Twofer book reviews

It's been a while since I've posted a book review. I'm typically a blazing-fast reader, and finished one of the two books I'll be reviewing today in a couple of nights. But N.D. Wilson's Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl forced me to suspend my Evelyn Wood-style speed-reading habits in favor of the kind of slow savor I reserve for stunning, poetic writing. I don't downshift into first gear very often as a reader. Wilson's arresting, lyrical prose left me no other option.

Wilson's artful exploration of creation and re-creation is light-years beyond the heavy-footed exposition most Christian authors use to invite people into a deeper understanding of the Gospel. His words are art. And they are surgery:

I know little, but I know this: When you have died and your leaves have been raked, when you have looked on the face of God and had your final conversation, exchanging words others may never know, you will be where you want to be. If you cannot let go of yourself, if you cling to the filth that you've loved so long, stroking the cherished scabs that line your soul - hates and bitternesses that you cannot lay down, an imagined mirror picturing a glorious self - then He will push you away. You will be sent out into the darkness, far from His presence. You will not like the darkness, but the other option seems worse. You couldn't bear to be without those scabs. You will be in good company, wandering with preachers, priests and kings, and every lofty human unable to live without themselves. Many "righteous" will crowd into that corner with you, people who cannot imagine themselves as anything other than good, who cannot bend to a God who will not bend to them.

He references philosphy, art, science and literature in 14 chapters that are simultaneously raw and polished as sapphire. The book would make a wonderful gift for a literate friend who has weaned himself from sentimental, formulaic evangelical pulp. It is my new favorite book. Please buy it.

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Journalist Warren Cole Smith writes from a theological corner (Reformed) of the church adjacent to that of Wilson, and his book, A Lover's Quarrel with the Evangelical Church covers a small bit of overlapping territory. However, Smith's work is diagnostic in nature, and focuses, as the title implies, on the woes of modern evangelicalism.

Those woes are not breaking news to anyone who has been involved in the evangelical world: provincialism, sentimentality, the merchandising of faith, media, decisions instead of disciples, megachurches. Smith is a seasoned reporter, and illustrates each of his points with solid, supportive stories.

Though he occasionally offers some prescriptions for these woes (church multiplication by church-planting congregations instead of the bigger/better/more of mega-church addition, for instance) the book's focus leans toward thoughtful lament. He doesn't offer many solutions for the problems he describes.

Five or ten years ago, this book would have been cutting edge critique. But there has been soooo much written about the often-unlovable evangelical church during the last decade that it didn't feel like much new ground was covered in this volume. It would be a quick primer for someone new to the subject matter, and I hope that Smith considers penning a follow-up that offers a way forward from this sad, hurty place in which we find ourselves.

Primary-colored promises

I admit it. I love the sight of school supplies making their yearly center-stage appearance. Blank pages and unsharpened pencils await their call to duty for everything from the circle-stick-hook of a wobbly first ABC on through spelling tests, crush notes, algebra equations and first-day essays that always begin, "I spent my summer vacation..."

School supplies are primary-colored promises: something magical will happen if I open a box of brand-new crayons. I even wrote about my yearly Crayola jones in Uprooted:

Every August, school supplies blossom in the aisle of Target and Walgreens like sunflowers. Packages of wide-ruled filler paper. Eight solid ovals of watercolor paint toeing the line in a narrow plastic container. Glue sticks. Octagon-sided yellow #2 pencils.

This past August was the first time in a couple of decades that I couldn’t think of a single reason to buy some new crayons. No one in my family needed Raw Sienna, Carnation Pink or Teal Green for their school projects. It made me feel so sad.

Young adults, which is what our kids have become, don’t really think much about crayons until the time comes to buy them for their own kids. Every house needs a freshly painted wall adorned with Violet Red scrawls like ours once was. During my crayon mourning period, I was talking to an acquaintance named Tammy who mentioned that she was going to be taking her elementary-age kids for the traditional Buying Of The School Supplies that afternoon. I told Tammy that I felt sad that I didn’t have to buy crayons for anyone at my house.

When I saw her a few days after that conversation, she handed me a sky blue 2-pocket folder and a box of 24 brand-new crayons. I didn’t mention my crayon jones to anyone else that I can think of. Yet not more than a week after Tammy handed me those crayons and bonus folder, I discovered that someone had put 3 packages of colored pencils and another box of crayons in my mailbox at work. No one could explain why I’d received this anonymous gift...

I wrote those words a couple of years ago. Fast forward to July, 2009: To supplement my free-lance writing life, experience and income, I recently began a new part-time position as Communications Director for Catalyst Lake County. (My other new part-time job is as a caregiver for Visiting Angels, a home health care agency.) Catalyst coodinates a wonderful ministry initiative each summer called the ShareFest Backpack Drive. Click here to read a local paper's coverage of this summer's drive.

As I read the article, it struck me - a Neon Green ah ha!

I once again have a perfect excuse to buy some crayons.

What's a nice Jewish girl...?

Though I felt like I washed ashore schlepping my meager possessions and broken heart on the door step of our church a couple of years ago, more refugee than pilgrim, I am hardly alone.

