“Most people go through their entire life never speaking words to another human being that come out of what is deepest within them, and most people never hear words that reach all the way into that deep place we call the soul” (13). This is the burden that Larry Crabb seeks to address in Soul Talk: The Language God Longs for Us To Speak. He argues that “Every conversation either stimulates or dampens our desire for God” (26). As a result, in Soul Talk he seeks to address the question: “How can conversations between followers of Jesus become a stage on which the supernatural power of God is unmistakably displayed” (29)?

Crabb worries that “We live in a day when the life that God has given to every Jesus follower is counterfeited, contrived, neglected, hidden, unreleased, and generally not believed in” (43). Crabb further laments that “most of us are never known by a safe friend, never explored by a curious friend, and never discovered by a hopeful friend. And that is a tragedy, as harmful to the soul as AIDS is to the body. Hearts are not changed. Or hearts that have been changed by the Spirit at conversion to Christ are not released” (56).

Later, Crabb argues that if Jesus were speaking directly to our culture today he would say that we have “a heart problem. My people want something more than they want me. And it’s ruining them… Learn to speak with power into people’s lives. Arouse their desire for me until their thirst for me consumes them” (60).

If it seems that I am just listing off a string of quotes, I guess in some ways I am. Honestly, I am trying to force myself to slow down as I read this book to work to process some of it more deeply. I think I have experienced the kind of edifying conversation that Crabb yearns for believers to experience. I have felt times where I was burdened to say something to someone when we were talking – but it wasn’t about me. I really felt that the Spirit was prompting me to speak into someone else’s life.

These kinds of experiences are hard to articulate or explain in hindsight. In some ways, rereading what I just wrote, I feel like it sounds too mystical or otherworldly. Really, it is just a feeling of being in the presence of God. Peace and joy are the two words that come to mind.

These experiences are profound and sometimes life changing. If nothing else, when our hearts connect with another believer at a deep level, we are encouraged to focus on God and what God is seeking to do in our lives. And yet, I think Crabb is largely right- I am not sure very many Christians experience this level of “watching over one another in love”. I don’t know why. It may be that some people want to, but genuinely don’t know how. Or it may be that others are afraid that if anyone else really knew them, that they would leave or reject them.

I am afraid I may be putting too much hope in this book, because I am really hoping that it will help me to lead others into this kind of conversation. From my experience, I would say that when you can really open yourself up to a brother or sister in Christ in the presence of the Holy Spirit, those are holy moments where God’s gracious, healing, and restoring presence is especially tangible. I believe what Crabb refers to as “Soul Talk” is a major way that God’s Spirit renews people in the image that they were created in and enables them to grow in holiness.

Does this arouse a passion in you? What questions, issues, or other thoughts do you have? Have you read this book or had experience with deep Christian conversation? I would love to hear your thoughts and dialogue more about this.

I recently picked up a copy of Larry Crabb’s Soul Talk: The Language God Longs for Us To Speak. On the fourth page of the first chapter Crabb unleashes this wake-up call: “Churches, by no means all but too many, have become as dangerous to the health of our soul as porn shops. People leave both superficially titillated and deeply numbed” (16).

Ouch. But is he right? I hope and pray that this description would not fit for my congregation. But I am afraid that far too often we settle for forming people to something that is far short of the kind of relationship that God wants us to have with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as well as with each other. Since seminary, I have found an increasing longing to be a force for renewal within the church and over the last few years I have come to sense that one of the ways the Spirit is working to spark such a revival is through helping people enter into deeper community with one another. Wesley beautifully described what I have in mind as “watching over one another in love.”

In the Introduction to Soul Talk, Crabb writes, “We can learn to talk with each other in ways that arouse our passion for God until it becomes the most powerful desire in our soul. How that can happen, and what needs to happen in you and me as we speak into each other’s lives, is what this book is all about” (9). I sense a real need for learning how to talk to each other about the things that really matter. I am definitely interested to see what Crabb has to say.

Going All the Way: preparing for a marriage that goes the distance is an ambitious book. It is ambitious primarily because it seeks to say something that hasn’t already been said about dating and marriage from a Christian perspective. If any one could succeed in such an audacious task, it would be Craig Groeschel, who is the founding pastor of LifeChurch.tv, which has become a multi-site congregation that sees more than 20, 000 in worship at its combined weekly worship services. Groeschel is an innovator who has done some amazing things that have been noticed by the church at large. He is also one of the authors of LifeChurch.tv’s blog Swerve.

