At the moment I am almost finished The Shack

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Also waiting to be read are:

Becoming a True Spiritual Community by Larry Crabb. I guess you could call this ‘diversifying my reading’… I have never been a big Crab fan, but this one grabbed my attention and I thought it would be interesting to delve into how we function more authentically as the church. We’ll see how I go…

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– by Jean Hatton. I’m interested to learn something of this group and how they came about and I’m a big fan of biograhpies so hopefully it will be a good one.

Reimagining Church by Frank Viola – I was sent this book a while ago to do a blog review on, but I am a bit behind… Part of it is that I just don’t find myself reading these kinds of books much any more. I find they seek to convince me that church needs ‘re-imagining’ but I am already convinced of that! Seven or eight years ago I was reading them by the bucket load, but each time I do these days I don’t feel refreshed and invigorated – more just ho hum… Now that’s not to say ‘Re-imagining Church’ is a ho hum book, but it probably explains why its still sitting there. Not enjoying Pagan Christianity didn’t help either I imagine… I will try and get thru it and write a review.

You Gotta Have Balls by Lily Brett. This is another of the books for our brighton Book Club, but I fearI may not get into this one either. It might be a good book even, but I have too many others that I want to read to even pick it up. I’m not a very good book club member I’m afraid!

Anyway that’s the menu at the moment!

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If ever you needed convincing that bad press sells books then this is it!

I have read plenty of negative stuff about this book from the very conservative critics and I have also heard some very positive reviews from friends who have read the book, so I decided it was time to spend the $$ and make my own judgment.

I will confess to being something of a snob when it comes to literature and anything less than quality prose does tend to leave me cold. So we weren’t off to a brilliant start here… The Shack is a fair piece of writing, but not compelling.

I found it hard getting thru the first 60 pages mainly because the subject matter was so gut wrenching – a dad losing his daughter while camping and then discovering she has been murdered by a serial killer. I guess its every parent’s nightmare to see one of their kids die or suffer and I couldn’t help sitting in his place.

I am past that bit now and at ‘the shack’ where Mack meets God. God (the father) turns out to be a big black woman, Jesus is an average looking middle eastern man and th Holy Spirit is of Asian extraction. The author has been setting the scene for the conversations that will develop between Mack & ‘God’ and so far it is somewhat interesting, but probably not my cup of tea.

While it masquerades as a novel it is unquestionably a theological work because it does present God in a specific light and (I am led to believe) will go on to look at church, salvation and other theological themes.

I didn’t struggle with God as a black woman – in fact I found it quite a helpful way of getting past the ‘gandalphian grandfather’ that many of us have in our heads. I don’t think that is heretical in any way – just a clever device for making us reconsider how we have imagined God.

I have found the descriptions of relationships and conversations between the 3 (F, S & HS) a bit cheesy, however I accept that my own grasp of these relationships has been heavily shaped by an evangelical heritage that doesn’t involve a lot of laughter and frivolity.

As with ‘Sweet’, I will offer my reflections as we go and I’d be interested in yours back.

I have been reading ‘Sweet’, the novel by Tracy Ryan watcher the dvdrip watch bowfinger in divx

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about the relationships between a WA Baptist pastor in the 80’s and 3 female members of his congregation. Essentially it explores the rather subtle issue of codependence and how this develops between a pastor and congregation. I don’t know how wide an appeal this book will have, but for those of us in leadership roles it ought to be read and reflected on.

‘Cody’s’ journey has been of particular interest to me as she is a young Christian in the process of questioning her faith and wondering about its foundation. Her place of certainty is not Jesus or the scriptures, but William her pastor and she is struggling to come to terms with the fact that all is not a cut and dried as he would once have had her believe. Still his power is great…

Here’s an excerpt I found very challenging. After reflecting on Paul, the young man who drew Cody to faith, she goes on to think of William:

But with William it was the other way around, he had not attracted Cody to God. He had simply come to stand in the way of her notion of God. She had got caught up before she knew it, swayed to his way of seeing things somehow, like Patty Hearst, that syndrome where you form a dependence on your captor, your torturer. Was he really her captor? No-one forced her to be there. Doing what she would not do, and not doing what she would do, as it said in the book of Romans.