"One of the more interesting of many religious movements taking place in this country today is the quiet movement of many evangelical leaders...away from evangelical churches to more historical and liturgical expressions of faith. Billy Graham was a counder of Christianity Today magazine, but today many of its editors and contributors are Anglican or Orthodox. Some of those on staff of Chuck Colson's organization are Anglican or Roman Catholic." (from A Lover's Quarrel with the Evangelical Church)

Robert Webber wrote persuasively about the Evangelical-to-Anglican trend several years ago in his book Evangelicals On The Canterbury Trail. There has been coverage recently of the very high profile leader Todd Hunter (Vineyard, Alpha) becoming the newest bishop in the Anglican Mission in America, the same Rwanda-led branch of the Anglican communion of which our church is a part.

I occasionally find myself astonished during a Sunday morning service and want to turn to ask those around me: What's a nice Jewish Fundy/Evangelical/Charismatic girl like me doing saying the Nicene Creed every week with all y'all?

I would love to hear from you if you have made a journey from one corner of the church to another (far-flung) corner, especially if you find yourself asking a variant of the question above. I'm brooding over a possible writing idea. Please feel free to e-mail me at mishvl@yahoo.com to share a bit of your experience.

Michelle's bookmobile

Does anyone else remember the bookmobile coming to their neighborhood on a steamy summer day? Even though the vehicle reminded me of the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, I loved the idea of a library-on-wheels, parking two blocks from my house. How did they know that this 8 year-old reading addict needed a regular fix throughout the long summer months? Most kids wanted to play in the street until late at night. I wanted to mainline biographies of Helen Keller and Mark Twain. W-A-T-E-R, indeed.

No bookmobile in stops by the neighborhood where I live these days. But yesterday, the mailman brought me two books on my newly-created amazon wish list: Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down The Bones: Freeing the Writer Within and Angry Conversations With God by Susan Isaacs. Though they're not free like the ones from the Weiner-With-Books, my reading crack is here, waiting to be inhaled.

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One other way I guarantee myself a regular supply of books is by writing reviews of occasional new releases from Thomas Nelson. Here's a review of Andy Stanley's The Principle Of The Path:

I'm facing 50. The impending Big Day has had me wondering if this is my one last chance to change direction in my life. Though I tend to avoid both self-help books and titles promising a magic formula of some kind, I picked up Andy Stanley's newest book wondering if I might find a nugget of wisdom for the next leg of the journey.

Stanley, the son of a well-known Baptist tele-preacher, writes with a disarming and decidedly non-churchy voice. It doesn't feel like he's trying too hard to be earnest or relevant. He's simply sharing some practical wisdom about how to change one's life direction in the book's ten easy-to-read chapters. The book also includes a study/discussion guide with some helpful reflection questions.

The book is basically a motivational speech. Though that statement sounds like a criticism, I actually mean it in a favorable way. Sometimes, we all need a coach to come alongside of us and remind us of where we're going, how to get there, and to stop eating cold corn dogs for breakfast. Andy Stanley is that coach, and I appreciated his kind, firm good-natured technique in The Principle Of The Path. I did indeed find a giant nugget of wisdom (Chapter 4, about regrets), and a gentle course correction in its pages.

R.I.P. Charismatic movement?

I've been a Christ-follower since my mid-teens. About half of that time has been spent in Charismatic churches. I've seen signs, wonders, deliverances, fakers, spiritual abusers and epic moral flame-outs, sometimes all at the same church service. I've lived through the second wave and the third. In the West, the recent years have been characterized by some headline-grabbing Charismatic charlatans whose claim to 15-minute fame usually came because they misused or manufactured power gifts, gave their followers dramatic ecstatic experiences and promised prosperity.

Though there are some of these same abuses in the church across the global South and East, charismatic practice and belief are integrated into the explosive growth happening there, rather than being a separate, controversial "Movement" as it usually has been here. Isn't this how its supposed to work? When it does, there is nothing more breath-taking and life-giving.

Though there are theology and tradition reasons a-plenty why charismatic believers formed their own congregations and conferences (and why non-charismatic believers thought this was a dandy idea), in the end "ghetto-ization" has hurt all of us. In our mutual shared fear of coming down with the Swine Flu of religion, heresy, and either John MacArthur or Benny Hinn, we started our chainsaws and amputated one another. Memo to Bride: I don't think this was what Jesus was asking us to do when He said, "If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell" (Mt. 5:29).

J. Lee Grady, the editor of Charisma magazine, recently penned a sort of epitath for the Charismatic movement here in the West. Grady's words are not without hope, but need to be read in the context of the rising tide of statisticians and prophets alike from across the ecclesiological spectrum in the Body of Christ telling us, quite simply, that a lot of us have wandered just beyond earshot of our Shepherd's Voice. Clogged ears are an equal-opportunity employer.

If there is a "third day" church being resurrected from the receding or dying areas of the Body (and I believe there is), Paul's prescriptive description in 1 Cor. 12 will absolutely characterize this beautiful Bride. I am praying that resurrection begins with our shared sense of hearing.

I can't get this image out of my mind

I saw this image on the Jesus Creed blog a few days ago, and I can't get it out of my mind. I don't think I'm meant to.

Please pray for true justice for the people of Iran. Pray for the church in Iran during this time of upheaval.

The sentence that changed my writing life

About 7 years ago, I attended Karitos, a arts conference for Christians. The conference has workshop tracks in a variety of different disciplines including sound/tech, visual arts, dance, writing, worship leading, theater and the business side of music production. Conferees aren't required to lock into a specific track when they register - they're free to attend whatever workshop they like. Some people lock in on one discipline throughout the conference. Others take the smorgasbord approach, filling their plates with creative input from as many different tracks as their schedules allow.

