Lately, I’ve been challenged on many different levels. Maybe it’s just all the reading I have been doing.
For those of you who don’t know me, I read a lot. I listen to many audiobooks and generally I read two or three books at a time. Just recently I’ve read through The Shack, a very controversial work of “Christian Fiction.” I’ve also been reading through and digesting a book named A New Kind of Youth Ministry. Both of these books have been very thought provoking in many ways and many times I have experienced both negative and positive reactions.
The Shack was an easy read and made me think about my faith and who I am, especially after I had read the author’s personal story and motivation behind the book–whew. I know there is some discussion on the “theological ramifications” of this book, but I wonder how relevant those really could be. At the heart of the book is an amazing description of Grace. The kind of Grace that we don’t deserve, earn, or even understand at times. Am I concerned that the Trinity is portrayed in such human terms? That the Father is actually a plump, African-American, the Holy Spirit a small Asian woman, and well I guess Jesus is portrayed pretty much how I would expect Him. Honestly, I’m not. I think that this is significant as well. As a Church, as a group of believers, we have lost touch with that aspect of God-that He will and does find ways to relate himself to us. We have lost touch of Jesus being fully human AND fully God. We find it disturbing to picture Jesus messing around with the disciples, being a man who might have smashed his thumb while working at his trade, or even having to get up everyday and do the routine things that we do everyday.
Maybe we like that “Professional Distance” that we create between ourselves and Jesus. I’ve been challenged to rethink that part of my faith. If I want to be like Jesus, then I also need to realize that Jesus was once like me-minus the sin.
Add into that the other book that I’ve been digesting for some time–A New Kind of Youth Ministry, by Chris Folmsbee. This book takes a look at Youth Ministry through the eyes of the “emergent church.” I’m not too sure where I stand with the emergent movement. I see some very positive things about it, and generally I like the challenge it brings to the traditional church and how we are doing things. We all need our constructs shaken up at times and I think the emergent movement is doing that. I also see some negative. The traditions of the church have their place and they can be tools that we can effectively use in each of our youth ministry contexts. I can’t just flippantly toss those aside as I work in my church. I believe that Folmsbee does that at times. His ideas would work in a vacuum, but in a practical sense they would fail miserably. Again, I believe there is a Professional Distance that exists. In this case it is between ideology and practicality. Maybe we were made to not operate on the extremes. Our sweet spot must be in the middle, where the focus is totally on what should be the center of our lives and our ministries–Jesus.
