charlieDEAN’S Blog

I’ve seen some buzz about this book and was intrigued so I read it on Monday.  The premise is this: Jim Henderson, a Christian invites Matt Casper, an atheist to visit some churches with him and tell him what he thinks.  So they jet around the country, mostly visiting churches that are far from representative (Saddleback, Dream Center LA, Willow Creek, Lakewood, Potter’s House) and then make generalizations about all churches that are predictably less than flattering.

I really liked this  book.  It was good to see the church through an atheists eyes.  Some of his observations that I thought insightful were:

• his skepticism towards large churches.  One of Casper’s questions that will stay with me for a long time was, “if the mark of a good university or college is a low teacher-student ratio, why do churches strive for larger pastor-attender ratios?”
• the observation that in very few of the churches did anyone outside of the “greeters” actually talk to them.
• his disbelief at the dollars spent on fog machines, lighting systems, massive buildings, etc.
• his bewilderment at the lack of conversation about what the church is doing in the community versus what they believe.

However, in the end, there was a lot that was pretty unfair about this book.  It was a shallow treatment of the churches, where assumptions trumped actual research and a desire to understand.

If you’re a church-dork (like me), you’ll really want to read this book - whether you agree or not — because I doubt that you’ve ever heard what an atheist thinks of how we do church.

summary: if you’re under 35 and don’t live in the fundamentalist camp, don’t waste your money on this book.  you already know and agree with pretty much everything they say, it won’t really reveal anything knew to you.  if you’re over 35…you must put this book on the top of your list, and don’t even think about doing “gen-x” ministry (or whatever y’all are calling it these days), before reading this.

okay, more thoughts: i’ll admit that there hasn’t been one Barna book that I’ve liked, because i generally don’t go for books from pollsters…in general.  in my opinion they’re just boring and descriptive rather than prescriptive.  this one, called unChristian is not from Barna himself (the high and exalted one), but from David Kinnamen who works at Barna’s company and at the request of Gabe Lyons decided to do some fairly extensive polling of young adults.  the result is something that if you work with young adults at all, or if you are one, you already know — either intuitively or anecdotally, you still know.  but if you’re the type that needs the polling data to affirm what you already know of our culture, then read away.

the other thought i had reading this book was, “i hope some boomers read this book.  it might make them think/lead differently, and they might believe it coming with the Barna seal of approval.”

if you’re curious as to what the polling data reveals, at the beginning of each chapter they have a quotation from someone polled, the perception and then what they believe the new perception should be — basically the whole chapter summarized in one page.   (i may have only read this part for the last chapter or two.

i guess, for me personally, this felt like a book that would have been adequate as a 10-12 page report with indexes of specific polling results.

no this isn’t about the Anne Murray song. (although, i have a strange memory of playing that song on vinyl a lot when i was a kid)

i’m re-reading Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard, which in my estimation should probably be the starting point for any significant discussion of spiritual formation. it’s brilliant.

anyway, i’m in chapter 7, “Transforming the Mind, 2″ and he’s talking about the balance between “reason” and “feelings,” and he says this:

“those who are wise will, accordingly, never allow themselves, if they can help it, to get in a position where they feel too deeply about any human matter. They will never willingly choose to allow feeling to govern them. they will carefully keep the pathway open to the house of reason and go there regularly to listen.”

i think i understand what he’s getting after. and i think in many ways i agree, but i read between the lines cold detachment from life in what he’s saying here, and that doesn’t sit well. not sure exactly what to think…

You only need to continue reading this post if…

(a) you own a mac, and (b) you’re a bibliophile like me, who is often loaning books out to people and not always getting them back.

Last week, a friend recommended a piece of software to me, that in one week has changed my life.  It’s called the Delicious Library, and it’s a library management system.  You scan your books into it using the bar codes on the back of the book (which are read by your iSight)…so sexy!

You can then loan them out to friends, and you can track who has your books, and it even automatically places a reminder on your iCalendar two weeks later!

So worth the cost of the software!  (and I found out that I have 396 books in my library, not including all my history books and the other books in our upstairs office)

And one more thing…you can also use it the same way with movies, music & games!

I’m an admitted bibliophile.

And yet, I was thinking to myself yesterday about how seldom I actually walk into a bookstore, much less purchase a book from one.  My reasons are three (”not two, not four, three” — name the movie?)