Though I was there with the dance ministry from our church in WI, I'd planned to treat Karitos as a creative Old County Buffet that year. I'd attend a dance workshop or two with the team from church, but planned to sample some theater and writing workshops as well.

My plans changed when I found myself in a playwriting workshop with a veteran New York director. (His name escapes me right now, I'm afraid.) He told us we'd each be developing a 10-minute play in his series of workshops at the conference. He'd instruct, we'd go off and write. We'd come back and read, and he (and the others in the workshop) would critique. And then we'd do it all over again.

I came to Karitos that year with some playwriting experience. I'd sold a fair number of skits to church publishers, and had been through the development process with 3 full-length plays. But I'd never huddled in a tiny, out-of-the-way classroom at a conference with a half a handful of other writers and bared my soul as I incubated an idea. It was a safe, supportive environment and transformed the grueling first draft process into a joyful, revelatory experience.

But it was a single sentence in the first workshop of the day that changed my life as a writer and caused me to scrap my plans to snack on a variety of different sessions. The theater instructor encouraged us to brainstorm ideas for our scripts. I wrote down a couple, and knew immediately that one of them had live current flowing through it.

"Your script could go like that," the instructor said, affirming each of us with our initial ideas. "...or it could go like this." He asked us to push at our initial concept, and come up with another storyline based on it. At first, I congratulated myself for coming up with a second idea that was even stronger than my first script concept. Until he made us do this two more times. My first and second ideas were good, and I wanted to rest there. But his words wouldn't let me. He asked me to dig far deeper into unsurveyed terrain than I'd ever done before. I was terrified I would hit a hollow cave. The gut-twisting process forced me to confront my fears, and compelled me to discover the real truth buried inside that first good idea.

I spent most of the rest of the conference scripting the fourth variation of that idea. (If you're curious, I have it written in story form, and I'd be glad to send it to you to read.)

Though I loved brainstorming, and well knew that the first idea was hardly ever the finished product, I'd never had anyone goad me on like that before. When I'm starting a writing project now, I still hear his words: "It could go like that...or it could go like this." They keep me from doing the easy thing. Or the first one.

Writers, speakers, teachers, pastors - what simple sentence has changed the way you approach your work?

P.S. - This year's Karitos will be held in Bolingbrook on July 16-18. Check it out here. I'll be teaching a couple of workshops this year, praying that some in attendance will have the kind of breakthrough I did a few years ago. Other writing instructors this year include Keri Wyatt Kent, Nicole Mazzarella and Diane Eble.

From Eternity To Here Q & A

I loved Frank Viola's latest book, From Eternity To Here, so when his ministry team offered readers an opportunity to be a part of a blog tour today, I jumped on the bandwagon. I had the opportunity to ask Frank a couple of questions as well as join the conversation taking place around the blogsphere today about the book. My questions (and Frank's answers) are below, followed by a list of other blogs participating in the tour today.

(1) If the pastor and leadership team of an institutional, evangelical program- and building-centered church were to read From Eternity To Here and all were to deeply embrace the paradigms you present in the book, what might that church look like a year from now? Please be as specific as you can.

I think that church would be heading more toward community. It would be more Christ-centered. And I also think that if they took the entire message to heart, they would rethink their leadership structures, their mode of operations, and what they did in their services or gatherings. I’ve had some pastors tell me that after reading the book, they’ve begun a journey of knowing the Lord anew and afresh. And they are rethinking many things they had assumed, but now are admitting do not work.

(2) Which of the three paradigms (Bride, House, Family) has impacted you the most? Why? How has it changed the way you relate to God? To other believers? To those who don't yet believe?

They all have. The Bride of Christ has caused me to see my Lord as a passionate Lover and so I’ve learned to join the eternal love relationship that’s been going on before time between the Father and the Son. The House of God has caused me to see that I cannot live the Christian life by myself. I need other “living stones” with which to be built together to form a habitation for God’s pleasure –a Bethany , a place where Christ can lay His head and where He can find rest and reception. The Family of God has caused me to see my fellow Christians as real brothers and sisters and to see that I share the same life that Jesus, the Firstborn Son, does. The life of God.

OTHER BLOGS PARTICIPATING IN THE “FROM ETERNITY TO HERE” BLOG CIRCUIT
Today (June 9th), the following blogs are discussing Frank Viola’s new bestselling book “From Eternity to Here” (David C. Cook, 2009). The book just hit the May CBA Bestseller List. Some are posting Q & A with Frank; others are posting full reviews of the book. To read more reviews and order a copy at a 33% discount, go to Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Eternity-Here-Rediscovering-Ageless-Purpose/dp/1434768708/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233609867&sr=1-4