One of the requirements of a pastor who has witnessed and facilitated such dramatic growth is that he or she be an excellent, gifted communicator. In Going All the Way, Groeschel does not disappoint as he gets his point across through anecdotes that often can’t help but make you smile. He also effectively uses self-deprecating humor. Most importantly, he keeps his eyes on the “Christian” content of the book. In other words, he is mostly successful in avoiding the temptation to moralize or make commonsense statements that are not really connected to specific Christian content. He clearly encourages the reader to see their relationship with God to be the one relationship that will complete them, rather than seeking to find it in another person. According to Groeschel, it is only after we first are connected to God, that we can hope to succeed in finding our two, or the person that we hope to spend the rest of our lives with.

This book commends itself because it is very readable. After finishing one chapter, I typically wanted to keep going into the next chapter. I found myself sometimes laughing out lout, sometimes scratching my head, and I even found myself motivated to examining my marriage again to make sure that I am doing all that I can to love Melissa as I am called to love her. In short, the book was an interesting read, it made me think, and it reminded me to practice some things that I already knew.

My main criticism of the book would be that I felt that as the book went on it lost some of its momentum. In the first few chapters Groeschel was witty, sometimes even hillarious. He may have been repeating largely familiar arguments, but the way it was written was fresh and engaging. As the book continued, it felt as if Groseschel may have lost some of his enthusiasm for the project. That is purely speculation, but some of the later chapters lacked the freshness and creativity of the first several. The two main examples of this for me were the chapters “Thinking Differently About Husbands” and “Thinking Differently About Wives.” After the much of the originality and humor I had enjoyed that served to highlight the truth, in these two chapters he seemed to basically just restate the predictable male role of spiritual leader and female role of submission. For example on page 170 Groeschel writes, “Honestly, most teaching on submission makes me cringe.” But then the rest of the chapter essentially reiterates that very teaching on submission. What would make a woman feel any more comfortable with his articulation of a woman’s duty to submit?

One notable exception was a terrific biblical illustration that Groeschel uses. In Chapter 8 “Your Story Starts Again” Groeschel is discussing how to deal with past mistakes and sins. He closes the chapter by looking at “Two men who committed basically the same horrible sin – betraying Jesus” (111). The two men are Judas and Peter. He reminds us that Judas saw no hope and equated what he had done with who he was, and so he took his own life. Peter, on the other hand, after denying Jesus three times, met Jesus face to face and received forgiveness and further spiritual empowerment. Two men who denied Jesus, with two very different results.

Ultimately, since the main purpose of the book is to help people to prepare “for a marriage that goes the distance” it should be judged above all else on whether it succeeds in this task. My hope and prayer is that it will.

I have to be honest, I forgot that I even requested a copy of this book to review. Nevertheless, it seems fitting that I received a copy of Going All The Way by Craig Groeschel on the same day that I sent a shout out to him.

Every time I get a new book, I can’t help but start reading it. Call it compulsion, or whatever you will- but I had to sit down and read the first chapter… and so far so good.

Here is a paragraph that makes me want to keep reading:

Let me warn you: this book may require a radical shift in your thinking. If small changes would do the trick, everyone would be making them. Minor adjustments produce marginal results. Most of us need to overhaul our thought processes. To experience the kind of relationships we long for, we must, with God’s help, prepare to be genuinely different.

I am interested to see where he takes me. I will be posting my thoughts about the book after I am finished reading it.

Simple Church reveals the results of research comparing growing and vibrant churches to nongrowing and struggling churches. Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger’s research showed that “the vibrant churches were much more simple than the comparison churches” (13-14). Here is the essential conclusion they come to based on their research:

The significance is that, in general, simple churches are growing and vibrant. Churches with a simple process for reaching and maturing people are expanding the kingdom. Church leaders who have designed a simple biblical process to make disciples are effectively advancing the movement of the gospel. Simple churches are making a big impact.

