"Holy Discontent" disappoints

I know, I know. I'm still working through Foster's Celebration of Discipline, but I picked up Bill Hybel's book, Holy Discontent out of curiosity and finished it faster. It reads that easy.

The book is structured much like what I imagine Hybel's messages are like at Willow Creek. But I confess I was disappointed. There was no new ground: just a restating of stuff that's been written by many people. Hybel's basic point is: people give themselves when they can't stand a situation anymore and just have to do something about it. Um. Duh?

Hybels cites Moses, Nehemiah, and Popeye as examples of people (or characters in Popeye's case) with what Hybels' calls "holy discontent." The problem is that Hybels states that this discontent releases a positive energy that drive a person to act. Hybels warns we must make sure our goals and work align with God's, that we must make sure we prayerfully ask God to bless our efforts.

But doesn't that put the cart before the horse? Shouldn't we discover what God wants us to do and then pursue that, rather than ask God to bless our plans? Granted God can work through our passions, but I'm not comfortable letting my emotions (even anger) about something be the bellweather for my life's work.

And what about that "positive energy" stuff? Shouldn't we be more concerned with the Holy Spirit; God Almighty living in us and through us? But "positive energy"? Sounds like Hybels has compromised a tad in the post-modern direction.

Hybels has had a lot of good things to say over the years, but I don't think Holy Discontent is one of his better outings.

Blue Like Jazz (review)

First, I must say I blew through Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz. It's that easy to read...in the good sense. There were a few times I cocked my head to one side and went "Huh?", but Miller's book is not a theological treatise or doctrinal statement. It's a collection of thoughts from a man on a spiritual journey.

Miller describes how he came to faith, not in one huge epiphany, or black-and-white revelation in which all things fell into perspective, but rather his journey through doubts, denials, questions, accepting, believing, more doubts, questions, etc. You get the idea.

For the areas where he has things figured out for the time being, Miller does a great job of describing spiritual truths in every day vernacular. Which is a good thing.

I mentioned in a previous post that I read John MacArthur's The Truth War. In that book, MacArthur casts the entire Emerging Church movement in one broad-brush stroke of post-modern heresy. At one point he cites a passage from Miller's book. But when I read that passage--in context--I discovered it didn't say what MacArthur said it did. In fact, Miller makes it very clear he doesn't support the very thing of which MacArthur accuses.

There are some places where readers may scratch their heads, or wonder what Miller was smoking at the time. But one has to remember, Miller isn't trying to itemize and prove the Christian faith. His book provides glimpses into the lives of the Christ-followers Miller surrounds himself with, including Rick McKinley, pastor of Imago-Dei, a church in Portland, Oregon. McKinley wrote This Beautiful Mess (which I read a year ago or so), which considers what living in the kingdom of God means here, on this side of eternity. All that to say that Miller's stories show a very human side of McKinley. Like all of us, neither Miller nor McKinley have everything figured out.

I highly recommend this book as reading for anyone wishing to understand the post-modern mind, and how it is possible for such a thinker to actually come to faith.

The Golden Compass & The Truth War (reviews)

Well, I finally spent a buck (we have a redbox® movie kiosk at our local supermarket) and viewed The Golden Compass. Talk about a confusing and disappointing movie. It was very disjointed, with a lot of things mentioned but never explained. Unlike other recent movies based on a trilogy which at least made sense even within themselves, this movie lacked any sense. And if it is indeed based on the book, then it ripped off Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, the Star Wars saga, and even Harry Potter! I kept thinking: “I’ve already seen this movie.” Given the falderal about the atheistic worldview of the trilogy that preceded the movie’s release, The Golden Compass disappoints even as a movie.

On another note: after completing wallowing through Shopping for God, I decided to try something from the other end of the spectrum. So this last weekend I tackled and finished John MacArthur’s The Truth War: Fighting for Certainty in ah Age of Deception.” Yep, that’s a mouthful.

MacArthur, who occasionally goes off on “witch hunts,” does an admirable job summarizing the development of postmodern society (there are tons of books which delve into this subject). He also provides some rather damning evidence that the Emergent Church Movement (think Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, Dan Kimbell, etc.) may have bought too much into the post-modern thought, which has its roots in several heresies that have been around since the first century church. MacArthur casts the entire movement in the same light, but only offers quotes from McLaren’s writing. These are scary enough, if they are accurate and in context. MacArthur even suggests that Rob Bell and his wife started Mars Hill in reaction to the too-dogmatic, too-certain teachings of their church. But there’s no documentation to back this up.

As a call to arms—to content diligently for the Truth—the book serves well. But as a critique of societal developments, MacArthur could probably have done a better job researching—or at least documenting for further review and study—his claims.