For more resources, such as downloadable audios, the free Discussion Guide, the Facebook Group page, etc. go to the official website: http://www.FromEternitytoHere.org
Enjoy the reviews and the Q and A:
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Out of Ur - http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2009/05/viola.html
Shapevine – www.Shapevine.com (June newsletter)
Brian Eberly - http://www.brianeberly.com
DashHouse.com - http://www.DashHouse.com/
Greg Boyd - http://www.gregboyd.org/blog/
Vision Advance - http://vision2advance.blogspot.com/
David Flowers - http://ddflowers.wordpress.com
Kingdom Grace - http://kingdomgrace.wordpress.com
Captain's Blog - http://www.captainestes.blogspot.com/
Christine Sine - http://godspace.wordpress.com
Darin Hufford - The Free Believers Network - www.freebelievers.com
Zoecarnate - http://zoecarnate.wordpress.com
Church Planting Novice - www.churchplantingnovice.wordpress.com
Staying Focused - http://kimmartinezstayingfocused.wordpress.com/
Take Your Vitamin Z - www.takeyourvitaminz.blogspot.com
Jeff Goins - http://jeffgoins.myadventures.org
Bunny Trails - http://bunny-trails.blogspot.com
Matt Cleaver - http://mattcleaver.com
Jason T. Berggren - http://blog.jasonberggren.com/
Simple Church - http://www.simplechurchjournal.com/
Emerging from Montana - http://wordofmouthministries.blogspot.com/
Parable Life - http://www.theparablelife.blogspot.com
Oikos Australia - http://www.oikos.org.au/blog/
West Coast Witness - www.WestCoastWitness.com
Keith Giles - http://www.Keith.Giles.com
Consuming Worship — http://www.consumingworship.org
Tasha Via - www.tashavia.blogspot.com
Andrew Courtright - www.andrewcourtright.blogspot.com
ShowMeTheMooneys! – http://www.showmethemooneys.com/
Leaving Salem, Blog of Ronnie McBrayer - http://leavingsalem.wordpress.com/
Jason Coker - pastoralia.missionaltribe.org
From Knowledge to Wisdom - http://isthistheway.typepad.com/
Home Brewed Christianity - http://www.homebrewedchristianity.com
Dispossessed - http://kblog.kevinjbowman.com
Dandelion Seeds - http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dandelionseeds
David Brodsky's Blog- "Flip the tape Deck" - http://flipthetapedeck.blogspot.com/
Chaordic Journey - http://jeffrhodes.wordpress.com
Renee Martin - http://www.reneemartinmusic.com/profiles/blog/list
Bob Kuhn - http://organicchurchnola.wordpress.com/
Living with Freaks: www.livingwithfreaks.com
Real Worship - http://therealworshipleader.com
Fervent Worship - http://ferventworship.blogspot.com
Julie Ferwerda Blog - www.JulieFerwerda.com / www.OneMillionArrows.com
What's With Christina?! - http://w2christina.blogspot.com
Irreligious Canuck - http://www.irreligiouscanuck.com
This day on the journey - http://guychmieleski.blogspot.com
Live and Move: Thoughts on Authentic Christianity - http://liveandmove.blogspot.com/
Spiritual Journey With God - http://www.elvineve.blogspot.com/
Dries Conje - http://www.echurch.co.za / http://www.thejesusfeed.com / http://www.bookdisciple.com.
Journey with Others - http://journeywithothers.blogspot.com
On Now to the Third Level - www.080808onnowto.blogspot.com
Christine Moers - www.welcometomybrain.net
Breaking Point - http://marybethstockdale.wordpress.com
Hand to the Plough - http://www.handtotheplough.com.au
Jon Reid - http://jonreid.blogs.com/oneanother/welcome-pilgrim.html
Weblight - www.blog.worldwidewebservices.se
D. L. Webster - http://gzmproductions.com/dlwebster
Searching for the Whole-Hearted Life - wholeheartedlife.blogspot.com

Note from Michelle: Not sure why the hyperlinks aren't working on the list of sites above - I do encourage you to visit some of these other sites, but you'll have to do it via cut `n pasting.

Unmuzzling a revolutionary

I found the post below on Monday Morning Insight, a website targeted at evangelical church leaders, with a strong and uncritical bias towards the big box and multi-site folks. In the midst of all the cheerleading that goes on at MMI for strategic leadership culture, someone will post an occasional gem from an opposing voice. These gems stand out like diamonds set in charcoal.

The post below is one of those gems. I tried to find its orginal source on the web, but was unable to do so. I have a couple of observations about Choudhrie's list at the conclusion of this post.

*Victor Choudhrie's 15 essential steps for changing traditional churches into New Testament churches.

1. Replace professional clergy with Priesthood of all Believers with authority to baptize, break bread and equip fishers of men. (1 Peter 2:9)

2. Replace Church building with "House of Peace." (Luke 10:5-9; Matt. 10:11-13)

3. Replace programmed Sunday service with daily informal gatherings. The Bride of Christ must have intimacy with her Lord every day and not just for a couple of hours a week lest she become unfaithful. (Acts 2:46-47; Hebrew 3:13)

4. Replace tithing with sharing the enormous financial resources and goodwill available in Christian homes. (Deut. 8:17-18; Acts 5:32-34)

5. Replace the "Crumb and Sip" Holy Communion with simple "Community meals" eaten together with gladness from house to house. (Acts 2:46; 1 Cor 11:20-23)

6. Replace loud music with speaking to each other in psalms and spiritual songs making melody in your heart. (Eph 5:19; Col 3:16)

7. Replace the spectator church to participatory, interactive, prophetic and Missionary sending church. (1 Cor 14:26-31; Acts 13:13)

8. Replace organizational and denominational churches with citywide network of house churches. (Romans 16:3-15)

9. Replace barren church with multiplication. The Bride must not remain barren, but reproduce and fill the earth. (Acts 1: 8; 1 Cor 9: 19-30)

10. Replace submitting to one man - by submitting to each other. We must encourage, comfort, exhort, edify and serve one another. (Galatians 5: 13; Eph. 4: 2, 15)