Conversely, complex churches are struggling and anemic. Churches without a process or with a complicated process for making disciples are floundering. As a whole, cluttered and complex churches are not alive. Our research shows that these churches are not growing. Unfortunately, the overprogrammed and busy church is the norm. The simple church is the exception, yet our research shows that should not be the case (14).

Here is how they define a simple church:

A simple church is designed around a straightforward and strategic process that moves people through the stages of spiritual growth. The leadership and the church are clear about the process (clarity) and are committed to executing it. The process flows logically (movement) and is implemented in each area of the church (alignment). The church abandons everything that is not in the process (focus) (67-68).

One of the motivations for writing this book is the conviction that the church should be making disciples, not just converts. The church should help people be transformed and grow in their faith. The authors write:

We are talking about people not being transformed. Week after week, year after year, many people are the same. The building project of people’s lives is stalled. Stagnant believers and congested churches go hand in hand.

Sadly, in many churches people are stuck in the same place spiritually. And there is no intentional process to move them.

The Bible paints a different picture of spiritual growth. According to Scripture a believer’s life is to be transformed more and more. People are not supposed to be the same. There is to be progression, movement.

Our churches should be filled with people who are becoming. Becoming more like Christ. Becoming more loving and joyful. Becoming. Being transformed (136).

The problem then is that many churches are not clear about what they are trying to accomplish. They have many programs that they want everyone to come to, but they are not clear how each program is contributing to the overall mission of what the church is trying to accomplish. Rainer and Geiger want church leaders to realize that “Discipleship of new believers does not just happen. It must be intentional” (157). As a result, the most important thing for a church to do is to design a simple process for making disciples and to focus all of the church’s energies and resources on that process.

One strength of the book is that they have done quite a bit of research and they share the results of that research, but they also use case studies as a way of helping their research come to life through concrete examples. The model example of a Simple Church is a church that they discuss whose mission and process is exactly the same. It is to love God, to love our neighbor, and to serve. That is what this church is all about. The broadest level is loving God which they see happening through the weekly worship service. They then ask people who are committed to coming to the worship service to join a small group, which is where they focus on the love of neighbor. And then the deepest level is serving where they ask for people who are in small groups to join a service group which either serves within the church or outside of the church.

I found this book to be a very interesting read. Their ideas made a lot of sense to me. I feel like I have observed several churches who have fallen into the trap of being busy for the sake of being busy. The hope seems to be that if we just keep doing things, something that we do will be the magic program that causes people to find what they are looking for. It makes a lot of sense to turn this upside down and start with, what is it that we believe we are here for as a church, what do we have to offer that people are looking for? And how can we offer them that most effectively?

The other idea that really resonated with me was the stubborn refusal to accept that the church can tolerate the sad reality that in many churches people are able to stagnate in the pews for decades without experiencing any transformation. How is it that we have come to a place where it is part of the culture of the church that God accepts our refusal to change? I agree strongly with what I perceive to be one of the main motivations of Rainer and Geiger in writing this book, the church exists primarily to initiate people into the life of faith and then enable them to grow in that faith. If the church is not doing that, it is fundamentally failing.

I want to air one minor criticism that I had and then discuss some thoughts that I had as I read this book on how the ideas in this book are connected to the Wesleyan tradition.

The first chapter begins as follows:

Relax. This book is not about another church model. If you are a church leader, you have been exposed to plenty of models. Most of them are on your shelf. Or worse, you have blended a bunch of models into one schizophrenic plan. If that is the case, neither you nor the people in your church are really sure what your church is all about. We see it all the time.

Go ahead, let down your guard. No new program is going to be pushed. There will be nothing new to add to your calendar. If anything, you will be encouraged to eliminate some things, to streamline. This book will help you design a simple process of discipleship in your church. It will help you implement the model you have chosen. It will help you simplify (3).

I think this beginning is a bit deceptive, or at least an oversimplification. The authors seem to really want not just the idea to be simple, but also the application for local church leaders to be simple. Moreover, they want it to not just be simple, but also easy. I think that their thesis is profound, but I am certainly not convinced that implementing it in a local church with much of any history would be easy. In fact, I would guess it might be one of the hardest things that a church would ever dare to do. (Definitely worth it, but very difficult.) Ultimately, I also think they are offering another church model. I think it is a very good one, but I am not sure how it avoids being a model for doing church.

