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Pentecost - de Tong Untied
Gepost: Fri, 09 Mei 2008 14:00: 53 +0000
Hoe verkoos de God om de Kerk van roept haar die vrij te geven? Pentecost. Hoe vertrok de God Pentecost? Door Zijn Geest ertoe te brengen om een greep van, en controle van te krijgen, de tong.En zij allen werden gevuld met de Heilige Geest en begonnen met andere tongen te spreken, aangezien de Geest hen uiting gaf. (Handelingen 2:4 NKJV)
De god cre�ėrde de tong als krachtig lid van ons lichaam. James vergelijkt de tong bij de leidraad van een schip en het beetje dat het paard (James 3:3 - 5) controleert. De grote schepen en hun leidraden worden ontworpen met grote zorg, omdat deze schepen nutteloos zijn als zij niet kunnen worden gecontroleerd. Een prachtig schip kan zijn doel zonder een leidraad vervullen niet geschikt om het door elke haven, onweer of ondiepte te manoeuvreren. Op dezelfde manier deze grote schepen een kapitein bij het roer geschikt vereisen om vaste controle van de leidraad te nemen en het te leiden.
Het is enkel als God om voor controle van de leidraad te gaan. Hij gaat altijd naar de kern van elke kwestie - of het de wortel van bitterheid, de behoefte is vergeven of de vraag om verheugende en dankbare mensen in elke situatie te zijn. Toen hij Zijn Kerk van de wereld vrijgaf, God die door stevig Zijn hand op het roer is begonnen te plaatsen dat de leidraad controleert - de tong. Hij offerde zodat de Kerk in vrijheid kon lopen en nu hij het leidt zodat het zijn vrijheidslot vervult.
De god houdt van zegen door dingenmensheid vrij te geven beschouwt als onbelangrijk. Paul beschrijft de keus van de God bij het overwinnen van sterk door het gebruiken van „zwak“ (1 Cor 1:26 - 28). Hij verwarde wijs door „dwaas te gebruiken.“ En gebruikend de „minste“ gift, begon hij Zijn grote Kerk - de gift van tongen (1 Cor 12:28). Ik geloof de God dit om verscheidene redenen deed. Eerst, Hij wil ons weten dat hij onze capaciteiten niet bijna zo zoals veel onze voorgelegde beschikbaarheid nodig heeft. Hij kan om het even wat gebruiken beschikbaar aan hem en spectaculaire dingen met het doen. Tweede , moedigt dit het zwakste lid binnen de Kerk aan. God honors and uses the least to do spectacular things. I would likely have chosen some other gift to release salvation to thousands – maybe healing, or the prophetic gift or the gift of evangelism. That would have been more “reasonable”. Third, if God can do that with the least gift, what can He do with all the spiritual gifts He has placed within you?
The tongue has one final and critical role – it is the mouthpiece of our heart’s expression.
For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. (Matt 12:34-35 NKJV)
All that lies within our soul will find its expression through the tongue. All that we treasure will find its way out through the tongue. When God controls our heart, then the tongue releases His Word for our world. If hurts, pride or ambition have a root there, then our tongue will betray that we refused to allow God inside to deal with these issues.
Pentecost is a great day to declare afresh in the Church that God controls of the rudder. He has control of our tongue – my tongue – and it speaks as “the Spirit gives utterance.”
Author Bio:: David Peacock is one of the pastors on staff at The Lighthouse Church in Kuwait. His wife Becky and two youngest children live and minister there with him.