11. Replace purposeless church with a goal oriented mandate to disciple nations. (Romans 15: 20; Matt. 28: 19)

12. Replace powerless and fruitless church with militants who heal the sick, raise the dead, expel the demons, bind the ‘strongman’ and plunder his possessions. (Matt 11:12, 12:29)

13. Replace all presidents, directors, chairman, secretaries and all the other non-biblical titles with apostles, prophets, and the fivefold ministry gifted elders. Change from a dead organization to living organism. (Eph 4:11; Titus 1:5-9)

14. Replace all Sunday schools, Bible schools, and prayer cells and cottage meetings and call them full-fledged churches. So that they can disciple, baptize, break bread, equip and send missionaries. (1 Cor 16:19; Col 4:15)

15. Replace all selfish goats who are members for hatching, matching and dispatching with sheep who take care of the hungry, thirsty, naked, strangers, sick and the prisoners. (Matt. 25:31-46)

*Victor Choudhrie is a cancer surgeon by profession. He is a senior Fellow of the American and British colleges of surgeons. He quit his job as the Director (CEO) of the Christian Medical college, Ludhiana in Punjab, India in 1992 to take up full time Church planting ministry in central India. His wife Bindu is also in full time church planting ministry, equipping women to be house church leaders and trainers. God has blessed this ministry abundantly. Large numbers of grassroots level leaders have been trained who have planted thousands of house churches all over India as a result.

My first response to this post was "This is what I signed up for over three decades ago!" As a young Christ-follower, I read my Bible and dreamed of being a part of a revolution that looked like this list. You know what? I still have the dream, though its been tempered by the reality that getting from here to there isn't all that simple. Even those who lived closest to the spiritual Ground Zero of the church - those in the Upper Room at Pentecost/Shavuot in Jerusalem a week and a half after Christ's ascension - struggled (quite clumsily, at times) with questions a-plenty about how to function as a waiting Bride in their new kingdom reality.

I imagine most churches would like to believe they're following a first-century model. Bill and I have been a part of churches across the theological and ecclesiological spectrum, including a valiant year and a half attempt at house churching. Each congregation claimed to have at least some of the items above as their own core values and practices. And, perhaps they have, though the values and practices have often been de-fanged and tamed. (See #12.)

But though I have a hearty "amen" to the list, I wonder how to get from here to there, especially when it comes to items like #3, #8 and #15. (And honestly, I think we can do #6 amped.) I have lots of questions, and the uneasy awareness that many of us here aren't really interested in going there at all.

And I have to ask myself if I'm really, really willing to pay the price to move from here to there. True confession: I've sort of acclimated to here and learned to muzzle that 15 year-old revolutionary inside of me. Every time I pray, "Your kingdom come", it yanks the muzzle off of her.

But if I keep it off...what happens next?

Behind the locked door

If you look just beyond the crowd of tourists in this picture, you'll see a set of steps and a small door. The door is locked. From a different angle in the room, you can see a small, high window sharing the wall with the door. The shrine in which we were standing was built much later.

No one is allowed to access that locked room, the traditional site on Mt. Zion of both Jesus' final Passover meal and then, 50 days later, Pentecost. (Interesting note: the site of King David's tomb is almost directly below this site.)

Those who attend congregations using the church year calendar to structure their times of corporate worship will be celebrating Pentecost tomorrow. Just prior to His ascension, the resurrected Jesus had instructed his disciples to hang around Jerusalem for a few more days to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. They'd been counting the days from Passover to Shavuot, and they were going to need to be in Jerusalem to celebrate Shavuot, one of the key feasts ordained by God for His people.

The cataclysmic events of Pentecost fulfill the joy of Shavuot. The holy day marks the day God spoke to His pilgrim people with The Ten at Mt. Sinai 50 days after they'd been delivered from Pharaoh. The tablets transformed them from a tribe who had patriarchs who'd spoken with God to a people with whom the Creator spoke. Each one of them could know His character; each one could know how to honor their Deliverer with their lives.

We know the difference between "could" and "actually did" was why Christ came for us - and it is what makes what happened in that upper room so stunning. The Holy Spirit came just as Jesus promised, and transforms our stone-cold hearts:

"This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people." (Jer. 31:33)

We often focus on the amazing gift - God Himself, breathing in us - on Pentecost. We love the heaven on earth of signs and wonders; we pray to speak with the same tongues of fire that translated God's glory to Jews gathered for Shavuot in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven.

There was a divine purpose in sending the gift of the Holy Spirit to baptize Christ's followers in that plain room, in that location, on that specific day. The joy of receiving the law on Sinai is both amplified and fulfilled on Mt. Zion on Shavuot/Pentecost. May the connection between the two intoxicate you just a little bit today with the wonders of God.

Memorial Day Q & A

These questions were asked of us today by our 5-year old grandson. How would you answer them?

1. What does a soldier do?
2. Is Memorial Day for Kasmir Pulaski? (Illinois residents will understand this one.)
3. Where is heaven?
4. What kind of punishment did Jesus get?
5. Why can't I see Him right now?
6. Can I have a blue and green bike?

Peace that passes understanding?

My friend's husband has been gravely ill for months. After a couple of extended hospital stays and multiple surgeries to save his life, he was transferred to a long-term care facility to begin the healing process in earnest. A few days ago, he got sick again - a scary step back into life-threatening illness.