For this vision to become a reality the visionaries would have to invest a significant amount of time casting their vision with key leaders in the church. They would have to invest time listening to the concerns of those leaders. Time would have to be spent discussing what the simple process would be that the church would implement. In the long run (once the process is fully in place) the load on one’s calendar would certainly be lightened, but getting there would seem to take a lot of time and effort. Ultimately, I think the effort would certainly be worth it. However, the expectation that is initially set just seems a little unrealistic. (It may be that they are aware of this and it is simply a ploy to hook you and grab your attention.)

Concerning application, and this is where I found myself getting really excited, my first impression is that there are some very strong applications between the ideas in this book and the early Methodist movement. Early Methodism was built on a simple process for making disciples, for helping people to become deeply committed Christians. John Wesley wanted Methodists to be involved in the society meeting, the class meeting, and the band meeting. The expectation was that participating in these three levels helped one to enter into deeper and deeper commitment and experience increasing transformation and renewal in the image of God. Many Wesleyan scholars have noticed how the society, class, band structure could be compared to the three ways that grace operates in our lives. The society meeting related to preventing grace (where people experienced a spiritual awakening). The class meeting related to justifying grace (where people experienced the awareness of the forgiveness of their sins and the new birth). The band meeting related to sanctifying grace (where people grew in holiness and became more and more like Christ).

I found myself wondering if John Wesley would have read this book and said, “Duh. That is what I have been talking about all along. You have just discovered the method behind Methodism!” (Not to take anything away from Rainer and Geiger at all with this comment. In fact if that is true, Methodists should thank them for the reminder!)

Ultimately, I would absolutely recommend this book! I am confident that it will challenge you to think more carefully about what your church is (or should be) all about.

Is your church a simple church? Are people who are members of your church expected to experience transformation by the grace of God? Is there a process in place to encourage that to happen?

My friend, Andrew Conard at Thoughts of Resurrection recently posted a review of The Blogging Church by Brian Bailey and Terry Storch. You can read Andrew’s review here.

Based on Andrew’s recommendation, I picked up a copy of The Blogging Church at Annual Conference. I found it to be a fairly quick and easy read. It provides some very practical and helpful suggestions, like putting a picture of the book cover of The Blogging Church in the post where you review The Blogging Church. Check.

I found its biggest strength to be that it helps people who are blogging from within the church to think through some of the things that are at stake in how you present yourself through your blog. It reminds you that you have no control over who reads your blog (hi mom!). And it encourages you to avoid building a home in the “Town of Acrimony.” Rather, Bailey and Storch encourage bloggers to focus on what they are in favor of in relation to ministry. I.e. don’t turn your blog into one big rant about what is wrong with everybody else in the church.

If you are thinking about starting a blog, or if you are relatively new to the blogosphere, this book will likely provide some helpful direction and even give you some confidence that you have some idea of what you are doing.

If you are a blogging veteran, this book will probably not teach you anything new as far as the technical aspect of blogging, but my guess is it might provide some very helpful reminders about why you started blogging in the first place.

Finally, when Andrew reviewed this book, Terry Storch left a comment. I’m not trying to say that I expect Terry to stop by at deeply committed and leave a comment or anything… but I did include a picture of the book cover like they suggested. I’m just saying…

This is a continuation of a previous post on the book Restoring Methodism. This book, at 163 pages, is a very quick read. In fact, the danger is that one may read it all in one sitting and not allow the depth of each decision to really sink in. All in all, I found this to be a thought provoking book that I would highly recommend to anyone who is passionate about the United Methodist Church and wants to see it reclaim its spiritual vitality. Continue reading for some more specific thoughts about the content of the book.

Decision #8 notes the lack of doctrinal consensus in the contemporary UMC. The authors suggest that one helpful way to return to a common doctrinal understanding would be by reminding ourselves of the UMC’s Wesleyan foundation. They suggest focusing on the following four elements:

1. Scripture
2. History and Tradition of the Church
3. Wesleyan roots
4. Wesleyan essentials

The discussion of Wesleyan essentials is important, especially if the goal is to have some sort of consensus. We are reminded that there are three main doctrines: repentance, faith, and holiness. They also include these as Wesleyan essentials: original sin, atonement of Christ, resurrection of Jesus, justifying faith, Holy Spirit, new birth, Christian assurance, holiness (sanctification), Sacraments, stewardship, and the Church (43).

