“A Conversation with God,” written by Alton Gansky, is a book about the basics of orthodox Christianity. Written in a conversational style, Gansky presents fictional monologues from Father God, Jesus, Paul, Abraham, and other people mentioned in the Bible.

The book itself was easy to read.  The conversational style helped me engage in the topic while also providing the freedom to take breaks between responses.  The book itself is a collection of monologues about the nature of God, the Bible, hell, heaven, etc.

I was disappointed in some explanations given about the nature of God, eternal judgment, and the books of the Bible. Gansky presented the material well, but in the end it still provided the same answers to common questions new believers face today.  The problem with discipleship in the Church is not due to presentation; it’s partly due to the insufficient answers being provided.

For someone like me who appreciates wrestling with topics and coming to my own biblically-based conclusions, it fell short of my expectations.  However, I think that most main stream Christians will appreciate this book and use it as a resource for new believers.

 

I just finished reading an excellent book on the Sabbath by Dan B. Allender. one of the founders and former President of Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle Washington. The book intrigued me because I’ve been celebrating the Sabbath for the past four years. My family has had its ups and downs in terms of Sabbath observance, but overall we’ve found it to be a day of delight, rest, and enjoyment that we look forward to throughout the week.

Allender’s book was a pleasure to read. I felt challenged to take my Sabbath-keeping to a whole new level: the entrance into pleasure. Allender suggests that man’s observance of the Sabbath is rooted in the 7th day of Creation when God rested and took pleasure in His creation. God enjoys pleasure and set apart (i.e. sanctified) one day a week for us to enter into that place of joy:

“The Sabbath is an invitation to enter delight. The Sabbath, when experienced as God intended, is the best day of our lives. Without question or thought, it the best day of the week. It is the day we anticipate on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday — and the day we remember on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Sabbath is the holy time where we feast, play, dance, have sex, sing, pray, laugh, tell stories, read, paint, walk, and watch creation in its fullness. Few people are willing to enter the Sabbath and sanctify it, to make it holy, because a full day of delight and joy is more than most people can bear in a lifetime, let alone a week.” (5)

Allender avoids the “shall nots” and emphasizes the “shalls,” the opportunities (invitations?) from God to partake in the richness of His friendship, our personal relationships, and the beauty of Creation. If you have a curiosity about the Sabbath and find yourself wondering where to begin, I’d HIGHLY recommend this book.

For the benefit of my friends and family who won’t take the time to buy the book and read it themselves, I put a few memorable quotes below to feed your curiosity:

Sabbath rest is entered when we refuse to be bound by complexity or drowned by despair (4).

The Sabbath is an invitation to enter delight.  The Sabbath, when experienced as God intended, is the best day of our lives.  Without question or thought, it the best day of the week.  It is the day we anticipate on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday — and the day we remember on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.  Sabbath is the holy time where we feast, play, dance, have sex, sing, pray, laugh, tell stories, read, paint, walk, and watch creation in its fullness.  Few people are willing to enter the Sabbath and sanctify it, to make it holy, because a full day of delight and joy is more than most people can bear in a lifetime, let alone a week (5).

The Sabbath is far more than a diversion; it is meant to be an encounter with God’s delight (12).

What would I do for a twenty-four-hour period of time if the only criteria was to pursue my deepest joy? (15).

We often fail to create a day of delight because to do so compels us to stand against the division, destitution, and despair that often holds us captive the other six days of the week…We are driven, exhausted, and depleted.  We were created for the refreshing and replenishing gift of the Sabbath.  And we don’t do so to our peril (18).

Many of us are afraid of delight. It seems to stand in such contrast to our harried multitasking. It is easier to drop exhausted before the television, laptop in hand, checking emails as we watch a pundit rattle on about the day’s news, than to live in accord with a pace that is measured by delight (25).

The festival involves four key components: sensual glory, rhythmic repetition. communal feasting, just playfulness (31).

The only parameter that is to guide our Sabbath is delight.  Will this be merely a break or a joy? Will this lead my heart to wonder or routine?  Will I be more grateful or just happy that I got something done? (47).

We are not to work on the Sabbath because it takes us out of the play of joy.  It is as bizarre as making love to your spouse, but getting out of bed during the process to cut your lawn or wash dishes. Such an offense would do far more than spoil the mood; it would be a direct assault on the integrity of joy, announcing that a mundane chore is more pleasurable than sexual joy with your spouse (61).