Everything has changed for this family, from the mundane (lawn mowing tasks are being handled by someone else this spring) to the once-in-a-lifetime (my friend's oldest daughter is getting married in mid-June; having dad walk her up the aisle has taken on a completely different meaning for the family). The future they were all expecting has been radically, permanently re-scripted by this experience.

When I checked in with her yesterday, I was struck afresh by the kind of peace my friend was experiencing in the midst of this terrifying battle.

Was she exhibiting an eerie emotional placidity (think Ghandi on Xanax)? Was she able to disconnect from her grieving, scared, exhausted emotions so she could walk through this long valley as if she was taking a nature hike on a sunny day? Not at all. Actually, her emotions are quite understandaby all over the place right now. But there was a deep sense of surrender to God's eternal purposes, and a singular, ravenous desire to cling to each word He is speaking into her life right now. She is at peace, even though she is living in the middle of a war zone.

What does "the peace that passes all understanding" really mean? This favorite Christian phrase is often shorthand for "an irrational sense of emotional calm". Is Jesus talking about our emotional state here?

"All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." - John 14:25-27

On one hand, yes. He emphasizes his promise of peace with an imperative encouragement not to be afraid, not to allow turmoil to reign in our souls. However, if you look at the order of His words, you'll see that Jesus is not turning the reining in our of panicky hearts into a behavioral goal, but an expression of a life in unbroken communion with the Holy Spirit.

The Comforter comes to teach us, to bring to active remembrance all Jesus has told us. The Spirit expresses to us all the Son has said because the Son has put an end to our long war with His Father. This is no truce. My friend is being held inside the embrace of the Trinity. It is a place of true shalom. She is whole, she is safe, and she is experiencing eternity's shalom in each roller-coaster moment of her husband's battle.

She is at peace.

Book review: The Hole in our Gospel

Saved by faith. Saved for works.

Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision, describes the relationship between faith and works in his compelling book The Hole In Our Gospel (Nelson). I expected the president of World Vision to take on the Western church's blindness toward both the practical and spiritual needs of the rest of the world. What I didn't expect from this readable book was the gentle humility with which Stearns writes. He is not a compassion superstar. He is a guy who thinks and talks like most of us. His honesty about his unwillingness to make a lifestyle change drew me into the book.

He thought he'd paid the cost of discipleship by being involved at church, being a generous donor, keeping his kids enrolled in Christian schools, and sponsoring a few World Vision kids. He was living an upper-class suburban Christian life in his position as the CEO of Lenox, the china company when a headhunter overseeing an executive-level search on behalf of a non-profit called him.

Stearns recounted the phone call:

"The way I see it, you seem to be looking for someone who is part CEO, part Mother Theresa, and part Indiana Jones, and I don't know anyone like this. You might find two out of three, but probably not all three. But I'll keep my eyes and ears open, and if I think of someone, I'll be sure to call you." I was kind of hoping to keep this call as short as possible. It was dangeous.

But then came the other standard question headhunters tend to ask: "What about you?" he said. "Would you have an interest in this job?"

"Me?" I laughed uncomfortably. "I don't think so. I am not qualified, not interested, and not readily available." What did I know about the poor anyway - didn't this guy remember I was running a luxury goods company? This was crazy.

It turned out not to be crazy at all. It turned out to be God's calling - and the messy process of uprooting his family, taking a huge pay cut, and having his heart broken with the things that break God's heart form the structure for this worthwhile book. When Stearns quotes data about poverty, AIDS, or the need for clean drinking water, it is tied to his own learning curve as a Christ-follower. The stories he tells will stay with you (the story of Margaret forgiving the man who mutilated her still haunts me, days after reading it).

The book comforts, confronts, and invites - and is a worthwhile read for anyone who is disquieted by the words in the book of James:

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.But someone will say, 'You have faith; I have deeds.' Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do." - James 2:14-18

And that "anyone" should be each one of us who calls themselves a Christ-follower.

(Note: My copy of The Hole in our Gospel was a review copy from the Thomas Nelson book bloggers program.)

Ritual

My parents made me come home from college to participate in my high school graduation ceremony. I'd finished high school a semester early so I could dive into college life, and the thought of getting on a train and heading home for a stupid ceremony commemorating a milestone I'd passed a month earlier really annoyed me. I went, of course, striding across the John Hersey High School auditorium stage on a snowy January night in 1977. I went because my parents insisted. The whole thing seemed pointless. Why did I need to pause my my new life as a college student so I could march across a stage in a ghoulish black robe and hideous piece of headgear that steamrolled my mini-Afro?

That's what almost all high school students say. (OK, maybe not the ones who don't sport a Mod Squad hairstyle. And if you have to ask what Mod Squad is, you probably don't have the `do.) Many college students, especially at large state-run schools, stay away from their graduation ceremonies in large numbers.

When Bill got his Masters' degree a couple of years ago, I had a bit of an "ah ha!" about the importance of these ritualized rite-of-passage events in our lives. Every person at graduation - the professors, the administrators, the friends and families, and the students themselves - came to honor something bigger than ourselves, and bigger than the individual lives of any one of them. Each one had completed an expensive, difficult goal. All of them had completed the goal at the same place and time. I realized that the stiff, starchy corporate ceremony emphasized the impact of each individual's accomplishments. Hearing Bill's name read and seeing him cross the stage to receive his (empty) diploma (case) was one of the nicest moments of my life to date. It was a surprise to discover such joy inside what I'd always thought of as a dry ritual.