1. cheaper — why go into Borders or Barnes and Noble so they give you 25% off, when I can regularly buy from Amazon and get 32% off.
2. convenience — someone tells me about a good book, or I hear about a good book, I instantly add it to my shopping cart on Amazon.  Currently I think I have 3 or 4 books in my shopping cart, that when I’m ready I will purchase.
3.  on Amazon I can read reviews as well as see other books that are related (this is also dangerous, because I potentially buy more!)  At the bookstore, some freckle-faced kid might be able to tell me where the book is located, but that’s about it!

somebody, please defend the bookstore, cuz I’m at a loss!

Another Peterson quotation: 

“There can be no maturity in the spiritual life, no obedience in following Jesus, no wholeness in the Christian life apart from an immersion and embrace of community.  I am not myself by myself.  Community, not the highly vaunted individualism of our culture, is the setting in which Christ is at play.”

In what sense do you agree with E.P.?

In what sense do you disagree?

Sometimes, I think that some theologies are built on exceptions rather than the norm.  For example, one might say, “God still speaks audibly today.”  Which I think can be true.  But it’s also true that most of history is filled with God’s silence.  For every burning bush there are 400 years of slavery in which faith is worked out against the backdrop of silence.

Eugene Peterson hits this idea with this quotation in his book Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places:

Any understanding of God that doesn’t take into account God’s silence is a half truth — in effect, a cruel distortion — and leaves us vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation by leaders who are quite willing to fill in the biblical blanks with what the Holy Spirit never tells us. (p. 156)

Some may get depressed by this idea of working out faith against the backdrop of silence, but personally, this excites me because this is where things like the community of faith and the revelation of Scripture are so significant and meaningful.

This morning I finished A Testament of Devotion by Thomas R. Kelly.  What a great read!  I’ve posted a couple of quotes, but I’ll leave you with one more from the last paragraph of the book.  (If you never read this book, you still ought to consider reading the last chapter, at least!)

“Life from the Center is a life of unhurried peace and power.  It is simple.  It is serene.  It is amazing.  It is triumphant.  It is radiant.  It takes no time, but it occupies all our time.  And it makes our life programs new and overcoming.  We need not get frantic.  He is at the helm.  And when our little day is done we lie down quietly in peace, for all is well.”

I started reading Intuitive Leadership recently.  Tim Keel was 2 years ahead of me at DenSem, and I remember him as a very thoughtful, passionate, intelligent guy.  So, anyway, I loved this quotation a lot:

“The Bible is filled with stories that locate people in place and time, too, though we may not be used to seeing that way.  They are the same kinds of stories I describe above: secret stories, family stories, neighborhood stories, religious stories, political stories, cultural stories, stories that say there are no stories.  And somehow these seemingly disparate stories are placed within the scope of God’s story even though they are often not the kinds of things we expect to find in ‘Holy’ Scriptures: stories filled with murder, adultery, war, betrayal, assassination, but also love, sacrifice, friendship, transcendence, and the craziest people you could ever imagine.”

I usually hate these “tag” things, but this one was about books (ht: Dave) …I couldn’t resist…although picking just one book is like picking my favorite son…so I cheated:

01. One book that changed your life

An Unstoppable Force — Irwin McManus — made it crystal clear to me that I couldn’t stay in a traditional church

The Body — Charles Colson — God used this book to call me into the pastorate

02. One book that you’ve read more than once

A History of the American People — Paul Johnson

Mere Christianity — C.S. Lewis

03. One book you’d want on a desert island

I know that “The Bible” is supposed to be the “right answer,” but I’ll say Les Miserables by Victor Hugo — it’s long.

04. Two books that made you laugh

Couplehood — Paul Reiser

Flashbang — Mark Steele

05. One book that made you cry

Oh, this is embarrassing - Tilly - Frank Peretti — I was young and impressionable.

06. One book that you wish had been written

“How to eat junk food & still lose weight”

07. One book that you wish had never been written

The Prayer of Jabez — Bruce Wilkerson — Maybe he meant well, but it seems that this book just fuels more of the “gimme, gimme, gimme, I want, I want, I want” disease that plagues many of us Americans

08. Two books you’re currently reading

A Testament of Devotion — Thomas R. Kelly — on a recommendation from a spiritual advisor

Microtrends — Mark J. Penn — a gift from a friend and a fun read on statistics & trends in American culture
09. One book you’ve been meaning to read

Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places — Eugene Peterson — it’s been sitting on my shelf for 2 years…I started it once, and then got busy…and it’s the kind of book that’s going to take some focused attention. I intend to read it during Lent this year.
The Brothers Karamazov — Fyodor Doestovesky — Again, I started this once…it was a bad time of life to tackle what for me is a difficult read…it’s still on the shelf.