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Destination Written Upon My Feet
Posted: Wed, 07 May 2008 11:00:21 +0000
When May bleeds into June, rousing summer in its wake, a subtle yet significant loss will be felt in the music world. The May-June issue (#75) of No Depression magazine, will be the final print issue published. There are whispers of things to come, such as expanded web content and a semi-annual book version compiling feature-length articles, but the loss of the magazine is a blow to Americana fans, nonetheless. Many of my favorite artists were selected from obscure ads in the margins of No Depression’s pages, or circled from lists of influences in ten-page reviews of artists I had already come to know and love. The magazine was to alt-country fans what Al Mohler’s blog is to reformed theologians.I have to be honest for a moment, and admit to our readers that I am partially responsible for the demise of a magazine you may care absolutely nothing about. You see, I allowed my subscription to lapse several years ago, picking up only the occasional issue here and there, and cheating on it often with younger, hipper issues of Paste promising free CDs. Luckily for our readers, this article isn’t really about the magazine at all.
Featured prominently in this farewell issue is one of my desert-island, all-time, top five bands, the Old 97’s. Next week the band will release its latest offering, Blame it on Gravity, and the article was a testimony to the band’s perseverance and the band mates’ commitment to one another. The primary songwriters and leads of the band, Rhett Miller and Murry Hammond, have a friendship that dates back some-odd twenty years to their days in Dallas, Texas. These days the two make their homes on opposite coasts, but the music still finds a way to creep out of their souls and meld together into something consonant.
Murry Hammond’s story has long intrigued me. The man who co-lead an unforgettable experience at Deep Ellum’s Gypsy Tea Room four years ago leads a roots-style weekly worship in California. In a phrase, he’s my kind of guy. His faith often seems to crop up in interviews and reviews, and Hammond does not shy away from discussing it. John Marks, the author of this Old 97’s tribute and retrospective, notes:
Listening to [Hammond’s solo] record in contrast to Miller’s The Believer, it’s hard to imagine that Hammond, who opens his solo debut with “What Are They Doing In Heaven Today”, has remained lifelong friends and musical partners with Miller, who penned that gorgeous ode to one-night stands, “Fireflies”. To put the difference in the starkest possible terms, it’s hard to hear much Jesus on Miller’s last record, or much sex on Hammond’s new one.
Hammond, naturally, comes to the defense both of the presence of God and of the presence of sex in his music. Neither the presence of the creator of the universe or of procreation in the band’s lyrics was surprising to me. As an avid fan and admitted music junkie, my mind immediately raced back to a humble interview with Murry Hammond published in 2004 on the seminal Christian-media webzine, the Phantom Tollbooth. In that interview, Hammond was asked how he reconciled the themes of the Old 97’s music with his Christian faith. As a writer and as a follower of Christ, his explanation has stuck with me over the years.
While I am most definitely still a work-in-progress, I think I’m kinder to people because of my pursuit of God, I know my marriage is better for it, and I think I’m a more honest songwriter because of it. How some writers can discuss their craft without getting into their most important influence is beyond me. Creativity is one of the fundamental elements of God’s character, so how can you separate the faith of the writer from his or her writing?
Personally, I tend to write the same song, every time. I write about redemption. I got a pile of them! My life has been a cycle of moving toward God, then moving away, then toward Him again, so redemption plays itself out over and over again in my life. In every song I write, I illuminate some part of that ongoing dialogue between the Almighty and myself, of being restless, or injuring myself then being healed by God, of feeling alienated or disenfranchised in some way, then finding connection and hope in the upward reach.
But what happens most in my writing, is I’ll put a microscope on a specific part of the redemption story, such as with the character in “Up the Devils Pay,” who is struggling with his dark and light sides. Imagine that the act of crying out to God can be shown as a strip of film, say, a scene where a man realizes his need for God, reaches upwards, God meets him and the man is transformed. I tend to not write so much about the entire sequence, such as Hank Williams did with “I Saw the Light,” but rather, I will zero in on a portion or even a single frame and describe where that character lives and what he is feeling. As much as I ponder writing about the portion of the sequence where God lives to give grace to the hurting world, I tend to write my songs back toward the beginning of the film, where the man first realizes and struggles over his need to be redeemed. How can you tell the whole story of redemption without telling about the poor creature that needed it in the first place? That human end of redemption is not often written about in a way which attempts to really move the listener, at least not in modern Christian music, but this is what I most often attempt to do. I feel that I hit occasional bulls-eyes there, and people respond instinctually, at a soul level, and they get it. And grace is illuminated in some way. I just feel most strongly in my heart for the regular person who is hurting, and is searching for a home.