Definitely worth reading. One final comment: I bought the book at Borders of all places!

Megachurches and the universe

So, I finished James Twitchell’s book, Shopping For God. It ended being a discussion of the factors contributing to the rise of the so-called mega churches, and what the next developments may be. Overall, it was an entertaining read, and I was pleasantly surprised when the book ended considerably short of the end of the printed pages: The endnotes and index took many pages.

But I was very disappointed with the endnotes. Because in the entire book, there was not one note marker! There all listed at the end of the book, but there is no way to correlate them back to the text!

Somebody goofed.

On a different note, our small group viewed the DVD, Unlocking the Mysteries of Life (Illustra Media), which presents some compelling microbiological evidence for intelligent design as a possible—even plausible—explanation for the origins of the universe (as opposed to Darwinism, commonly called evolution).

Last week, we viewed the companion DVD, The Privileged Planet, which looked at our earth, the solar system and the universe, and how unique earth really is, from an astronomical perspective.

So we went from a very macro level to an ultra micro level. The intricacy and complexity of the universe at all levels, taken as an aggregate, seem to overwhelm all arguments for evolution. One of our members commented, “How can someone familiar with all this evidence from science, still hold that evolution is the only way to explain it all?”

Good question indeed.

Developing the cynic in me

This is the last week...partial week, actually...that I'm holding down the fort, so to speak. The senior pastor returns Thursday. I haven't had many people contact the church looking for financial assistance this time around. The few I did, I ended up challenging or regretfully declining assistance (for good reasons, trust me). The longer I'm here the more the stories start sounding familiar, and the more familiar I am with how things work and don't work.

So when someone asks for help restoring utility service and cites an amount that is obviously several months' worth, I wonder what's going on. And whether our help will merely enable wrong behavior. Three years ago I probably would be bending over backwards to try to help.

Many of the requests we get are for gas "vouchers." We've an arrangement with a local service station whereby we send people who need gas (we call ahead). When we moved up here, ten bucks would give you half a tank of gas. Nowadays, it doesn't give one alot. But our pockets aren't any deeper just because costs are up.

And we still must remain good stewards of the funds people entrust to the church for benevolence help. Not everyone who asks for help, needs the help they've asked for.

National Day of Prayer

Thursday (May 1) was the National Day of Prayer. Our senior pastor has been away on vacation (good for him), and so our church did not host the community service as in the past. Another church, one with a bit more charismatic flavor, served as the community venue. I certainly didn't expect a staid, buttoned-down affair.

My wife and I arrive about 15 minutes late (rehearsal at our own church) and they group was still singing its opening song set. I didn't know any of the songs, and found myself wondering "Where do people find these songs?" I vaguely recognized one and tracked its information down Friday. Now I just need to locate the music...

The evening was "energetic," but no overly so. There was a lot of "claiming" and petitioning God to clean up our country's messes. It got me thinking. Why do I approach these types of affairs with so much trepidation? I think, as I listened to the various prayers and pray-ers, that my hesitancy arises from the tendency people have to place God on the hook for our incompetence as His people. We've abdicated our societal responsibilities long enough that government and other organizations have stepped into the gap. They don't meet needs from a Biblical perspective--they're not the Church, after all--and we complain that they don't and aren't.

For example, the group used a prayer guide distributed by the national coordinating organization, and one area suggested several points to pray about the media. Some of the prayers--and suggested praying points--sounded downright naive! Then a thought crossed my mind. We individual followers of Christ are the Christian media.

If we aren't sharing the good news with family members, friends co-workers and acquaintances who are outside the Christian faith, we shouldn't complain about the movies a secular production house generates. Most of the outsiders don't darken our church doors, and if we keep sitting on our comfortable pews (or seats) awaiting for them to come to church, well we've a long wait. Rather than expend energy trying to "attract" people to church--there's a reason they're not coming--maybe we should try doing what Jesus called us to do: become fishers of men.

Fishermen study the habits of the fish they want to catch: where they swim, the kind of food they eat, the best weather to find them, the time of day they're most likely to be around. Bass, trout, pike, perch...all differ in these areas. A wise fisherman doesn't try to use the same equipment, bait or techniques for all of them.

Which means we need to become students of outsiders. Go to them and befriend them where they are, not where we want them to be. James defined pure religion as seeing to the needs of those unable to care for themselves (James 1:27). After that, we are to avoid becoming stained by the world. But to help people we will need to get dirty. We just don't have to wallow in it.

Anyway, we will conduct a prayer service tomorrow morning, meditating on Psalm 18, as a follow-up to the National Day of Prayer.