What We’re Reading…
Who Gets to Narrate the World?, Robert E. Webber
This is Webber’s last book before his death. It might be considered one of his most important works because it’s what he wanted completed before he passed.
With this sense of urgency in mind, Webber issues a challenge to evangelical Christianity — give the world a Gospel that is worth living. Not worried about being politically correct, Webber asserts that Christianity (perhaps, more accurately, Christianity as practiced in the United States) has short-changed the Good News of Christ because it fails to capture people’s hearts by being self-centered and private rather than God-centered.
He contrasts this faux-form of Christianity against radical Islam (which dictates all aspects of how its followers should live) and new-age spiritualism. In short, people desire to connect with God and live for something bigger than themselves and they are finding it in Oprah-styled religion and radical Islam. U.S. Christianity currently fails to provide a connection to a broader narrative and its present form of practice will lead to nothing.
What Webber brings it down to is a call for Christians to offer a narrative that is about personal salvation (what has become the virtually the sole focus of Christianity) AND being a part of what God is doing in the world (offering redemption to His Creation).
As a church historian, Webber distills a great deal to make this work readable. Some of what he says and summarizes may require readers to trust and accept what he asserts because they are unaware of the background story. But don’t get bogged down in this.
The more significant critique of Webber on U.S. Christianity his how it has catered to and, perhaps bought into, a consumerist approach to presenting the Gospel — “what’s in it for me?” In doing this, the focus of salvation has shifted off of God (and His work as Father, Son and Spirit) on to us. Case in point, a popular Christian song, Above All, has this line:
Like a rose trampled on the ground
You took the fall and thought of me
Above all
Sounds nice, but theologically, it is wrong. God, as the eternal community of Father, Son and Spirit, didn’t need His Creation (humans) to make Himself complete. Jesus went to the Cross because of His relationship to His Father, not because of His relationship to us. The object of the Son’s affections (His motive for dying) was not mankind (not you or me!) but the Father.
This book is a good end to Webber’s Ancient/Future series (although not a part of this series). It shows how faith is ultimately relevant by pointing believers toward a much bigger meaning for life. The book is a good read and sobering when you think about what we are calling people to with the Gospel.
Under the Overpass, Mike Yankoski
A compelling read about two men who voluntarily become homeless. They take on this challenge to understand what it means to trust God and to understand the plight of people living out on the streets. As the author puts it, “What if I stepped out of my comfortable life with nothing but God and put my faith to the test alongside of those who live with nothing every day?”
Beyond being a “nice” experiment, Mike and his friend, Sam, discover what dependency on God can look like, how a comfortable life can obscure this dependency and what good and bad ministry to the homeless looks like.
Mike is compassionate in his approach to the subject of homelessness and he makes no apologies in confronting stereotypical, even hypocritical conduct that the Body of Christ engages in.
The Myth of Multitasking, Dave Crenshaw
Ever have the feeling of being overwhelmed with having too many things to do? How do you handle all the things you have to do?
In this insightful gem, Crenshaw tackles the perception that multitasking is a talent and a good thing. The reality is that no one multitasks. Rather, they switchtask — alternate between tasks. The burden of doing many things is switching off between tasks effectively. Poor switchtasking leads to wasted time and energy.
Revolutionary Parenting, George Barna
An interesting take on parenting in that Barna looks at research data to consider the effectiveness of “good” and “bad” parenting. He observes that, “many parenting books… offer advice without much relationship to the real-world results their advice generates. [They] recommend strategies that may be innovative but are disconnected from any evidence that their approach produces desirable development in a young person.”
Barna builds on a previous work, Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions (a good read, btw). He considers the elements/characteristics of spiritually strong and healthy kids and asks about how they got there. Using research, Barna provides insights to what happens when the Bible (read: Christian faith) is applied to raising kids.
Major points of emphasis are “coaching” children in their upbringing, intentionality, personal conduct & faith and having a target you’re aiming for (I’d call it ‘content-development’ versus ‘character-development’) He doesn’t go about defending his position with Scripture or providing a biblical basis for what we need to do (lots of books already do that). Barna presumes raising godly kids is what we want to do, believe in it and are seeking to figure out how to do it.
Barna affirms that parents are the primary sources for their children’s spiritual foundation and growth. It’s not something that can be farmed out nor do parents need to be spiritual giants or have seminary degrees. Children are looking for a spiritual model to follow and they don’t expect perfection.
It’s a good book, although I enjoyed his previous book more. Barna provides practical application and moves beyond building an exegetical case for what he’s saying. Others have already chimed in with this truth, he’s mainly concerned about helping parents pursue the results they are after.
Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters, Meg Meeker
Dr. Meeker is not shy about challenging fathers of daughters to consider their role in the lives of their girls. While offering insightful observations gained through experience as a pediatrician, Meeker addresses the role of a father in the emotional, spiritual, mental and physical maturation of his daughter.
What’s a father to do when his daughter, seemingly out of the blue, bursts out into tears? As a father of girls, the two questions that pop into my head are, “What’s wrong?” and “What do I say to get her to stop?” (Of course, another question that will rush to mind for me is, “What did I do?”)
Meeker emphasizes the importance of fathers being involved with the lives of their daughters reinforced with statistical and anecdotal evidence. Dads who check out of the life of their daughter can doom her to a life seeking approval from others which only their father can fulfill — scary stuff, yet encouraging to those who want to make a difference but don’t know how. It’s never to late to love your daughter right.
The Shack, William P. Young
Young offers a different perspective on engaging the age old question, “How can an all-loving, all-powerful God allow evil?”
What makes Young’s approach unique is his presentation of God in His Triune nature — God in Eternal Community.
The main character, Mack, encounters God when God meets Mack in a significant place of pain — the loss of his daughter in a tragic situation. In the course, of Mack’s encounter with God, as Father, Son and Spirit, the reader is challenged by the conversations that take place. While written in the medium of fiction, the book offers very real dialogue and speaks from a place of experience. Mack’s anger at, bewilderment and mistrust of God reflects emotions that we may have experienced ourselves.
Along the way, Young presents a possible picture of what God might be like in His Triune Self. It may seem heretical to even present God this way, yet Young’s narrative is biblical. He presents ideas that are worth going to the Bible on to see if God is really like what Young portrays. Further, if God is like what Mack encounters, what does that mean for us?
I found the story engaging. What Young offers as a description of a relational God is compelling enough to get me to give copies of this book to others. Maybe you’ll find the same.