The authors summarize what is at stake wonderfully: As Mr. Wesley said, after we agree on the essentials, we think and let think. Many United Methodists today can quote the “think and let think” idea, but they have forgotten that it was preceded by an agreement on the essentials. And the vast majority of United Methodists are not clear on what the essentials are (43). In other words, I am sure that Wesley would be appalled by some of the things that we spend so much energy arguing about, yet there would also be many things that not all Methodists today agree on that he would refuse to compromise on.

Decision #7 discusses the need to reinstitute a discipline that resembles that of the early Methodists.

In early Methodism, Every person was held accountable. It was not unusual for Mr. Wesley to examine a Society with eight hundred members and leave them with four hundred members (53).

I could write a whole other post about this… and maybe I will, someday.

Decision #4 focuses on restoring the purposes of the local church. The discussion that most caught my attention in this decision was the need for fellowship that “is intimate, warm, and family.” The Scotts write, “Worship and large congregational gatherings have never been where this particular kind of fellowship occurs. It was in the Classes, the Wesleyan Class Meetings. These need to be reestablished in an updated, relevant application for today’s church” (88).

This caused me to wonder: Could it be that the deepest problem facing the UMC isn’t that we don’t have enough members, but that the members that we do have aren’t committed to holiness and growing in their faith? I strongly agree with James and Molly Scott that a reclaiming of the Wesleyan practice of meeting together for accountability in growing in our faith will be absolutely essential to the revival of United Methodism. I am not sure that this can be overstated.

Decision #3 begins a much needed discussion about the role of the laity. The Scotts make some interesting and creative suggestions that are contextual solutions to the current difficulties that face the UMC. I found that I agreed with their analysis, but wanted them to go a bit deeper in the ideas that they were discussing.

Decision #2 argues for the need to reclaim both a belief in sanctification and a determination to become more and more holy. A fairly disturbing statistic that they sight is that “90 percent of United Methodist laypeople cannot give a clear definition of the word sanctification. And when they are given a clear understanding – through the power of the Holy Spirit, growing in the image of Christ and becoming holy as God is holy – the initial response is often disbelief in its possibility or insult at having been offended by the thought that this is a necessity” (115).

For the Scotts, what is ulimately at stake for Methodism in relationship to sanctification is fairly straightforward: “The answer for us Methodists is profoundly simple: We must reaffirm sanctification as part of the salvation process and recognize and act on Mr. Wesley’s observation after sixty years of ministry that where sanctification is preached, taught, and observed as lifestyle, the churches grow; but where it is not, the churches do not grow” (118). Many Christians chaffe at this suggestion, but to non-Christians it seems obvious – Christians ought to practice what they preach. The world really does seem to be watching and asking: Is this making any difference in the way that they live their lives? Far too often, the answer seems to be that it does not.

The final decision is a very helpful reminder that the UMC will grow only by the power of the Holy Spirit. They remind us that we have too often, and for too long, tried to make our churches grow by our own effort. It is ironic that we seem to fairly easily understand that works righteousness does not work in our individual relationships with God, but we seem to forget that it won’t work on an institutional level either.

Well, even though this has been a ridiculously long post, there is still more to this relatively brief book than I have been able to include. As you can see, James and Molly Scott provide quite a bit of food for thought. It is a great book. Have you read it? What are your thoughts?

I have found Restoring Methodism to be an important read. The authors (James B. Scott, and Molly Davis Scott) present 10 Decisions that they believe United Methodists in America should make in order to restore the UMC. I found the discussion in Decision # 9 to be particularly thought provoking.

Here are some excerpts from the chapter:

In the 1940 the average age of a Methodist was approximately thirty; in 2000 it was approximately sixty (25).

The Scotts highlight that W.E. Sangster as long ago as 1938 highlighted four essential characteristics of Methodism which he proclaimed were already lost in 1938: fellowship, assurance, holiness, and personal evangelism (27).

They also include this powerful quote from Dr. Albert Outler: One of the rarest things one runs across nowadays is a Christian layman who can give an articulate, comprehensive, self-tested account of the Christian faith that is in him (30).