All people take music very, very personally, and Christians are no different. Some might ask why would a musician of faith write and sing about anything else but God? Why would anything other than a song of praise escape the lips of a follower of Christ? To me, it’s much like a calling to ministry: Why aren’t these children of God plunging themselves into ministry? Because some are given talents that call them to step up on the pulpit, while most of us are called according to our other talents. We are called to put our light up where we live in our homes, among our neighbors, in the office buildings, in the schools, in the coal mines, as writers, as truck drivers, as artists, railroaders, country-rock bands.What say you?
Can we talk about grace, without understanding the need for it?
Can we talk about sight without at least a cursory knowledge of blindness?
Will people who are searching for what Christ has to offer pay us any mind if they don’t feel, at least a bit, like we know where they are coming from?
In that same Phantom Tollbooth interview, Murry also touched on the vitality of his friendship with the men in his band.
…I have figured out one good thing I can do for my band mates, and that is to simply to give them a safe place to bring that most private part of themselves to, without judgment or ridicule. They know they can open up to me about God, and occasionally we’ll visit that place together, in different ways for each guy. It has been a positive experience between my band mates and my self. They are pretty good guys. You know what they say, Some plant seeds, some tend seeds, some harvest. We’re just tending seeds around here.
Kimberly Roth is a co-editor for the Jesus Manifesto. She over-thinks and cares way too much, so she rambles on at www.barefootbohemian.blogspot.com.
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Contest Clarification
Posted: Tue, 06 May 2008 19:54:12 +0000
I just got an email from someone with the following observation:
I saw your blog post on the writing competition. I actually was thinking about writing something. But I’ll share with you an observation I had as I read your intro explaining it…It didn’t seem clear. I don’t really have a clear understanding of what you are asking for. Maybe it’s just me…
I think this astute reader may be right. Maybe it wasn’t clear because the only experiences I’ve had with writing competitions were with obscure theological journals. It may be worth me clarifying a bit. Maybe I should have kept it simple like this:
Explore the message of Pentecost in our contemporary world. You can do that in any way that you’d like…but keep it to less than 1000 words. We’ll give awards for each of the Jesus Manifesto categories (except interviews and book reviews).
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Writing Contest Deadline is Sunday
Posted: Tue, 06 May 2008 18:42:51 +0000
Our Pentecost Writing Contest closes on Sunday (May 11). I’m starting to get a bit nervous. We have WAY fewer submissions than anticipated. Ponder the following:
- If you are scared off by the $7 entry fee, I’d be willing to waive it for those that are low on funds. The idea for a fee was to help make the award money bigger. JM doesn’t have a budget, so I’ll you ponder just where the award money comes from.
- Your chances of winning at this point are very good. Fewer submissions means a higher chance of winning.
- Don’t be intimidated by our judges. We’re all nice people. Take a risk.
- Feel free to paint outside of the lines. The Pentecost theme is meant as a creative starting point. Take it wherever you’d like.
Get the word out…tell your friends. Tell your enemies.
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Hey, I care about those poor people too!
Posted: Tue, 06 May 2008 17:38:06 +0000
I’m tired of being accused of indifference to the poor. Fringe folks and radicals (like the readers here) usually give me a hard time. Sure, I’m wildly successful. Sure, I wear $140 pants. Yes, I drive an Audi and/or my wife’s Lexus SUV. But just because I am the affluent pastor of a suburban megachurch doesn’t mean that I don’t care about poverty. I care about those poor people too!Every week, I look over thousands of faces…looking to me to help them understand what it means to follow Jesus. We all know that Jesus cared about poor people. And in my own way, in my own suburban context, I too have a ministry to the poor.
