't need. I'm sure she would say the same. However, it is a good start. We have enough things to have our own garage sale. We plan to sell as much as we can on our own using that money to finish off our hospital bills from Clark, and then give the rest to the youth group yard sale. I wish we were giving the money to the less fortunate, but our primary goal right now is to move ourselves out of debt as quickly as we can in order to free ourselves to be of great support to those who need it.

Last Wednesday we went up to a food pantry and helped out up there. It reminded me that there are people who just don't have enough money left over at the end of the month to pay for their groceries. I easily forget that. I have made the commitment to begin spending more time with those people. Soon, I will have friends that don't have any money. It will help level my head. And hopefully, I will help them.

One interesting website to check out regarding poverty in this country is www.american-pictures.com. I found it a few months ago when I was studying for a sermon. It is powerful. If you ever see the book, I would love to have it. It is not currently in print.

Spend some time praying for the pandemic of poverty. If we each would do something, the world would changed.

Adam