The Sabbath asks, how would you live if there were no wars, enmity, battle lines, or need to defend, explain, interpret, or influence another to see anything differently?  The Sabbath glories in the goodness, the amazing, solicitous, hearth-thrilling glory of each person to whom we are privileged to speak on that day (110).

The Sabbath is the day we set aside to look at one another from the vantage point of eternity and then to operate in time, in an actual hour or minute, as if it were true (111).

Worry is anti-Sabbath. Sabbath requires the release of worry and invites us to trust.  Both regret and worry assume there is no God, or at least not one who loves and pours himself out for his children.  Both worry and regret are satanic (136).

The Sabbath is like every other gift – it requires practice and discipline to grow in delight (165).

The Sabbath…is not merely a day to stop working, it is a day to renounce all activity that impoverished, enslaves, or demeans others.  It is a day set aside not to take or to procure but to nourish (186).

Below are the rest of my notes from “The Shaping of Things to Come” by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch.  Still in the first chapter, I’ve been blown away by some of the things I’ve been reading.

Something important to note: This chapter deals with the concept of “Christendom,” that is, our cultural understanding of how we gather as believers. This has been called “institutional church” by other authors. The following notes are not focused on individuals, but on the praxis.

This was one of my favorite quotes in the chapter. Extremely challenging.

“If we once have the courage to give up our defense of the old facades which have nothing or very little behind them; if we cease to maintain, in public, the pretense of a universal Christendom; if we stop straining every nerve to get everybody baptized, to get everybody married in church and onto our registers (even when success means only, at bottom, a victory for tradition, custom and ancestry, not for true faith and interior conviction); if, by letting go, we visibly relive Christianity of the burdensome impression that it accepts responsibility for everything that goes on under this Christian topdressing, the impression that Christianity is a sort of Everyman’s Religious Varnish, a folk-religion (at the same level as that of folk-costumes – then we can be free for real missionary adventure and apostolic self-confidence…” – Douglas John Hall, “Metamorphosis: From Christendom to Diaspora”

Michael Frost goes on to explain that Christendom has negatively impacted Christianity. Instead of the Church moving forward, she has been moved into maintenance mode:

[Christendom's] type of leadership can generally be described as priestly, sometimes prophetic to insiders, but almost never to outsiders (no one “out there” is listening), and rarely apostolic. Christendom has moved Christianity into a maintenance mode.

Another quote:

The church is worse off precisely because of Christendom’s failure to evangelize its own context and establish gospel communities that transform the culture.

Another quote:

Christendom is not the biblical mode of the church. It was/is merely one way in which the church has conceived of itself. In enshrining it as the sole form of the church, we have made it into an idol that has captivated our imaginations and enslaved us to a historical-cultural expression of the church.

We have not answered the challenges of our time precisely because we refuse to let go of the idol. This must change! The answer to the problem of mission in the West requires something far more radical than reworking a dated and untenable model. It will require that we adopt something that looks far more like the early church in terms of its conception of the church (ecclesiology) and its core task in the world (missiology)

Main point of  the book:

The whole tenor of this book will be to call post-Christendom to see itself again as a missionary movement rather than as an institution.

I appreciated the approach towards discovering ecclesiology.  It is rooted in an understanding of Jesus and mission:

Christology determines missiology, and missiology determines ecclesiology. It is absolutely vital that the church gets the order right.

After a long hiatus away from contributing to RawReligion.com, I’m making a conscious decision to return to this blog. I use the word “conscious” because it’s a key necessity when talking about decentralized Christianity.

When you set out to pursue organic, simple, outwardly-focused models of “doing church” (i.e. ecclesiology) you find that it is your own responsibility to set the pace and sustain momentum. To respectfully paint a picture of this, you’re leaving the well-oiled machine of the traditional church, where procedure and sub-cultural expectations are defined and observed, and launching out into the great unknown where format is fluid and the modus operandi is undefined. You’ve set out on an pioneer adventure, there are no roads, and only you can “blaze the trail” westward towards the unknown.

This week, I’m traveling to New Hampshire to install a phone system (It’s my day job). I brought two books for reading, (1) Vol. 1 of the Ante-Nicene Fathers and (2) “The Shaping of Things to Come” by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch (n.b. hereafter referred to as “SOTTC”). The Ante-Nicene Fathers are good, but heady; the SOTTC is earthy, practical, and deeply prophetic. Not camel-skin-suit prophetic, nor expensive-suit-and-white-feathery-hair prophetic. The words of this book are a timely and much-needed wake-up call for believers to deeply consider the way we operate in our cultural context.

