Book Review – Messy Spirituality

Michael Yaconelli’s book, Messy Spirituality, is all about living the Christian life in the real world. Overall it’s a good book. It has a good list of strengths. The most obvious strength is that Yaconelli reminds us we are imperfect. Living the Christian life doesn’t mean being perfect. We mess up occasionally and more often than we are often willing to admit. In the midst of our messiness God continues to save us and grant us grace.

Another strength is that Yaconelli doesn’t offer any quick fixes. You will not find a chapter entitled “30 days to a new you.” In fact Yaconelli even has a quote from Eugene Peterson, who entitled one of his books A Long Obedience In The Same Direction. Peterson’s book title speaks for itself and probably represents Yaconelli’s view on the development of spirituality. Peterson is of the mind that spirituality happens over a lifetime. Yaconelli believes the same.

Yaconelli also reminds us that we grow at different rates, in different ways, and in different areas. He mentions a woman who was present in his assembly and she forgot to prepare communion, which they were supposed to have that day. It dawned on her during the assembly that she forgot and she said one colorful word out loud that let everyone knew she suddenly remembered. We all have stories like that but I’m sure there are some who wish we didn’t.

At the start of each chapter Yaconelli has some great quotes from other writers. The quotes are almost as valuable as his prose. One of these days I’m going to take some of his quotes and use them for an article on my blog.

The book does have a couple of weaknesses. It is mostly anecdotal which is both a strength and a weakness. It is a string of stories about real people who mess up (I found myself in a lot of those stories). This fits in well with his purpose – to demonstrate we aren’t perfect. But so many of them left me with the feeling I had reading some salesperson’s book trying to prove how good one can do at selling. There are literally hundreds of stories showing how much you can make selling anything. After awhile you are tempted to say, “Enough already!” A few well chosen stories would have made his point (IMHO) just as well.

I felt he could have used a little more scriptural exposition. There are some great passages that would have fit in well Yaconelli’s premise. Like 1John 1:5-10. John basically tells us that we are going to mess up even though we are in the presence of the God who is light and has no darkness. We are in the presence of perfection. Yet if we deny our imperfections we are self-deceived and call God a liar. Maybe this is a personal preference. I tend to judge lectureships and books by how much they increase my knowledge of Scripture. Others will perhaps like the lack of Scriptural exposition in favor of his stories.

The biggest weakness in my mind is that he doesn’t interact with the tension between stigma (or shame) and grace. Years ago, Phillip Yancy had a back page editorial called “A Tale of Two Sisters” (Christianity Today, December 11, 1995). It was a fabulous article. It’s subtitle was “Can we find a place for shame and grace?” which expresses well what Yancey was trying to do. He told the story of two sisters. One who ruled her family with a legalistic iron hand. Her family devotionals were about punishment from the Old Testament. All five of her kids deal with self-esteem issues but they were all faithful to their mates and raising their children in their faith (save for one). The other lived in grace. Her devotionals were from the Gospels. She didn’t punish her kids and eschewed the legalism of her past. All of her kids were unfaithful, drug addicts, and did not follow mom’s faith. Interesting tale. Yancey did a good job of interacting with the tension those two concepts create. Yaconelli did not. In fact Yaconelli gives the impression that he is like the sister of grace and that he wouldn’t allow the legalistic sister any place in his assembly. Shame or stigma should have a place in our spiritual growth in keeping us on the path (1Corinthians 4:14; 6:5).

Anyway, I would recommend Messy Spirituality for most anyone to read. Its basic premise that our sanctification is lived out in the realm of our imperfections is sorely needed in our churches. It could serve as a correction to our tight-lipped lives where we don’t reveal anything to others about ourselves. I think we preachers especially feel vulnerable about revealing our “messy spirituality” since to reveal such might in the eyes of some make us less of a spiritual leader. I like books that show the cracks in our spiritual journey and this book certainly does just that.

Book Review – Simply Christian

How many of us have taught “first principles” classes in our churches? N. T. Wright’s latest offering Simply Christian is an attempt to be sort of a first principles kind of book. It is following in the footsteps of C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. I’ve been reading NT Wright for several years now and I’ve never thought to associate the words “simple” or “simply” with his writings. He is one of the deepest thinkers I’ve known even though he rarely uses big words. I never need a dictionary in reading him. This latest book continues that trend for me at least.

The book is divided into three sections. He follows a pattern similar to Lewis. The first section discusses four longings that Wright believes are universal to all humanity. He weaves these longings into the rest of the book to show that Christianity does make sense because it answers those longings. The second section of the book is about the Godhead and how God fulfills those longings. The third and last section concerns living out the image we find in the second section.

I had trouble reading the first section. Perhaps because it is Wright’s reflection on how he sees the world. I knew what he was doing but still found it hard to follow. The second section was easier reading but the third was where I found myself slowing down and trying to take in every word. Maybe that’s just me.

Wright states in his forward that he is writing for those inside and outside Christianity. Indeed the subtitle of his book is “Why Christianity Makes Sense.” On the back of the dust cover is the recommendation of several well-known authors. Yet I don’t think that these recommendations will tell others whether or not Wright’s book has really accomplished his purpose. It seems to me that the publisher should have set up some kind of focus group that included a wide range of people inside and outside of Christianity. Then select recommendations from those groups for the dust cover. That would tell us if he really accomplished his purpose.

An interesting development is that Touchstone Magazine is featuring an article by Wright about C. S. Lewis’s book Mere Christianity. You can read it online here. It is entitled aptly Simply Lewis. Then if you like you can join in a discussion about Wright’s comments on their blog (here).
Wright brings up some interesting points about Lewis and Mere Christianity that I didn’t know (of course I am not a Lewis scholar or avid fan, just a causal fan). I think it is well worth reading and will perhaps add to your understanding of Wright’s book as well as Lewis’s book.

I really believe that Wright’s book is a valuable addition to a preacher’s library. For me the highlight of the book was his brief section on baptism (p.212-215), . I started emphasizing some years ago that baptism was a participation (and identification with) by faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus in my invitations. I think that is the intent of baptism. Wright’s discussion of baptism has really added to my understanding of baptism and its place in the proclamation of the gospel.

The interesting part of the book was his chapter on the New Creation. I was intrigued by his view that we are going to live on a redeemed earth when all is said and done. At this point I’m not sure about the whole discussion (you can go to Bobby Valentine’s blog for a discussion from his perspective on the new creation – Bobby like Wright has some interesting points to make). However, Wright didn’t really deal with the tension in the NT between the idea of a redeemed and liberated creation (Romans 8:18-25) and the idea that our citizenship is in heaven (Php.3:20-21). I have no doubt that part of God’s redemption is restoring creation back to its original state. I’m just not sure whether that means we are going to inhabit it. What I do know is that we will be in eternal fellowship with God in a spiritual bodily state (1Cor.15:42-49) when all is said and done. I’m not sure this is an appropriate topic for new Christians. It will definitely be tough to teach it as Wright does in some of our congregations or even present it as a possibility. I think that is a pretty heady topic but I do understand why he included it.

All in all a good book. It will be valuable as resource material for those teaching first principle classes. It also serves as a reminder to the rest of us as to the general flow and content of the Bible. He seeks to take all the additional stuff religious people have added over the years and boil it down to what is simple and important.