Friday, March 4, 2011

Challenging Read and Friday's Five

Finished a book.
A good one.
A challenging one.
One I recommend.
I've recommended her books before.
I like how she thinks.
She brings a little sarcasm to her style as well.
Plus she's Texan so she gets bonus points. :))
The last book I recommended was "Out of the SpinCycle: Devotions to Lighten Your Motherload"
This one is a little different topic.
It's called "Interrupted: An Adventure in Relearning the Essentials of Faith" by Jen Hatmaker.
You can get them both at this site or at amazon.



It's the story of her and her husband's journey to plant a missional church.
Missional?
Missionologist Rick Meigs described missional as "a life where 'the way of Jesus' informs and radically transforms our existence . . . where we adopt a missionary stance in relation to our culture."
Since I don't know Rick Meigs I got a definition from the guy I live with: "Being 'missional' is discovering what God is doing here and now and joining Him in a way that engages every area of our life."

I know there are at least a hand full of church planter wives or pastor wives that read this blog - you would love this book.
It's not just for them though - pastors are not the only ones that should be living "on mission".
We can all live "on mission" whether we are a part of a church that is recognized as missional or not. 
Confused about all this "missional talk"? 
Read the book.
It will bring you into this conversation with a women that is in the mix of it. 


I've tried to pick out some quotes from the book that I really liked.
Not sure I picked the best ones to represent.
Too many to pick from.
I've written all throughout the book - it was that kind of a read for me.
Here's five quotes from the book because it's FRIDAY'S FIVE.

1
"I am still stunned by my capacity to spin Scripture, see what I wanted,
 ignore what I didn't, and use the Word to defend my life rather than define it." (p. 20)
2
"When believers sequester from culture, it's like recruiting a group of traveling 
salesmen and discovering all they do is stay together at the office" (p.145)
3
"Our faith communities run the gamut from judgmental high church to feel-good 
talent shows, and people aren't buying anymore. Remarkably, most outsiders are not
 anti-church; they simply dismiss the church as irrelevant to their real lives since it seems 
mostly irrelevant to the people who go there." (p.80)
4
"A frustrating trait about God is how He expects us to act on conviction fairly quickly. 
Pretty much the second He convinces us to move, to change, to shift, we're 
supposed to. Despite how much we ponder it or talk about it, until we are obedient in word 
and deed, we're just here pretending to be there." (p.76)
5
"We don't get to opt out of living on mission because we might not be appreciated. We're not allowed to neglect the oppressed because we have reservations about their discernment. We cannot deny love because it might be despised or misunderstood. We can't withhold social relief because we're not convinced it will be perfectly managed. Must we be wise? Absolutely. But doing nothing is a blatant sin of omission. Turning the blind eye to the bottom of the grounds of "unworthiness" is the antithesis to Jesus' entire mission." (p.58)


Maybe those quotes made you want to read it.
Maybe they made you want to skip this sort of a book.
I challenge you to read it and consider where God has you RIGHT now.
How can you incorporate a "missional life" right where you are?

What challenging read are you reading right now?
I'd love to hear it.

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1 comment:

Lisa said...

Definitely sounds like one I want to read. Great quotes. I'm reading Irresistible Revolution right now. It has challenged me more than any book I've read in a long time and has brought about great discussion/debate/arguments among the youth sponsors! We're looking forward to hearing him speak at national youth conference! Thanks for the recommendation!

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