Our son Ben graduated from North Park University this weekend, magna cum laude in both Creative Writing and Philosophy. He could have handed us his transcript and we would have been extremely proud of him. But seeing him garbed in his gown, mortarboard and gold honors tassels hallowed the moment for us in a completely different way. It was another of the most joyous moments of my life.

Talkin' `bout my/your generation

A good percentage of us boomers who came to faith in Christ in our teens are the the Jesus Movement's direct offspring. But we know that our offspring are increasingly distancing themselves from the kind of faith practice that grew in the rock-n-roll soil of this hippie-style revival. (Check out the trippy chart accompanying this sad, sobering blog post that tells the story of nextgen faith migration.)

So I wonder...what is the legacy of the Jesus Movement?
CCM?
Church buildings that look like corporate office parks and function like religious community centers?
A presentation of the gospel that relies more on making the sale instead of changing a life?
Therapy?
A faddish approach to Christian spirituality that generates a lot of sprinters but relatively few marathoners?
One leader after another after another caught in sexual sin?
Goosebumps as a spiritual gift?
The desire to experience Malachi 4:6 in our families without anyone to show us how because we'd learned that no one over 30 ("suits" and authority figures) was to be trusted?
The Republican Party?
Lifestyles that mirror the ugliest parts of our culture instead of the counter-culture that initially beckoned us?
Power hoarded and spent on ourselves?

My soul cries out, "I don't want my faith in Christ to be a hiccup in the long history and future of my family, a one-generation "experience", an abberation. This is not what I signed up for."

Asaph the psalmist, sang these words as a declaration to the generation up and down the line from himself. This song is a bit of an antithesis to Jesus Movement values:
O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in parables,I will utter hidden things, things from of old-what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us.We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD,his power, and the wonders he has done. (Ps.78:1-4)

A few weeks ago at a local prayer conference, I had the privilege of teaching a workshop on the parable of the persistent widow. About 75% of the people in my workshop were there because they had prodigal kids. Maybe a better way to put it was that there were a lot of us in that room whose kids weren't buying the kind of faith our generation has been peddling. The sobering reality that the malnourished generation behind us is eschewing the empty calories of boomer faith culture and is in search of something substantial. Something like the kind of sustenance Asaph encouraged his peers to feed to their children: parables, testimonies, demonstrations of God's power. The call was to introduce children to the wonder of God Himself instead of a diet of spiritual Twinkies, disposable trinkets and forgettable experiences.

At times, I have been guilty in my own family of participating and promoting Christian sub-culture instead of Christ - and I grieve this. I mourn my willingness to be parented by my peers (a core value of the Jesus Movement) instead of learning to be a part of a kindgom community with older, wiser voices who could sing Asaph's lyrics in my life. And at the same time, I bless the work of the Spirit, the messy and miraculous way He was moving among an entire generation of lost children like me.

As I move toward my 50th birthday, I wish only one gift for my kids and for all of their generation: Faith that will save them from their sins, and from the consequences of ours.

Agree? Disagree? Why?

Waiting at gate C-8 at Ben Gurion Airport

- Did you know you can get corn on your pizza in Israel?

- The day before Israeli Independence Day is a solemn day known as Yom Hazikaron (Israeli Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day). At 11:00 AM, the air raid sirens sounded. Everything in the country comes to a halt. Cars stop. People freeze in place on sidewalks and in office buildings. They stand at attention, in silence for two minutes. Remembrance is personal in the country, a present-tense reality instead of the domain of the old gents down at the VFW on the US Memorial Day.

- Looking at the Israeli faces on the streets around Jerusalem, both Arab and Jew alike, and then visiting some of the Catholic and Orthodox shrines erected on the places where Jesus ministered gives me a bit of a disconnect. He and His disciples (and His mama and papa) are depicted in such gentile ways. I've always felt it, but this visit to Israel amplified the dissonance. Lots of history and reasons for this - most all of it very sad and shameful.

- If you want to see modern Jerusalem in action, nothing beats the people watching on Ben Yehuda Street.

- Even with all the prayer and religious activity going on across Jerusalem (Jewish, Muslim and various stripes of Christianity), the best moments with God for many are found when they tuck themselves into a corner and simply connect with the deep longing for Him that saturates every atom of this place. The cry, "The Spirit and the Bride say come" animates that desire for believers.

- In Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum, there was a single plaque mentioning 2,000 Jews who had "converted to Christianity" who were herded into one of the ghettos along with all of their other Jewish brethren. I would like to point this plaque out to those who have told me over the years that my faith in Jesus trumps my heritage/ethnic identity/religion, and remind them that it is not so simple. If there is another wave of persectution (and there will be), the one-two combo of my faith and my heritage will get me a place at the front of the line. Lord, may I be ready to stand for You today, and in that day.

- On both trips here, I have been asked by Israeli security if I had another passport besides my U.S. one. (Bill has not.) Not sure what to make of this question.

- The Caspari Center (www.caspari.com) has cataloged all of the newspaper articles from the mid-1970's on relating to Messianic Judiasm in Israel. It is a goldmine for historians are tracing the growth of the Messianic movement here in the land.

- We met an Arab born-again Chrstian man named Isa running an olivewood tchotchke shop in the Old City. As we discussed our shared faith in Christ, we embraced and laughed and prayed. This sweet, joyous moment was a highlight of our last day in the city.

- I can't wait to come back. I leave a piece of my heart here. Or maybe it was here all along, and I found it during the two wonderful visits I've had this year.

Shalom from Jerusalem!

