Just finished an intersting book on the pastorate in a small Illinois town. The book was recommended to me by my father-in-law, Dan Schiel, and as usual, his recommendation was a good one.

A Lutheran pastor shares all in this kiss and tell book. He had permission to tell the story of how this pastor fresh out of school comes to New Cana with his lofty ideals and a new PhD and finds, as one parishoner tells the new pastor, “This is our church and we will be here long after you are gone”. How true this turns out to be in his three year tenure.

The book is written from the perspective of the pastor, but he is not afraid to admit his mistakes. I loved the book because I have felt the feelings of both pastor and parishoner. It is honest and sometimes hard to read, but honest and earthy. I heartily recommned it to you. Buy it through my book store by clicking here. Happy reading!

If you read one “Christian” book this year do yourself a favor and read this book!  Maybe you are confused by the way you are supposed to “act” and “feel” as you are attending church, or maybe you are searching for authenticity and honesty.  If so this book will be a refreshing look at the love a true relationship with the God of the universe is all about.  The author has a remarkable story that allowed him to write this heartwarming and challenging book.

I commend it to all who are seeking faith in purity.  Read it and blog here, I would LOVE to hear what you think.  Some have been “challenged” by the way God the Father appeared, were you?  Let me know.  Peace!

Click the picture above to go The Shack website.

I just read this book and I commend it to you.  The author describes how he grew up in a fundamental Christian home and lived to tell about it.  He does an excellent job of weaving together his life with what the church was doing in his life, or maybe to his life, and how this affected his world view. 

I loved his depiction of his pastor, Pastor Nolan.  I’m sure his intentions were noble, but the damage done to his charges was severe.  A simplistic look a life is not what the Bible calls for, but Pastor Nolan dishes out his own myopic view life from the pulpit, you have to read it to appreciate it.  Imagine a young boy riding in the car with his pastor, who is shaving and getting dressed while driving, and given the third degree on the way to church.  Mr. Turner is at his best in this scene.

After years of being raised in a “fundamentalist” church Mr. Turner longs for something else. The end of the book is worth the price of admission as Mr. Turner describes his circumstances today, it is refreshing. This is a great read if you may have been raised in the church, but didn’t see how all those rules fit you. Take a couple hundred pages and enjoy the ride. In the end Mr. Turner is all about authenticity and transperancy, check it out!

I’m reading an interesting book entitled, Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson. It is a book about a preacher during the 1950’s who is in his 70’s and been diagnosed with a heart ailment and his time is short. He married late in life and had a son who is seven years old. He decides to write as many letters to his son as possible so that his son may know the man he was, even after he is gone. It is quite ingenious and enjoyable. The book is set in Iowa, a small town with a pastor of a small church writing the letters.

In the middle of the book, he brings up an interesting proposition: is religion an illusion? Is it an illusion as Freud may have described, or maybe is it real but our participation in is an illusion? Interesting take on the subject, our pastor seems to think the more insidious of the two is the latter. If one is not able to trust their senses, feelings, thoughts and observations then what can you trust. However, in our day and age, we have so many different types of “religion” and even in my own, Christianity, there is wide and divergent thought. So much so that one may have to ask, “What is real”?

And here is the crux of the matter; if we doubt what we know to be, real then we will look for those who seem to know what is real, a person or ideology. We look for that which can be easily explained, understood even if it is being changed and ameliorated so that it barely resembles that which God intended it to look like in the first place.

Religious self-righteousness is described as one of the things that destroys the church and soul of those who practice and are affected by it. How often has this been the case in our churches and homes? I myself have seen it and, I’m sad to say practiced it on occasion. To be so right as to become self-righteous all in the name of our Lord, which of course is the furthest thing from the truth. When we practice self-righteousness, we are not concerned with anyone but ourselves. We determine what is right based on a twisted view of Scripture and experience and thereby become destructive even though our original aim was to build up the body, we in fact tear it down.

And most egregious of all is the damage done to those who are the innocents, those seeking a foothold in the world, looking for truth in which to live their lives and base their decisions. Oh how we do a disservice to them when we become self-righteous.

I agree with our preacher in the book when he says the most damaging thought is not that of Freud or Feuerbach, but of those in our midst who would deny what we know to be real and meaningful. To say to those around them it is not the “right” way to think or feel or do based not on truth, but on a self-righteous overly pious attitude that indeed comes from their own self-doubt.

What do you say? I would love to hear.