book review by Carrie Eikler
How many of you have heard something like this statement: “The only churches that are growing are conservative and evangelical churches.” ? Author Diana Butler Bass admits that accepted wisdom in the past decades have concluded that mainline churches are in decline while evangelical mega-churches have drawn in the true faithful. Butler Bass, a sociologist of religion, wondered if this was true, and her book Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 2006.) paints another picture. Curious about this “accepted wisdom” a well her own experience about returning to a church family, Butler Bass explores the flourishing churches who choose to remain faithful to a tradition while becoming a vital spiritual community.
And many of these churches aren’t right-wing conservatives, but open, curious, faithful congregations who identify themselves as middle of the road, or even left of middle. Not surprisingly, Butler Bass explores congregations in the Protestant tradition (Episcopal, United Methodist, Disciples of Christ, Presbyterian, UCC, and Lutheran) and does touch on Anabaptist traditions such as Mennonites or Church of the Brethren, but there is much to taken from her findings, particularly because I feel we are the type of church she highlights. Small congregations, who are rooted in a faith tradition, seeking ways to bring a new word of Christianity to their communities.
The heart of the book highlights ten practices of these vibrant communities: hospitality, discernment, healing, contemplation, testimony, diversity, justice, worship, reflection, and beauty. Speaking of these practices and their place in church renewal, Butler Bass says “All the congregations have found new vitality through an intentional and transformative engagement with Christian tradition as embodied in faith practices. Typically they have rediscovered the riches of the Christian past and practice simple, but profound, things like discernment, hospitality, testimony, contemplation, and justice. They reach back to ancient wisdom and reach out through a life sustained by Christian devotional and moral practices. They know the biblical story and their own story. They focus more on God’s grace in the world than on the eternal state of their own souls. (7). I found myself wondering throughout this book if these ten practices are important to our congregation? If so, are they important in theory, or do we really practice them (or expect others in the church to practice them)? I found both affirmative and challenging answers to these questions. How would you answer that?
Christianity for the Rest of Us is one of those hopeful books that leave you feeling “raring to go” and bewildered at where to begin. But perhaps that is the purpose of the book. It gives us glimpses of what has been done, names the broad scope of the practices embraced in the journey, and lets the reader do the hard work. After all, all congregations are different, just as each reader is different. A discussion guide in the back of the book, along with the vivid content, would make it a great group read for a commission, church board, or simply curious Christians who have seen the “new wave” of Christianity pass by them, and have hesitated to get on board. If you have ever been one of those “Christianbuts” (finding yourself saying, “I’m a Christian, but…”) or even if you are a “Christianyea” (finding yourself saying, “I’m a Christian, yea!”), this is a read that will leave you raring, bewildered, and wondering.
Showing posts with label Book Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book Review. Show all posts
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
From the Book Shelf
Is it Insensitive to Share Your Faith:
Hard questions about Christian mission in a plural world
~ James A. Kraybill
book review by Torin Eikler
(as published in the Wiles Hill Witness)
Recently, the Allegheny Conference pastors committed to read this book together as we seek to explore our own habits and tendencies around sharing our own faith with others. Yet, this is not a handbook for evangelism. It does not present a program that will help us reach out to the un-churched or to find the seekers in our community. Instead, Krabill explores the heart of issues of embarrassment, uncertainty, and a desire to respect others’ beliefs as we seek to follow the Great Commission: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”
In a pluralistic world filled with moral, faithful people who follow any number of religious paths or shun religion all together, it is often difficult for modern and post-modern Christians to feel comfortable sharing their faith with family, friends, colleagues, and those we meet on the “street corners” of our lives. We fear that we may be insulting them or at least stepping on their toes since their beliefs, in some ways, stand in opposition to the claims of Christianity. We want to be sensitive to their worldviews and their traditions, and we are aware that our own tradition’s history and worldview admit of a certain intolerance and uncaring arrogance. At a deeper level, we often wonder why we should risk insulting or alienating those we work and live with when they often live lives just as moral as our own (or perhaps more so.)
Krabill draws on his extensive experience in the mission field on several continents and in both developed and developing countries to address these issues. The result is a fairly accessible book that proposes some helpful thoughts about how we can move from the historical models of crushing or coercing people of other faiths into clones of our own Christianity and the more recent model of respectful co-existence into a mode of confession to, conversation with, and commendation of Christ to others. What he provides in this book is not a program or an evangelical self-help tool (and that is good since every person and every situation is unique and requires a unique response). Rather, he builds a solid foundation from which we can engage with concepts and questions essential to Christians in a pluralistic world and encourages us to carry the conversation further.