What follows are a few quotes and my own commentary on chapter one, “Evolution or Revolution?”:

D.H. Lawrence said as long ago as 1924, “The adventure has gone out of the Christian venture.”

I think most of us can relate to this feeling. Where is the excitement? Where is the lasting sense of adventure? We are overfed, overeducated, and jaded to the excitement of innate within the wild Mission of God. Hence, the reason for revolution.

[We must ask ourselves] “What has God called us to be and do in our current cultural context?” The issue of cultural context is essential because the missional church shapes itself to fit that context in order to transform it for the sake of the kingdom of God. By definition, the missional church is always outward looking, always changing (as culture continues to change), and always faithful to the Word of God.

Heeding the cultural context is important for two reasons. One, it implies that we as the people of God are looking outward, outside the physical or societal walls of our group. Two, it recognizes that the expression of Jesus’ Bride will be different depending on the cultural context it is within. Missional church can (and should) look different across cities, countries, and people groups.

Albert Einstein, one of history’s greatest thinkers, once noted that “the kind of thinking that will solve the world’s problems will be of a different order to the kind of thinking that created those problems in the first place.” … If Einstein was right, then the problems of the church, like all real problems in any context, cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created those problems in the first instance. In other words, boxlike thinking simply cannot solve the problems of the box.

Mr. Einstein, there was a deposit of the wisdom of God in you. However, the record still stands that King Solomon was (and is) the wiset man who ever lived.

A metanarrative is an overarching story that claims to contain truth applicable to all people at all times in all cultures.

A definition like this forces us to ask ourselves what the gospel REALLY is. How much of what we preach as doctrine is rooted in our own cultural norms? Can we be focused (and brave enough) to challenge the sacred cows in our ecclesiological praxis to whittle things down to the essential gospel of God, that spans culture?

Table 1: Depicting Three Phases of the Church and its Characteristics

Many of the items are the same between the “Apostolic and Post-Apostolic Mode” and the “Missional Mode.” This is not illustrated in an attempt to prove that the missional mode has it “all correct,” but rather that the missional mode seeks to restore some of the timeless principles that were in operation in the early church age.

Christendom thinking…assumes that the church belongs prominently on the main street, and it claims that the church has the right to take over a public space and clean out the local people while creating a so-called sanctified religious zone.

What do you think about this (above) statement?

The missional church always thinks of the long haul rather than the quick fix.

As believers, we must be after lasting change. It takes a summer to grow a zucchini, but generations to establish an oak tree. What is our goal? Are we willing to invest time and resources without the reward of instant gratification?

Below are fifteen hallmarks of a missional church. I won’t comment on them in this post. I believe they can stand on their own and challenge our current understanding of “church.”

1. The missional church proclaims the gospel.
2. The missional church is a community where all members are involved in learning to become disciples of Jesus.
3. The Bible is normative in this church’s life.
4. The church understands itself as different from the world because of its participation in the life, death, and resurrection of its Lord.
5. The church seeks to discern God’ specific missional vocation for the entire community and for all of its members.
6. A missional community is indicated by how Christians behave toward one another.
7. It is a community that practices reconciliation.
8. People within the community hold themselves accountable to one another in love.
9. The church practices hospitality.
10. Worship is the central act by which the community celebrates with job and thanksgiving both God’s presence and God’s promised future.
11. This community has a vital public witness.
12. There is a recognition that the church itself is an incomplete expression of the reign of God…
13. The missional church is incarnational, not attractional, in its ecclesiology…
14. The missional church is messianic, not dualistic, in its spirituality. That is, it adopts the worldview of Jesus the Messiah, rather than that of the Greco-Roman empire. Instead of seeing the world as divided between the sacred (religious) and profane (nonreligious), like Christ it sees the world and God’s place in it as more holistic and integrated.
15. The missional church adopts an apostolic, rather than a hierarchical, mode of leadership. By apostolic we mean a mode of leadership that recognizes the fivefold model detailed by Paul in Ephesians 6. It abandons the triangular hierarchies of the traditional church and embraces a biblical, flat-leadership community that unleashes the gifts of evangelism, apostleship, and prophecy, as well as the currently popular pastoral and teaching gifts.

On my latest plane flight for work, I pulled out Robert Benson’s “In Constant Prayer.”  It was a book that initially caught my eye because of its part in Thomas Nelson’s “Ancient Practices Series.” Being somewhat of an ancient church history student, I was excited about the possibilities the book could bring.