The Scott’s argue that the importance of Wesley for American United Methodism is because: To experience Mr. Wesley and the saints of early Methodism is to be directed to travel with light speed back into the New Testament and the early Church and into the tradition of the historical Church, where we will find the passion and the power of the Trinity. That is where our future is waiting for us (33).

The contemporary UMC would do well to focus on what the essentials are that God wants us to pour our energy into. The four essentials that W.E. Sangster argued for provide a good starting point. Methodism would be strengthened by improving in any of those four areas. In our current context, fellowship has become a fairly watered-down word, so I would argue for changing that word to accountability.

Which of those four characteristics do you think would be most important to the renewal of the church? Or what other area do you think needs to be strengthened?

I have been reading so much for the sermon series on Family Matters that I haven’t been able to read as much outside of those specific topics. I am looking forward to reading a bit more broadly after this week’s sermon is in the books.

I did read the first few pages of Restoring Methodism: 10 Decisions for United Methodist Churches in America this morning. It looks like it is going to be a very interesting, worthwhile read. The list of recommendations is certainly interesting and impressive with 5 bishops, Dr. Lovett Weems Jr., Dr. William J. Abraham, Adam Hamilton, and others.

Here is the quote that grabbed my attention, and convinced me to read the entire book:

John Wesley can continue to change your life for the better.

The Wesleyan doctrine (teaching) and discipline (rules and forms of ministry) create the vehicle to take us, individually and corporately, to the life and power that is promised in the faith (xiii).

I am planning on blogging my way through this book. Have you read it already, or heard anything about it? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I just finished An Emergent Manifesto of Hope. Here are my final thoughts:

The last several chapters were, for the most part, very good. Dan Kimball’s “Humble Theology: Re-exploring Doctrine While Holding On to Truth” was excellent! Is he United Methodist? We should be able to continually think and learn about theology with open hearts and open minds (216). Either he is, or he helped come up with the UMC’s slogan: Open hearts, Open minds, Open doors.

Kimball is becoming one of the people that I really resonate with from Emergent. I think it is because he seems to be willing to do whatever it takes to speak to people about the gospel in a way that they can understand. Yet, he seems to be a bit more concrete in what he is saying than some of the other folks I have read. If I could have lunch with someone from Emergent today, it would be Dan Kimball.

Disturbing thought from Tim Keel’s chapter “Leading from the Margins: The Role of Imagination in Our Changing Context”:

Our serminaries have entire ministry and theological training programs designed exclusively around the left hemisphere of the human brain. They are training men and women for a world that no longer exists (232).

Part 5: Hopeful Activism: The Jesus Way in the Realities of Life contained 5 thought-provoking essays which were focused beautifully by Tony Jones’ introduction. What I found to be very interesting about these chapters was that, to me, they provided a much more helpful way forward than some of the compilations of liberation theology I have read. In other words, these seemed to get beyond the problem to actually showing an example of how to do something about it (see especially Rodolpho Carasco’s “A Pound of Social Justice: Beyond Fighting for a Just Cause” and Deborah and Ken Loyd’s “Our Report Card in the Year 2057: A Reflection on Women’s Rights, Poverty, and Oppression”).

The need for accountability in the Christian life was featured again in Karen E. Sloan’s “Emergent Kissing: Authenticity and Integrity in Sexuality.”

Even more disturbing quote from Sloan’s chapter: Collecting data over a span of years, the studies suggest about two-thirds of pastors while in ministry will be sexually intimate with someone other than their spouse (265).

My overall feeling about this book. My main criticism would be that it is difficult to see a common theme that brings all of these essays together. It felt like at times the plan was some like: get together as many different voices from this movement and have them write about whatever is on their hearts at the time. This is not a big issue for me because the vast majority of the essays are well-written and thought provoking. On the other hand, and maybe ironically, I feel like this book has given me a better feel for the pulse of the emerging church than anything else I have read. In reading from 25 different voices, engaged in ministry in different ways, you really get a feel for how diverse the movement is. You get the feeling that not all of the authors are coming from the same place, that they don’t agree on everything. I can see this as an encouragement, because it is similar to the reality that if you get enough United Methodist pastor’s together, they are going to have some pretty substantial disagreements too. Ultimately, I am definitely glad I found this book and bought it. It was worth the read, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in the emerging church. I have a feeling I will be referring back to a few of the chapters in the future.