Hey, maybe it works for some of you to live among the poor in urban neighborhoods, doing your gardening, protesting, letting people in off the streets, or whatever-else-it-is-you-folks-do. But the rest of us are looking for more practical, mainstream ways of caring for the poor. Here are 10 things I, or my church, have done in the last year to help alleviate poverty:
- Invite high profile speakers and or musicians to help raise awareness. Last week we had a huge youth concert at church featuring Derek Webb. That guy is ALL ABOUT caring for things like poverty. In the past year we’ve had guest speakers from Bread for the World and Evangelicals for Social Action. We even had Shane Claiborne come speak at a special youth and young adults rally last year. Sure, these sorts of events are expensive. But you can’t put a price tag on awareness.
- Promote the One Campaign. In the southwest corner of our lobby (by the E parking lot), we have an information kiosk where people can learn more about the One Campaign. And every quarter, we include a blurb about the One Campaign in our projection announcements.
- Give some of your church budget to global poverty. We set aside 1% of our multi-million dollar budget for World Relief. That ends up being a lot of money. And when we spent $19 million on building expansion last year, we put $190,000 towards organizations like Compassion International and Bread for the World. At our church, we have particular concern for foreign poor people.
- Do a sermon series. Last year, I did a sermon series called “Poor People of the Bible.” Each sermon began with a hilarious little skit featuring different poor Bible characters. At the end of each sermon, I offered practical steps for faithful living. Sometimes it was a hard task…especially with the teachings of Jesus. Jesus overstates things a lot and it takes serious translation work to help it apply to my congregation.
- Serve the poor. Since there aren’t any poor people in our suburb, we have built partnerships with urban soup kitchens and shelters. My small group, for example, helps serve breakfast to the homeless every month. It makes my heart feel warm to help out. Afterwards, as a reward, we treat ourselves to a swanky brunch at our favorite restaurant.
- Buy Fair Trade. Most people are poor because of bad choices. But some people are poor because they can’t get a decent wage. That is why it makes sense to buy Fair Trade goods on occasion. For example, whenever I order a double mocha at Starbucks, I make sure that they use Fair Trade Coffee. My wife could spend hundreds on new purses, but sometimes she make a sacrifice by making hand made purses from women in Peru. Since they only cost $90, she usually buys two at a time.
- Put pocket change into those little cans at grocery checkout lines. I think that money goes to alleviate child homelessness. Every little bit helps.
- Create jobs. Most of our janitors at church were unemployed for a long time before we hired them. Sometimes people need a helping hand. And personally, by utilizing a gardening service and a maid service, my family is employing exactly the sort of person who would be poor without a job.
- Don’t throw it away, donate it. It may be junk to you, but often times, poor people aren’t that picky. Consider donating it to Good Will. After all, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.
- Vote for Obama. While I can’t official endorse a candidate as a pastor, as a person, I am endorsing Barack Obama. In the past, I’ve always voted Republican. But Obama fills me with such hope. A vote for Obama is a vote for hope. If you vote for anyone else, you don’t care about poor people.
Pastor Chad Ellens doesn't exist. He is the satirical creation of Mark Van Steenwyk. Fictionally speaking, Pastor Chad is lead pastor of the Crossing Pointe Community Church in Brook Springs, Colorado (a suburb of Denver). His 5,000 member church is pushing the envelope on what it means to follow Jesus in large buildings with a large budget. Ministry is his passion, but his wife Tammy and their 2.5 kids is his life.
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Biblical Economics 1-0-what?
Posted: Tue, 06 May 2008 13:27:14 +0000
Ok, I’m a bit confused.We’re not exactly poor. My wife and I have both grown up having more than enough, and we live comfortably and have very little debt (soon to be none). But as we explore what the Bible has to say about finances, we feel pulled a few different directions. In Proverbs 13 we learn that a good man has an inheritance for his children’s children; that requires some capital, long term savings or investments, and quality relationships with one’s progeny. You think about the audience for that, they had more than one child typically, so you’re not talking a small amount of money. Yet Jesus commands to “give to anyone who asks” in Matthew 5. You have a weird collision in the New Testament of couples such as Aquila & Priscilla who make their living making tents, or Lydia who has more of a ‘luxury goods’ business (sounding like the woman in Proverbs 31), but then Acts mentions how “Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.”
