The Book Issue

Not that anyone really cares to know what I've been reading, but it's good for me to put down what it is that I've been reading and when, for future reference. Anyway, I just finished a great book called Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith, by Rob Bell. This was an excellent book and one I highly recommend. Bell provides excellent analysis of Scripture, who Jesus is-really is/was-and what the life of faith in Christ often looks like in it's ugliness (missing the point) but also what it could be and is designed to be (getting the point). He's very honest about the difficulty of following Jesus, but reminds us that the difficulty is a good thing. When it becomes easy, well, then it's probably just an add on that is merely another placebo in a world of placebos.
Near the end of the book, Bell makes a great point about who we are as the Church and who we should be:


"I am learning that the church is at its best when it gives itself away. And this is because blessing is always instrumental. Let me explain. In Genesis 12, God tells a man named Abram that he's going to bless him, and through him, he is going to bless the whole world. This is the birth of the Jewish people, whom God wants to use to reach everybody. This blessing is instrumental in nature. God wants to use Abraham, to flow through him, to have him be the conduit through whom God can bless everybody else. Abraham is just a vessel. God doesn't choose people just so they feel good about themselves or secure in their standing with God or whatever else. God chooses people to be used to bless other people. Elected, predestined, chosen-whatever words people use for this reality, the point is never the person elected or chosen or predestined. The point is that person serving others, making their lives better...


"So what is a group of people living this way called? That's the church. The church doesn't exist for itself; it exists to serve the world. It is not ultimately about the church; it's about all the people God wants to bless through the church. When the church loses sight of this, it loses its heart. This is especially true in the world we live in where so many people are hostile to the church, many for good reason. We reclaim the church as a blessing machine not only because that is what Jesus intended from the beginning but also because serving people is the only way their perceptions of the church are ever going to change. This is why it is so toxic for the gospel when Christians picket and boycott and complain about how bad the world is. This behavior doesn't help. It makes it worse. It isn't the kind of voice Jesus wants his followers to have in the world. Why blame the dark for being dark? It is far more helpful to ask why the light isn't as bright as it could be."




This is a small bit in a much larger context, and might even, as a result of including it here sans context, be misunderstood. But the point he is getting at is so true, isn't it? We protest abortion, the "homosexual agenda," the breakdown of family values (a term I loathe and is such a ridiculously misconstrued and contrived idea as it is used in modern day vernacular), paying too much in taxes to a "godless government," the liberal media, blah, blah, blah...But we don't take seriously God's commands to love the poor, the sick, the foreigner (with our giving not only of our money, but of our time and our touch), take good care of His creation, and to be an advocate for those most hurting in our society and in our world. Anyway, a great book for anyone...whether you think much of the church or not. And especially for anyone who wants to take a look at Jesus apart from his forced partnership with conservative America. That is all. Try the veal.


I include the following in hopes that someone will actually have thoughts, reviews, questions, whatever about these books. Some other books I'm into or am getting ready to dig into:

Those which are coming soon:
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin (This one is great but may take me two years to get through!)


The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South, by Philip Jenkins

The Audacity of Hope, by Barak Obama (as my conservative friends and family cringe....)


The Peaceable Kingdom, by Stanley Haurwas

Those which I am currently in:

Traveling Mercies, by Anne Lamott (This is a great book and of a very different sort when you are talking about someone's unique journey to faith in Christ...In other words, Lamott came to Christ kicking and screaming...and still does some of that. She is very funny and very vulnerable about her life in this book. HIGHLY RECOMMEND)

Life Together, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (A classic by an incredible man...I wish he were alive today. We can learn much from his writing and his life....I just wish he was still alive and teaching/writing...)

The Propehtic Imagination, by Walter Brueggemann (Just started....Will let you know how it is...So far, I like very much. A little academic in how he writes, but if you can get into that, it seems to be an excellent read.)