This book addresses the ancient practice of the “daily office.”  Simply put, the daily office involves praying at set times throughout the day.  There are seven periods defined, but the most common periods observed today by are morning, noon, and evening.  Benson advocates the daily office as a means for ordinary people to cultivate a life of ceaseless prayer. Set times serve as reminders throughout the day that we live in the light of Someone greater than ourselves.

Benson writes with humility and honesty. His style of writing kept me reading at a fast pace while still holding my attention. I finished his book within and hour and left feeling informed and challenged to consider incorporating the daily office into my own routine.

This is one of those book that will not remain on my shelf for reference, but instead leave a lasting imprint on my heart and an open invitation to experience God through planned times during my day. With a life as busy as mine I feel that this practice will really help me slow down and realign my focus.

Additional Resources on the Daily Office:

• “Daily Prayer” by Robert Benson – www.dailyprayerlife.com
• “Venite” by Robert Benson – www.amazon.com
• “Book of Common Prayer” – www.churchpublishing.org
• “Celebrating Common Prayer” by George Carey – www.continuumbooks.com
• “The Little Bok of Hours” by The Jesus Community – www.paracletepress.com
• “The Daily Office Book” – www.churchpublishing.org
• “The Divine Hours” by Phyllis Tickle – www.amazon.com
• “Hour by Hour” – www.forwardmovement.org

Theological Approach

This approach, unlike the others, openly considers the reader’s worldview and sensory response to the text as the foundation upon which the literary critique is formed.  While I appreciate the recognition given to the reader (for undoubtedly there is a measure of subjectivity whenever we interpret concepts through the lens of our worldview), utilizing this approach without the balance of the others would lead to an unfair interpretation of the text.

Your Approach?

As you read through these approaches, I would be interested in hearing from others.  Is there a certain approach mentioned above that you are predisposed to? Do you employ a mixture of these approaches?

It has been close to a year since my wife and I left the traditional church.  For us, it was passion for Jesus and authentic community that led us to consider what life could look like outside the four walls of a building.  In the few first fews  months of the journey, we read many books.  I consumed books on theory and principle, but found myself longing to talk with those who had experienced what we were searching after.  Where were the testimonies, the organic expressions of these concepts being walked out?

Christ in Y’all by Neil Carter, fills that needed divide between theory and practice.  Merging these two concepts, Carter explains in simple, conversational language what it means to encounter God in community outside an institutional/traditional setting.  His focus on community addresses an area of Christian subculture that is, indeed, lacking.

The Nature of Community

Jesus’ words in John 13 are an indibtment against the American concept of Christianity:

“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35, NASB).

To our shame, the Church in the West is known by less-appealing characteristics.  We are viewed as hypocritcal, jaded to the suffering of our neighbors, and “out of touch” with the people we work and live among.  In countrast, Jesus desires that the primary means through which our witness goes out to the world is to be love expressed through authentic community.  Carter addresses this need for community head-on in his book.

The focus on community comes from Carter’s understanding of the Trinity.  In one section of his book, he explains how God is better described by the word “community” than “trinity,” which is, itself, a word foreign to our vocabulary.  The oneness of the Godhead is based on mutual submission, preferring one another.  It follows course, then, that the expression of Christ on earth through His body would model the same form of community that exists in the Godhead.

Every Believer A Functioning Member

Perhaps one of the best topics that Carter covers in his book is the idea of mutual participation in church gatherings.  Flowing from the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Cortinthians, Carter builds a case that expression of Jesus in our gatherings is dependant upon each believer actively functioning.  Just as my ear is not a complete expression of myself, neither is one member of Christ’s body the full expression of Christ.

In order for Christ to be expressed through our gatherings, each member must be unchained and released to actively participate.  The implications of this concept on the format of today’s typical church gathering are far-reaching.  In short, it involves a moving away from a clergy/laity hierarchy and replacing 45-minute monologues with round-robin, popcorn-style participation by each member of the Body.

Scorecard: A

Neil Carter presents a compelling case for a simple-church, faith-based community.  His viewpoints are balanced and backed up by scripture and personal experience.  I felt that he was not arguing for the restoration of the New Testament Church, but an examination of basic principles that should be at work in any gathering that bears the DNA of Christ Himself.

The book came with a CD by DeDe, a young woman who participates in the same gatherings as Carter.  In this first EP, DeDe expresses heartfelt songs of worship that birthed out these organic, simple gatherings of the saints.  Her lyrics are strong and thought-provoking.  Be sure to keep an eye out for this female artist in the future.