Hard questions about Christian mission in a plural world
~ James A. Kraybill
book review by Torin Eikler
(as published in the Wiles Hill Witness)
Recently, the Allegheny Conference pastors committed to read this book together as we seek to explore our own habits and tendencies around sharing our own faith with others. Yet, this is not a handbook for evangelism. It does not present a program that will help us reach out to the un-churched or to find the seekers in our community. Instead, Krabill explores the heart of issues of embarrassment, uncertainty, and a desire to respect others’ beliefs as we seek to follow the Great Commission: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”
In a pluralistic world filled with moral, faithful people who follow any number of religious paths or shun religion all together, it is often difficult for modern and post-modern Christians to feel comfortable sharing their faith with family, friends, colleagues, and those we meet on the “street corners” of our lives. We fear that we may be insulting them or at least stepping on their toes since their beliefs, in some ways, stand in opposition to the claims of Christianity. We want to be sensitive to their worldviews and their traditions, and we are aware that our own tradition’s history and worldview admit of a certain intolerance and uncaring arrogance. At a deeper level, we often wonder why we should risk insulting or alienating those we work and live with when they often live lives just as moral as our own (or perhaps more so.)
Krabill draws on his extensive experience in the mission field on several continents and in both developed and developing countries to address these issues. The result is a fairly accessible book that proposes some helpful thoughts about how we can move from the historical models of crushing or coercing people of other faiths into clones of our own Christianity and the more recent model of respectful co-existence into a mode of confession to, conversation with, and commendation of Christ to others. What he provides in this book is not a program or an evangelical self-help tool (and that is good since every person and every situation is unique and requires a unique response). Rather, he builds a solid foundation from which we can engage with concepts and questions essential to Christians in a pluralistic world and encourages us to carry the conversation further.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Pastor’s Bookshelf
Living Simply with Children by Marie Sherlock
Members of our congregation have joined together in a monthly Simplicity Study Circle to examine and support one another on the quest for living more “simpler,” or more intentional, lives. We have had two meetings that have been very well attended, ranging from 10-15 participants.
Guiding our initial discussions is a unique book that may sound limited to certain people, but has wonderful activities for all families and individuals. Living Simply with Children is “A voluntary simplicity guide for moms, dads, and kids who want to reclaim the bliss of childhood and the joy of parenting.”
So why did I choose this book, when many of the participants don’t have children in the home anymore? Well, for one thing, the lessons they explore are applicable to anyone seeking to reprioritize their lives. Each person/family in our group is encouraged to create a list of Values and Visions. We live in a society that has contradictory values, notes Sherlock: “We drive around in gas-guzzling SUVs with ‘Save the Earth’ bumperstickers on them. We implore our kindergartners to share with others, yet the US ranks an abysmal twenty-first among the industrialized nations in the percentage of our national income earmarked for foreign assistance. We tell ourselves ‘beauty is only skin deep,’ that ‘you can’t judge a book by its cover,’ that it’s what’s on the inside that counts. Yet we buy showcase homes and cars and ensure that our families have the trendiest fashions and hairdos, the latest gadgets and toys. Our paradoxical nature is a recurring theme.”
Sherlock elaborates that the reasons we live such contradictory lifestyles is two-fold. First, we haven’t actually taken time to articulate what living a “full life” actually entails (or perhaps in terms of the faith community, a “faithful life”). Second, the values of our consumer culture are often diametrically opposed from our own.
Rabbi Harold Kushner notes, in his best seller When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough: “Ask the average person which is more important to him, making money or being devoted to his family, and virtually everyone will answer family without hesitation. But watch how the average person actually lives out his life. See where he really invests his time and energy, and he will give away the fact that he does not really live by what he says he believes.”
Through brainstorming our Values in order to create a Vision Statement for what is truly important to our families, we are striving to more clearly see what we put in our lives that clutter, complicate, and disconnect us from each other, as well as our God. If our lives are lived with intentionality--pursuing those things that value most to us--we can find that we can judge the extraneous elements with faithful and empowered discernment.
Members of our congregation have joined together in a monthly Simplicity Study Circle to examine and support one another on the quest for living more “simpler,” or more intentional, lives. We have had two meetings that have been very well attended, ranging from 10-15 participants.
Guiding our initial discussions is a unique book that may sound limited to certain people, but has wonderful activities for all families and individuals. Living Simply with Children is “A voluntary simplicity guide for moms, dads, and kids who want to reclaim the bliss of childhood and the joy of parenting.”
So why did I choose this book, when many of the participants don’t have children in the home anymore? Well, for one thing, the lessons they explore are applicable to anyone seeking to reprioritize their lives. Each person/family in our group is encouraged to create a list of Values and Visions. We live in a society that has contradictory values, notes Sherlock: “We drive around in gas-guzzling SUVs with ‘Save the Earth’ bumperstickers on them. We implore our kindergartners to share with others, yet the US ranks an abysmal twenty-first among the industrialized nations in the percentage of our national income earmarked for foreign assistance. We tell ourselves ‘beauty is only skin deep,’ that ‘you can’t judge a book by its cover,’ that it’s what’s on the inside that counts. Yet we buy showcase homes and cars and ensure that our families have the trendiest fashions and hairdos, the latest gadgets and toys. Our paradoxical nature is a recurring theme.”
