“Why have certain spiritual disciplines been in use for centuries, and why are they so important?

It is questionable if one can ever be exactly the same person waking up on two consecutive days. How are spiritual sojourners to cope with the constant change? Many are beginning to explore the ancient Christian spiritual practices, such as fixed-hour prayer, fasting and sincere observance of the Sabbath. What is causing this hunger for deeper spirituality?

Brian McLaren guides us on this quest for an explanation of these spiritual practices, many of which go all the way back to Abraham and the establishment of Israel. In the midst of contemporary Christianity, we discover the beauty of these disciplines and the transformation through Christ that each can provide.”

For some reason I’ve always been a Brian McLaren fan from the first time I read one of his books. I kind of surprise myself with my likeing of his writing. As what most would describe as a “moderate evangelical” one would not think I would gel with someone who has been labeled a heretic by many orthodox Christians. His book, “A New Kind of Christian” is one that I recommend to people on a consistent basis.

 This book, “Finding Our Way Again” proposes to put the reader in touch with Ancient Spiritual Practices. It does just that. The book is divided into three sections: Way, Practices, Ancient. I did, as usual, find some of McLaren’s theology to be questionable but I do not doubt his heart and comitment to the advancement of the Kingdom of God one bit. As someone who enjoys Contemplative Prayer, Taize, and other forms of what some would describe as “ancient practices” I found this book to be highly enjoyable with some good tips for developing these spiritual disciplines in my own life. I also found the included Study Guide to be a nice touch that would make this book easily adaptable for a Sunday School Class or other small group.

Enjoy!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com  book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

This book seemed so awesome….“In this entertaining, highly readable book, couples learn that a fabulous marriage can be the outcome of learning to pray together, a minimum of five minutes a day, causing a 20 to 30% increase in romance, conversation and happiness.

Best-selling author Squire Rushnell and his wife, entertainer and talk show host, Louise DuArt take readers step by step through The 40 Day Prayer Challenge™ in which couples commit to praying together five minutes a day for forty days. Backed by compelling research from Baylor University and Gallup Poll, the true-life experiences of 24 test couples reveal that daily prayer is a “life changing experience” in which most couples report positive outcomes in less than two weeks.”

This book makes some lofty claims and the description makes it sound like there is an outline for the 40-day prayer challenge. I thought it would be fun for Brittney and I to work through the “prayer challenge” together and then blog our experience. However, there is no prayer challenge structure at all.

The book was really just a stringing together of some pithy stories of celebrity couples who pray together. It read more like an infomercial than anything else. I found some of the “marriage theology” to be weak and unconvincing.
Up front, there are some interesting statistics of couples who never pray together vs. those who do and the way they describe their marriage, sex life, etc. I have to wonder, though, how much the results were based on causation as opposed to correlation.

Bottom line…pray with your spouse. It will build a stronger and happier marriage. You do not need this 200 page infomercial to get started…good premise, poor delivery.

Take your own prayer challenge….commit to spending at least 5 minutes a day together in prayer and watch the results.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

I started reading this book for a class I am taking this semester. I have to admit that more often than not I find myself less than impressed with the textbook selection for any given class. I’ve found myself saying time and time again, “this is awful, (insert book name here) would have been a much better choice.” Once in awhile, though, I find a gem. I’m only 40 pages into Christopher Wright’s 2010 Book “The Mission of God’s People: A Biblical Theology of the Church’s Mission”, but I already know that this is a book you’ll want to check out!

Just in the first pages, he hit on something that has always bugged me about “mission” in the Church. Typically, a Church has one of three views toward mission.

1. Mission is something that is somewhere overseas in a foreign country. It is cross-cultural and is participated in by those who either have raised enough support to dedicate their whole life to this work, or by those who take short-term trips from their churches (college groups, youth groups, etc.)
2. Mission is primarily social. We are called to be stewards of this earth. We hear Scripture’s mandates to be a blessing to the nations, seek the welfare of the city, take care of widows and orphans, be the salt of the earth and light of the world. We hear over and over in them a call to doing good and doing justice. Our mission is to bring about social justice in the world.
3. Mission is primarily evangelistic. We have the responsibility to “bring lost souls into the kingdom”. Our mission is to connect people to a God who can cure their sin problem and swipe their “get out of hell free card.”

Taken separately, I think we miss the vastness of mission. They are all worthy “missions” but when we focus on one primarily over the other(s) we miss what mission is all about. Mission has primarily to do with sending and being sent. We are sent by God to accomplish God’s mission in the creation. Wright says, “our mission flows from God’s mission, and God’s mission is for the sake of his whole word–indeed his whole creation.” When we get into the tired old argument between evangelical and social action, we miss something about our own mission. Since God’s mission includes the entire creation–so does ours. Wright says, “Perhaps this sounds like the hoary and familiar debate about the relationship between evangelism and social action, but I hope that our study…will take us beyond the traditional polarizing and prioritizing that…so distorts and pulls part what God intended to be held together.”

When we allow our mission as God’s people to be God’s mission instead of a prioritizing of our own agendas we see that there is mission in foreign countries, their is mission right next door, their is mission that involves us working for change that brings about transformation to our world. God’s mission is inclusive of the entire creation…of all the areas that we typically segregate into separate “types” of mission.

We work not just to bring about justice and relief, not just to cure a sin problem…but to encompass it all to bring about changed lives as we align our mission with God’s.

I hope to share more with you from this book that I’m sure has much more to offer!

I’m not even sure what to title this. I stopped any reading or homework that I was doing tonight and watched an episode of “Chopped”. I’ve become quite fond of this show…Brittney even stood in the kitchen tonight as I was finishing my chicken tenderloin creation yelling, “1 minute remaining, chef!”. We sat and critiqued the dish….I applauded myself for the fact that there were several different flavors going on in the one dish but that they were not competing with one another. After we finished, I dubbed myself the “new chopped champion.” Anyways…back to reality!