And how well did that work anyway? A decade or two later and Paul is taking up offerings for the church in Jerusalem, possibly due to a kind of ecclesiastic economic collapse. The blessed become the beggars? Perhaps in some perverse sense the martyrdom had an auxiliary benefit: keeping the stress on the ecclesial budget down.
Jesus had nowhere to lay his head (Matthew 8). Judas kept their money (John 12), but it never says how much, and no matter what the prosperity preachers claim, I find nothing about Jesus’ secret mansion there so I don’t think Jabez (1 Chronicles 4) helps much. Jacob’s flocks were ‘blessed’ by quasi-magical deviousness. (Genesis 30).
Jesus’ parables make things really interesting, especially for those with a capitalist or communist predisposition. He claims the kingdom of God for the poor in Luke chapter 6 and in chapter 8 feeds the crowds. At the end of chapter 9 he reiterates his lack of accommodations. His prayer in Luke 11 asks for “daily bread” but he follows it with a promise for receiving whatever you ask of God. The Pharisees are condemned for their classism and their tithe, and a heart of giving is praised even when the giver has little to give (Luke 21). Chapter 12 describes a rich fool, and Jesus recommends an almost naive approach to life’s needs; give everything away, do not save or store up on earth. He then praises shrewd investors in his parable in chapter 14, and follows that parable with another featuring a nameless rich man in hell. The rich young ruler (Luke 18) is commanded to sell all his possessions and give to the poor. A reformed tax collector gives half his possessions to the poor and reimburses those he cheated. Jesus throws the salespeople out of Jerusalem. He gives an ambivalent answer regarding taxes and ends up getting betrayed for 30 silver coins. I guess Judas was sick of stealing from an empty wallet.
Seriously though; there is a strong, recurring theme in Jesus’ life and the lives of the New Testament church that emphasizes essentially:
a) Give, abundantly, cheerfully, constantly.
b) Live very simply. (Homeless, nomadic, or communal seem to be the trends).
c) Trust God for your needs.How does that jive with the Hebrew scriptures regarding financial wisdom, inevitably the stuff being quoted in sermons surrounding tithes, investment, budgeting and wealth creation? How does that work with Christians who were businesspeople? (a role that unlike governmental positions, temple prostitution or soldiery, was permitted) How do I figure that out when, on the one hand, I know that Jesus didn’t die for my 401(k), but I still have one?
Author Bio:: Jordan Peacock lives and works in Minnesota with his beautiful wife and daughter. When not playing with technology or music, he’s writing comic books and wrapping up a university education.
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An Economy Stimulating Giving Spree!
Posted: Mon, 05 May 2008 13:00:29 +0000
Come May, most of us tax paying citizens will be receiving a check in the mail. Now, regardless of whether you agree with capitalism, our government, or the Economic Stimulus package, the fact remains that you’ll be getting a check either way. Now, the question becomes how to spend it.It’s true, once you get the check, it’s your money to do what you’d like with it, but the intent is that you spend it on consumer goods, thus stimulating the economy. You might just save it away for a rainy day or use it to pay off some debt, but I’d like to recommend another idea: A Giving Spree.
What an amazing opportunity to take make a statement flipping a value system on it’s head. The money given with the intent of spending it on ourselves in our consumer society, thus stimulating our capitalist economy (thus saving us from impending doom) basically makes the statement that we can ‘Save Ourselves by Consuming.’ We have the opportunity to take that same resource and use it for good, clothing the needy, feeding the hungry, bringing justice to the captives.
I’d like to propose that come May, when you receive your rebate check, that you take a large portion of it (or all of it) and go on a Christ-honoring Giving Spree. Here are some ideas:
- Take some homeless people you meet out to a fancy restaurant.