Sherlock elaborates that the reasons we live such contradictory lifestyles is two-fold. First, we haven’t actually taken time to articulate what living a “full life” actually entails (or perhaps in terms of the faith community, a “faithful life”). Second, the values of our consumer culture are often diametrically opposed from our own.
Rabbi Harold Kushner notes, in his best seller When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough: “Ask the average person which is more important to him, making money or being devoted to his family, and virtually everyone will answer family without hesitation. But watch how the average person actually lives out his life. See where he really invests his time and energy, and he will give away the fact that he does not really live by what he says he believes.”
Through brainstorming our Values in order to create a Vision Statement for what is truly important to our families, we are striving to more clearly see what we put in our lives that clutter, complicate, and disconnect us from each other, as well as our God. If our lives are lived with intentionality--pursuing those things that value most to us--we can find that we can judge the extraneous elements with faithful and empowered discernment.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Pastor's Bookshelf
Your Money or Your Life:
Transforming Your Relationship with Money
and Achieving Financial Independance
by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
Wiles Hill Witness (January-March edition)
Normally, I would not present a review on a book that have not yet finished. Nor would I usually recommend a book about financial independence in a church newsletter. However, as Carrie and I have begun to read this “how to” guide, we have been surprised to realize that it is not only a helpful tool for getting a hold on our finances, it also offers an inspiring new perspective on the nature of money and the power it holds over our lives. As we are heading into the season of Lent and beginning to turn our thoughts to the ways in which our lives are divided from the ways of God, it seems appropriate to offer this book as a tool in our struggle to free ourselves from service to Mammon.
Your Money or Your Life is not a new book. It has been in print for nearly twenty years, and the authors have been sharing the wisdom it holds for much longer among friends and in seminars. On one level, it offers an on-going nine-step process that will help anyone develop an intentional path to financial independence. Yet, unlike the many strategies that pander to our cultural habits of immediate gratification, this process aims at developing sustainable plans that work toward long-term goals and are particular to each individual or family’s particular circumstances.
Beginning with an honest assessment of new-worth and expenses and following a clearly outlined path through an exploration of values and goals around money to an ultimate plan for financial management, the authors offer an understandable and easy to follow step-by-step process leading to financial independence in the traditional sense.
More significant, though, is the philosophy and insight that are at the core of this unique book. At its roots, the process outlined here is based in a paradigm shift that allows us to think about money in an entirely different manner than we have been taught by our society. Rather than addressing itself to our fears about making ends meet or our hopes of finding ways to develop huge reservoirs of wealth, the authors challenge the root assumptions by which we tend to operate (more is better, money is power or freedom or security, and money can buy happiness).
Most of us will readily acknowledge that none of these statements is actually true. Yet, for some reason, we often find that we are living according to one or more of these false axioms. The true gift of Your Money or Your Life is that as we work through its nine steps, we are gently led to find and embrace a new perspective on money that allows us to define the place it will have in our lives. Showing us the habits of unrestrained capitalism by which we live and our addiction to consumption, this book offers us the freedom to understand and use money as a tool in the service of the greater goals of our lives. At its core, this book addresses the challenge of serving only one Lord and, with its refreshing perspective and concrete nine steps, provides an accessible and inviting path for achieving this greatest of all commandments.
Torin
Note: if this review has sparked your interest or resonated with long-held beliefs that you struggle to bring fully into your life, we invite you join the Simple Living Study Circle that will be gathering soon. Talk to Pastor Carrie for more details.
Transforming Your Relationship with Money
and Achieving Financial Independance
by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin
Wiles Hill Witness (January-March edition)
Normally, I would not present a review on a book that have not yet finished. Nor would I usually recommend a book about financial independence in a church newsletter. However, as Carrie and I have begun to read this “how to” guide, we have been surprised to realize that it is not only a helpful tool for getting a hold on our finances, it also offers an inspiring new perspective on the nature of money and the power it holds over our lives. As we are heading into the season of Lent and beginning to turn our thoughts to the ways in which our lives are divided from the ways of God, it seems appropriate to offer this book as a tool in our struggle to free ourselves from service to Mammon.
Your Money or Your Life is not a new book. It has been in print for nearly twenty years, and the authors have been sharing the wisdom it holds for much longer among friends and in seminars. On one level, it offers an on-going nine-step process that will help anyone develop an intentional path to financial independence. Yet, unlike the many strategies that pander to our cultural habits of immediate gratification, this process aims at developing sustainable plans that work toward long-term goals and are particular to each individual or family’s particular circumstances.