While I was watching “Chopped” I was stalking people on Facebook (don’t judge me!) and came across a couple of folks that I had not talked to in a few years. I had encountered them both at some point during college. I would not say that I was close with either of them nor did I ever hang-out with either of them outside of class. I did believe, however, that both had tremendous aptitude for ministry. I was struck on the first person’s page when I saw that their religious beliefs said “Atheist.” The second person had converted to Islam. I was floored. What could have happened to cause this drastic change in their lives? I had to know.

So, I took my stalking to the next level and looked into their blogs. Without quoting them or linking to their blogs out of respect for their privacy I just want to share what struck me as common to both. It seems to me that the biggest complaint either of them had against Christianity was a lack of accountability/hypocrisy.

They both cited the fact that they had encountered Christians who either lived a lie or hid behind their Christianity to justify their lifestyle. They were turned off by this fake brand of Christianity and it drove them both away from the Christian faith…one to a different faith, the other to an abandonment of faith.

This hurts me, it bothers me. To think that our “freedom in Christ” means that we can get away with any type of action or behavior without some type of accountability because “Jesus paid it all” really misses the boat. I admit that I have been guilty of hiding behind my faith to justify a sinful behavior, or avoided acknowledging that what I was partaking in was a sinful behavior altogether….and I pray God’s forgiveness….especially where my actions have pushed others away from faith.

Wake up, Christians! We can’t keep getting drunk every weekend and justify it by saying “Jesus drank wine.” You’re right there is nothing wrong with drinking…but the amount you put back and the way it makes you act….think about it.

We can’t keep exploiting people and calling it good business.

We can’t keep engaging in extra-marital relationships and calling it “love”.

We can’t make excuses especially when we know what we’re doing is wrong…”I know it’s wrong…but I can’t stop now.”

I am not trying to judge, I am not trying to be mean. This is as much for me as it is for anyone else. Wake up, Christians! We’re damaging our witness in the world!

Wake up, Christians! The world is watching! My favorite professor in Bible College used to say, “whether you want to be a preacher or not, your life preaches a sermon through the way you live…What are you preaching?”

I’m not usually a nervous person. But I can’t help it tonight. I’m going back to a former Church tomorrow morning to raise support for Fusion. It’s been over three years since I’ve been there, and I’m nervous. What if the words don’t come? What if they don’t buy in to the vision?

But then I am reminded…I am reminded of God’s promises. I especially think of the fear that Moses had before returning to Egypt. Certainly after the burning bush experience and all that I AM had spoken to him he knew he had a great message to preach….yet he still doubted his own tongue; his own persuasiveness. Then God speaks to him:

¹¹ The LORD said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the LORD? ¹² Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” (Exodus 4:11-12)

Lord, I give this all to you. My prayer is that you empty me, and simply speak:

Every night, every day
I find that I have nothing left to say
So I stand here in silence awaiting Your guidance
I’m wanting only Your voice to be heard
Let them be Your Words
Let them be Your words

Give me Words to speak
Don’t let my Spirit sleep
Cause I can’t think of anything worth saying
But I know that I owe You my life
So give me Words to speak
Don’t let my Spirit sleep

 

This is one of those reviews where one will clearly see that a reviewer is not required to write a positive review. You will find most of my reviews are not overly critical and are usually generous and positive. I can typically find something to glean from any book…except this one. I was extremely excited to read this book. Much of my passion in research has been in the area of recovering a fuller understanding and practice of Eucharistic theology in the Church. My concern has been that in many churches, the Sacramental Meal has become nothing more than an ancient ritual devoid of any modern application.

This book, by Nora Gallagher,  attempts to answer many of the questions concerning Holy Communion. It comes highly recommended by Brian McLaren whom I have a tremendous amount of respect for (I especially enjoyed “A New Kind of Christian” and “A Generous Orthodoxy”).

Nora writes from her own deep appreciation and reverence for Holy Communion as an experienced lay person. Her personal stories are to be commended as is her conversational tone throughout the book. There were some shining moments where I found myself reflecting on this transformational means of grace and the effect it has had on my life and faith.

However, I feel this book failed to achieve its main goal. Apart from finding at least one error in paragraph formatting (tsk tsk Thomas Nelson), I felt like I was dissecting run-on sentences more than processing information. More often than not, I found Gallagher’s arguments to be poorly developed or supported. She took the opportunity of this book to argue some theological biases that had little or nothing to do with her subject matter and tried to loosely tie them together. And while I appreciate her deep devotion and appreciation for Holy Communion, I find her Sacramental Theology largely undeveloped.

This book left me wanting something, and I am certainly not inclined to recommend it to anyone else.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

I thought today would be like any other day. I planned on going out and digging out the rest of the front walkway and finishing up my sermon for Sunday. Then I got the opportunity to call a friend that I have not talked to in 6 months or so. We used to work together in ministry but have each gone our own way.

She has gotten things settled in her life and is now “retired” (I doubt this person will ever truly retire). We got to catch up with each other. We talked about what is going on with my ministry up here, what is going on in her life. We joked about the past and poked fun at some situations that had previously caused us both headaches. We talked about everything from Church all the way to motorcycles and the impending death of land-line telephones. Before I knew it, we had been on the phone for two hours….quite uncharacteristic for me to spend more than 10 minutes on the phone. It was so good to catch up, she even gave me some much needed words of encouragement as we approach Fusion’s first monthly service.

The reason I tell you all this is…..do you have a friend that you’ve fallen out of touch with? You were close but its been some time since you talked? Call this person! E-Mail them! Facebook them! Reconnect with them and I promise, it will bless your day!