- Buy a CSA Share for a needy family in your neighborhood.
- Purchase and give away CFL Bulbs, Cloth Shopping Bags, Fair Trade Chocolate, Fair Trade Socks.
- Host a Pizza Party for students at your neighborhood school.
- Sponsor a child for a year.
- What’s your idea?
If you’re interested in participating then click here and sign the Giving Spree pledge. The hope is to use a pledge to build some momentum to the Giving Spree. You are free to give money away even if we don’t reach the pledge numbers, and you’re also free to give away all of your rebate check. But either way, sign the pledge!
The description of the pledge reads:
Recognizing that the Economic Stimulus rebate checks we will receive in May sole purpose is to be spent to help stimulate the economy, we are willing to follow through, but not as expected.
In a prophetic statement against the rampant consumerist culture that we live in, as a declaration that more money and capitalism will not save us or our economy, and as a statement to those around us that we follow Christ’s teachings (Matt. 23) and the only true hope is through him,
We will take a large portion of these government issued checks and begin a ‘Giving Spree’ to meet the needs of those around us, pressing, important and immediate needs.
[Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on JM on February 21, 2008. Now that the checks are officially arriving, we thought it would be good to once again ponder the idea of how to best utilize the discretionary income in the service of the Kingdom of God]
Ariah Fine is a husband and father living in North Minneapolis. He blogs at Trying To Follow and recently wrote his first novel, Giving Up.
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Armed Settlers Invade Palestinian Village
Posted: Sat, 03 May 2008 00:46:30 +0000
On Friday, 2 May , shortly after 3:00 pm, three settlers, including the Ma’on Settlement security guard, illegally entered At-Tuwani and accused Palestinians of stealing cherries. When international peacemakers approached, filming and taking photographs, the settlers pushed, kicked, and head-butted the internationals and Palestinians, and also broke a video camera. As more settlers and Palestinians arrived, several scuffles ensued while Israeli soldiers and police looked on.Soldiers and policed pushed and ordered the Palestinians farther into the village as settlers continued to mass forward toward a Palestinian home. As settlers pointed out and accused individual Palestinians, the police apprehended the Palestinians, forcing five into police vans and taking them to the Kiryat Arba police station. Police refused to take testimony from Palestinians and internationals, even those injured from settler aggression.
For at least one hour and half, settlers remained on Palestinian land.
Two Palestinians and two internationals (one Dove and one Christian Peacemaker) were hospitalized and treated for injuries as a result of the settler attack.
Paul Rehm is a member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams based in Hebron, Occupied Palestine.
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Jesus Radicals Conference: August 15-16
Posted: Fri, 02 May 2008 18:55:30 +0000
From the Jesus Radicals website:As election fever rises throughout the United States and the contest for the White House becomes more fierce, the masses will clamor for a new Commander in Chief to assume the seat of American power. This year, it seems as if the game has changed as a female candidate appears to fulfill feminist dreams and a viable Black candidate raises hopes for Black freedom and signals the weakening of racism. But is this really the case? For those who follow the One who confronted the powers and embrace the One who came as a Suffering Servant, these changes are not enough to leave this political system unchallenged. For those who envision an egalitarian world in which order and organization do not rely on the ever-present threat of state violence, bowing before the ballot box will not be an option.
Join us for this year’s Anarchism and Christianity conference as we explore alternatives to mainstream approaches to key issues raised in the current election, dream beyond the political options of our present system and imagine the other world we want to create. Get detailed session and housing info, and register to attend.
Yours truly (Mark Van Steenwyk) will be one of the presenters. I’m going to be leading a session on the relationship between the church and nation-state from a “Christarchist” perpective. The conference will be in Columbus, Ohio.