Beginning with an honest assessment of new-worth and expenses and following a clearly outlined path through an exploration of values and goals around money to an ultimate plan for financial management, the authors offer an understandable and easy to follow step-by-step process leading to financial independence in the traditional sense.
More significant, though, is the philosophy and insight that are at the core of this unique book. At its roots, the process outlined here is based in a paradigm shift that allows us to think about money in an entirely different manner than we have been taught by our society. Rather than addressing itself to our fears about making ends meet or our hopes of finding ways to develop huge reservoirs of wealth, the authors challenge the root assumptions by which we tend to operate (more is better, money is power or freedom or security, and money can buy happiness).
Most of us will readily acknowledge that none of these statements is actually true. Yet, for some reason, we often find that we are living according to one or more of these false axioms. The true gift of Your Money or Your Life is that as we work through its nine steps, we are gently led to find and embrace a new perspective on money that allows us to define the place it will have in our lives. Showing us the habits of unrestrained capitalism by which we live and our addiction to consumption, this book offers us the freedom to understand and use money as a tool in the service of the greater goals of our lives. At its core, this book addresses the challenge of serving only one Lord and, with its refreshing perspective and concrete nine steps, provides an accessible and inviting path for achieving this greatest of all commandments.
Torin
Note: if this review has sparked your interest or resonated with long-held beliefs that you struggle to bring fully into your life, we invite you join the Simple Living Study Circle that will be gathering soon. Talk to Pastor Carrie for more details.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Pastor's Bookshelf
The Holy Man
by Susan Trott
Wiles Hill Witness (September-October edition)
As we reach the end of summer, there is one more “Summer Reading” book that I would recommend. The Holy Man, by author Susan Trott is a small book with much more power than its size would suggest. While the characters in this book are all fictional, the problems that set them on the path are universal, and Trott uses the short, unassuming format in these pages to address the deep issues at the heart of our lives together with wit and wisdom.
Despite its title, this is not a story about one person’s life. Instead, it is a compilation of many small stories about people who from all over the world who make the trek to visit the holy man who lives at the top of an isolated mountain. Coming from many different walks of life, all the characters have realized that something is missing. They each leave behind the business of their lives for however long it takes to make it to the door of the holy man’s hermitage. There they find their answers in unexpected ways.
I first read this book several years ago when I received it as a gift. Since then, I have kept it close to hand, and I often find myself picking it up to re-read one episode or another as I have encountered life issues dealt with in its pages. Each time I read it, I am struck by how Trott’s pen strikes so close to the heart of issues that we prefer not to think about – questions of self-obsession, judgmentalism, delusion, pride, and deep-seated anger among many others.
Recently, I have begun to read chapters of The Holy Man as one of my devotional conversation partners. Reading a different chapter each day or sitting with one chapter daily for a week at a time, I find these short “treatises” a helpful jumping off point for prayer and deeper meditation on the stumbling blocks that keep me from finding the Shalom of a closer walk with God. And, any writing that helps us move toward a deeper, stronger faith, brings us a step closer to the Holy One who is all around us waiting to be found. Perhaps this book can help you and those you care for in your journey as it has helped me.
by Susan Trott
Wiles Hill Witness (September-October edition)
As we reach the end of summer, there is one more “Summer Reading” book that I would recommend. The Holy Man, by author Susan Trott is a small book with much more power than its size would suggest. While the characters in this book are all fictional, the problems that set them on the path are universal, and Trott uses the short, unassuming format in these pages to address the deep issues at the heart of our lives together with wit and wisdom.
Despite its title, this is not a story about one person’s life. Instead, it is a compilation of many small stories about people who from all over the world who make the trek to visit the holy man who lives at the top of an isolated mountain. Coming from many different walks of life, all the characters have realized that something is missing. They each leave behind the business of their lives for however long it takes to make it to the door of the holy man’s hermitage. There they find their answers in unexpected ways.
I first read this book several years ago when I received it as a gift. Since then, I have kept it close to hand, and I often find myself picking it up to re-read one episode or another as I have encountered life issues dealt with in its pages. Each time I read it, I am struck by how Trott’s pen strikes so close to the heart of issues that we prefer not to think about – questions of self-obsession, judgmentalism, delusion, pride, and deep-seated anger among many others.
Recently, I have begun to read chapters of The Holy Man as one of my devotional conversation partners. Reading a different chapter each day or sitting with one chapter daily for a week at a time, I find these short “treatises” a helpful jumping off point for prayer and deeper meditation on the stumbling blocks that keep me from finding the Shalom of a closer walk with God. And, any writing that helps us move toward a deeper, stronger faith, brings us a step closer to the Holy One who is all around us waiting to be found. Perhaps this book can help you and those you care for in your journey as it has helped me.
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