We made it after 24 grueling hours of travel. It feels like we never left Jerusalem, perhaps because we left a piece of our hearts here in February.

We at dinner looking at a view like this one, and we tasted the goodness of God. More to follow. Time to have our friend, the cheerful blue butterfly named Ms. Lunesta, flutter in and sprinkle some of her pixie dust on us so we can get some sleep.

Hit 'shuffle' on the question play list

So many questions...Feel free to give me some answers. Or add some random questions of your own!

Do you view yourself as a spiritual settler, a wanderer, a pilgrim or an exile? None of the above? All of the above?

I would like to propose a new rule: the only church leaders who are allowed to complain about church-hopping congregants are those who have been with their church for at least 7 years. Agree or disagree? Why?

I have been hitting "repeat" on Audra Lynn's song Psalm of Abraham all day. Do you ever get locked on a song?

The local Barnes & Noble and Borders are carrying an ever- increasing number of Christian (CBA) fiction titles. Yesterday, I paid a my first visit to our local chain Christian bookstore and discovered miles of shelves full of trade paperbacks full of historical and contemporary romances, Amish-themed stories, and "cozy mysteries". (Do your toes curl under from the sticky sweetness of that genre name?) It's been a while (OK, it's been five years) since I've shopped in a mainstream Christian bookstore. I knew the data about growth in Christian fiction - including those cozy mysteries - but somehow seeing the data in person, lined up on all those shelves, gave me a sobering jolt.

How will social media like facebook affect high school reunions in the future? After all, if people are networked, will they still want to make the journey to their hometown for the 10- or 25-year reunion?

Is there a food you could eat every day? For me, it's pasta...and hummus. (Not at the same time, thank you.) I'll have my opportunity to dine on hummus every day next week in the Holy Land. Bill has his second Caspari Center board meeting in Jerusalem. They'll be prayerfully discussing some cool new ministry initiatives, among other things. I am going along to pray, to spend a day working in the offices, to connect with a variety of people. We're both going, most of all, to listen and learn. God's heartbeat is amplified in that place like nowhere else on earth.

Bill and I would value your prayers for safety, for meaningful connections, and that our souls stay ravenous to listen and obey every word our Father speaks.

Remember

Tomorrow is Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day - and in light of the staggering hatred of that era, and of the genocidal, demonic activity that has anhiliated subsequent generations in places like Bosnia and Rwanda - I found myself pondering Pastor Martin Niemoller's words today. Niemoller spent 8 years in prison during the second world war, and survived his time in the concentration camps. Remembrance means more than recalling information. It is courage to act now on what has come before.

So today...and tomorrow...and the day after, may we each remember.

In Germany they first came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me —
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

Chez Van Loon

We'd been living in a rental townhome in Gurnee, IL. It had its charms: it was on a golf course, which meant that the grounds were pretty well-kept. But it had its downside, too. The complex was built for some swingin' empty-nesters in the mid-1970's, and our unit hadn't been updated since then. As in, we had harvest gold appliances and laminate faux butcher block countertops in the kitchen, and a 2-story Fred Flintsone fake boulder fireplace. The place could have been designed by famous TV architect Mike Brady, right after he doled out some wise advice about the chicks to Greg.

We didn't think we'd be in the unit but a few months when we moved in. We stashed the proceeds from the sale of our Wisconsin home in the bank and waited for some clarity about a possible final destination to become clear.

About a year and a half into our sojourn there, in 2005, we realized we were going to be parked in the vicinity for a while. I started looking at townhouses and condos in the city of Chicago. Our Israeli realtor schlepped me to see probably between 50-60 places. Parking was an issue (we had 4 vehicles in our household at the time) - and price was another, larger issue. What we could afford were places that looked like our rental unit, only they were perfumed with cigarette smoke. What we wanted was...well...pretty much the opposite.

I stopped home shopping for a while. The whole thing was just too frustrating. Then I started searching again, only to discover that prices had risen yet further. We gradually realized we were being pushed back out to the `burbs, because the idea of being house poor at our age had no charm whatsoever. After 3 offers fell through, we settled on our current townhome here in Madrona Village in Round Lake. We purchased it in May, 2006 for top dollar.

I think this real estate transaction was the tipping point for the entire housing market, which, about 14 seconds after we signed the papers, began its steep descent.

We'd hoped to be here a few years, then move on. At one point, we had 7 people (6 adults and a toddler) living here. Now its just Bill and I. And a 15-year old cat. We could actually afford to live in some of those charming urban condos with limited parking now.

I did a little informal checking to see what our townhouse might be worth today...if we could even find a buyer for it. When I got the results, my first response was to curl up in the fetal position, just for a moment or two, while I did the sad math. It'll take years (if ever) before prices climb to the point where we can hope to get what we paid for the place. So do we live here until that happens? Do we try to cut our losses and move on? Are we anywhere near the bottom of the housing price collapse? (If we sold our house, my suspicion is that the transaction would no doubt be the rock-bottom tipping point upward.) The house in foreclosure across the street has been sitting vacant for nearly 2 years.

We drive miles to church. Bill drives miles to work. Our relationships and ministry connections are in other places. We don't really know anyone in our community. (It's tough to meet neighbors when you don't have kids, though we regularly try.) It'd be OK to move on to something smaller and more centrally-located, as we'd originally planned when we bought the place.

But it doesn't seem like reality at this point.

Anyone else in this boat? Any words of wisdom to share?