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My Beautiful Idol by Pete Gall
Posted: Fri, 02 May 2008 14:11:09 +0000
If fourth century saint Augustine ever met up in a dark alley with twenty-first century author Donald Miller… and then instead of coming to blows, they skipped hand in hand to the nearest pub…and then it was decided upon to sit down over a pint and share their stories with one another…and then somehow they self-published their collaborative journey only to see it picked up by Zondervan and spread to eager bloggers—the result would be awkwardly similar to Pete Gall’s spiritual memoir My Beautiful Idol.And if you think my intro was a bit scattered, just wait till you get your hands on a copy of the book, where the journey goes from the tempting delicacies of the corporate Chicago landscape to the spiritual violence done at a half-way house in Colorado. Gall has a knack for robbing any sense of control from the reader without taking it so far that the pages stop being turned. His prose shoves the reader forward, even when the first paragraph of the next chapter seems to hardly connect with the last. You’re just along for the ride, manning shotgun with Gall as he encounters a populace he couldn’t possibly make up such as Critter; “the thirty-year old Cajun grade school dropout pedophile” and Hungarian Vince; “whose second-biggest disability is that he doesn’t quite look retarded.” But the last thing you would want on this ride is for the safety locks to be disengaged because somewhere along the voyage, Gall has begun to read your mail. You see a glimmer of yourself in his tale of idolatry and being the “nice guy” for all the wrong reasons and you must read on to find some sense of hope for your own self constructed hiding place.
But back to original metaphor…
It’s Pete Gall’s absolute honesty that brings Augustine into the frame. At times he’s self-deprecating. Like Augustine’s Confessions, much of My Beautiful Idol is the journey of one man who desperately wants to be all God’s, but enjoys the few toes and fingers still reserved for the self. The symptoms are different, but the disease is the same. For Augustine, the pleasures of sex and lust were a little too fun to give up just yet. For Gall, it was faking the part of being the “tremendous man of God.” He’s that “nice guy” who manipulatively, yet secretly, wants everyone to notice how pleasant he really is. Both as a successful brand strategist and as an inauspicious non-profit engineer, Gall was merely looking to be defined by how much love he could suck from those around him. He was wading through life, attaching little trinkets to his shell like the collector crab (a metaphor that encompasses the entire book). God becomes our own personal brand that we slap on to hide from the “squids” in our lives. “And so long as we remain uneaten, it feels like it’s working.”(19) The problem with these hiding places is that “they’re more like prisons than protection.”(43)
In Donald Miller fashion, the offhand and imaginative writing style of My Beautiful Idol is sure to agitate its fair share. In the process of deconstructing a false sense of self before an all loving God, Pete Gall also deconstructs some camouflage that many Christians will cling to such as the local church—“I’d feel better about selling motherhood to a teenager than church to a person looking for God.”(33) and the suburbs— “Zionsville…is proof to me that there was a reason we were kicked out of the garden.”(53) Being currently enrolled at Bethel Seminary, the author’s critique of seminaries as places that are more likely to mold salespeople than witnesses was hard to read. And it will only be a matter of time before Christian watchdogs will be all over Gall for comparing a genuine experience of God with his early days of smoking pot. But the readers need to heed the end of the story before jumping to conclusions. Gall comes to embrace the church as the terribly flawed, but finest alternative God has at His disposal. He treks back to Zionsville to live with his suburban family who demonstrates the real meaning of love at the moment he needed it most. After roasting seminary, it is Gall who states that seminary professors are some of the most submitted people to God that he’s ever encountered. But many will find it just as easy to pick on the parts of Beautiful Idol that upset our worldviews while disregarding the counsel that we “don’t get to decide who Jesus is.” (120)
Pete Gall was seeking a faith… “the sort that can flex and grow and be beautiful without needing me to shine it up and pose it just so.” (11) It is the style of his writing, while leaving numerous questions unanswered, that best captures such a dynamic faith. This reviewer can only hope that he too comes to the place where “success in life is not measured by what we achieve, but by what we admit.” (267)
Michael Cline is a co-editor of the Jesus Manifesto. He considers himself a freelance pastor and and over-employed learner who currently attends Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. When not snuggling with his wife, he’s blogging at www.reclinerramblings.blogspot.com
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