She thought of Jane Eyre wild wild west dvd download , which she had read at school. The chapter before Jane’s wedding, the wedding that fell apart:

He stood between me and every thought of religion, as an eclipse intervenes between man and the broad sun. I could not in those days, see God for His creature, of whom I had made an idol.

Is it just me or are those challenging words for those in local church leadership?

It makes me ask where is the line between protecting the sheep and abusing the sheep?

It causes me to wonder how much of my own needs to be needed and admired by those I lead get in the way of doing what’s best for both of us. As I read the novel I think William is (so far) quite oblivious to his controlling ways and personal needs. He doesn’t come across as a tyrant and yet his subtle exertion of control over these women is possibly even more destructive than if it were overt.

As a person who has led a larger church I have experienced the destructive side of the Jane Eyre quote as people have expected me to be someone I simply could never be and as I have used that influence to get things done. It is a strange and sometimes disturbing relationship that takes place between needy pastor and needy congregation member.

If I have learnt anything it is that those of us in leadership must be secure in our own identity if we are to risk leading others. Insecure leaders are the very worst as they make all sorts of demands stemming from their own need to be loved and valued and not from healthy motives.

I am pondering what makes a person secure rather than insecure. I was originally reflecting that it was a function of maturity – that as we get older we need the approval of others less – but that is not universally true…

Perhaps it has something to do with coming to grips with the greyness of the world and our frailty in making sense of it. William continues to see most issues in a strong shade of black or white and it is his undoing. I tend to think that as we get older we should be able to determine what issues are clear cut – and they get fewer as you get older – and which are grey, but maybe not all can do this.

I haven’t finished the book, but I imagine Cody will end up getting disillusioned with this brand of church and will leave. She will be guilt ridden for her ‘betrayal’, but will struggle on for the sake of integrity. She will become one of the ‘churchless faith’ Christians who still want to follow Jesus and who still believe, but who have not found a place to live a more questioning and reflective expression of discipleship.

I am currently reading ‘Sweet’ a novel I discovered on Nathan’s blog download don t look now bedtime stories dvd download

and finding it very interesting – partly because it is written about a scene I have been so intricately involved with for the last 34 years, but partly because it addresses the ongoing issues of co-dependency that plague both church leader and church member. By that I mean, the people needing a pastor and pastor needing to be needed.

Nathan summarises the story well with these words:

Tracy Ryan’s third novel, Sweet, is the story of three women caught in the thrall of a manipulative pastor of a conservative Baptist church in the outer-suburbs of Perth circa 1986. The Reverend William King is a complex figure, genuinely caring but always controlling.

Cody is seventeen and has just lost her brother in a car accident. In her grief the church offers her a degree of purpose and meaning. Yet she seems to fall into Christianity, rather than converting through conviction. Soon, William is pressuring her to give her testimony in front of the church, the story of her conversion from the darkness of ‘Romanism’. But this story he is trying to impose on her doesn’t ring true; her nominally Roman Catholic background is neutral in her memory.

Kylie is a young mother whose husband Mick is frequently away shearing. Her Baptist neighbours take an interest in her and babysit her children; soon she finds herself sucked into the church. Mick is unimpressed by her heavy involvement and she is torn between the church and him.

Carol has been a Christian much longer and her story is about the disintegration of her externally perfect Baptist family. As problems with her daughter and husband arise, she begins to realise that life isn’t as simple as her faith has taught her.

If you have been part of WA Baptist churches over the last 20 years then the scenery will be very familiar and like me you might even find yourself wondering who the ‘Reverend William King’ is…There is too much insider knowledge for this not to be based somewhat on personal experience.

So far it hasn’t been an overly negative portrayal of either the Baptists of the time or of William King (although there are definite issues with both).

Sometimes our history can look so embarrassing in hindsight, while in the moment it can actually appear to make perfect sense. The ‘separateness’ of the cultures is probably what strikes me most strongly at the moment, possibly because this has been my own significant shift. It was the era when we stayed away from sinners except for purposes of overt evangelism.

If you are easily offended by a few pretty graphic sex scenes then its not the book for you, otherwise you will probably find it a good read.

It is well written, easy to follow and yet at the same time has some substance for those of us in churches and ministry. I think it would be an interesting book for those in the ‘pastoral care’ field to use in their training courses as it would shine the spotlight on the complications of being both pastor and church member.

I am just over half way thru and looking forward to the rest!download human traffic divx