What would you do if you met someone you thought just might be one of Jesus’ original disciples still living in the 21st Century? That’s Jake’s dilemma as he meets a man who talks of Jesus as if he had known him, and whose way of living challenges everything Jake had previously known.

So You Don’t Want to Go To Church Anymore is Jake’s compelling journal that chronicles thirteen conversations with his newfound friend over a four-year period and how those exchanges turn Jake’s world upside-down. With his help, Jake faces his darkest fears, struggles through brutal circumstances and comes out on the other side in the joy and freedom he always dreamed was possible.

If you’re tired of just going through the motions of Christianity and want to mine the depths of what it really means to live deeply in Christ, you’ll find Jake’s story will give you hope for your own. This book probes the difficult questions and offers some far-reaching answers. It just might turn your world upside-down as well!

This book was written over four years and each chapter was first published on line in sequence. Now the final draft of that book is available in print. It has been a marvelous journey with so many contributions from those who have read and enjoyed it.

Click here to download the e-book (PDF)
(Right-click and select “Save Link As”)

Click here to download the gleanings for “So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore”(PDF)

(Right-click and select “Save Link As”)

GLEANINGS – What are They?

Several months ago, I decided to go through the time-intensive labor of typing out passages from books I read. The collection of quotes and comments came to be known as “gleanings.” If you want to read the gist of a book without flipping through all the pages, this format is for you. Consider it my version of “Cliff’s Notes.”

Rewritten and, well, reimagined for the 21st century, Frank remains a champion of church in the 1st century. But at its best, his is not a wooden literalism verging on fundamentalism, but an evocative appreciation for the peculiar genius of Jesus and his earliest followers for the ways Way-farers can arrange ourselves to most beautifully reflect God’s in-breaking kingdom.

Let’s face it: Viola’s earlier 2008 release Pagan Christianity was a rampaging bull in an ecclesiastical china shop. Called simplistic and mean-spirited by detractors and a prophetic call for renewal by its champions, all readers had this in common – we wanted more. Okay, Mr. Deconstructor, we said. We see how you can tear down someone else’s sand castle with gusto – now let’s see how you’d build your own. And build he does.

This book is a comprehensive re-visioning of what leadership, authority and accountability in a Trinity-rooted, organic church. If you’ve always had an inkling that you don’t need denominational “covering” or hierarchical authority fencing you in to be right with God (as an individual or church body), Reimagining will fund your biblical imagination with an alternative reading of Scripture that points to the dignity of each person in the church, encouraging relational and shared authority responsive to the leading of Christ alone.

“The body of Christ has been stifled by human traditions for far too long. Reimagining Church charts a fresh course for the church that recovers the simplicity of Christ and listens seriously to what the voice of the Great Shepherd is saying to His people.” – Jon Zens, editor, Searching Together and author of A Church Building Every ½ Mile: What Makes American Christianity Tick?

“True to form, this book contains a thoroughly consistent critique of prevailing forms of church. However, in Reimagining Church, Frank Viola also presents a positive vision of what the church can become if we truly reembraced more organic, and less institutional, forms of church. This is a no holds barred prophetic vision for the church in the twenty-first Century.” – Alan Hirsch, author of The Forgotten Ways and The Shaping of Things To Come

Click here to download the gleanings for “Reimaging Church”(PDF)
(Right-click and select “Save Link As”)

GLEANINGS – What are They?
Several months ago, I decided to go through the time-intensive labor of typing out passages from books I read. The collection of quotes and comments came to be known as “gleanings.” If you want to read the gist of a book without flipping through all the pages, this format is for you. Consider it my version of “Cliff’s Notes.”

After his martyrdom at the hands of the Gestapo in 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer continued his witness in the hearts of Christians around the world. His Letters and Papers from Prison became a prized testimony to Christian faith and courage, read by thousands. Now in Life Together we have Pastor Bonhoeffer’s experience of Christian community. This story of a unique fellowship in an underground seminary during the Nazi years reads like one of Paul’s letters. It gives practical advice on how life together in Christ can be sustained in families and groups. The role of personal prayer, worship in common, everyday work, and Christian service is treated in simple, almost biblical, words. Life Together is bread for all who are hungry for the real life of Christian fellowship.

Click here to download the gleanings for “Life Together”(PDF)
(Right-click and select “Save Link As”)

GLEANINGS – What are They?
Several months ago, I decided to go through the time-intensive labor of typing out passages from books I read. The collection of quotes and comments came to be known as “gleanings.” If you want to read the gist of a book without flipping through all the pages, this format is for you. Consider it my version of “Cliff’s Notes.”