The Shack
I hope you have enjoyed November’s Christian Book Club book of the the month “The Shack”. By now you should have completed all 18 chapters. As we started reading this book I told you about how controversial it was. People seemed to love the book or be really upset with it.
Personally, I really enjoyed the book. It was well written and kept my attention. I generally have a lot of stuff going on and there are some book that I really struggle to read over the course of a month. The Shack really got my attention and I found myself making time to read it. I enjoyed the interaction between Mack and the representations of the trinity. I don’t feel like I need to defend the theological aspects of the book becasue it is not a book on theology. It is a story. There is tremendous power in story and I think it is very possible for God to be able to use a story like to help people embrace a walk with Jesus.
I also felt the forgiveness parts of the story were really well done. One of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis, used the power of story to teach on forgiveness. In his book, Prince Caspian, Lewis uses the power of story to present the impotance of forgiveness. Working the Mack character through forgiveness to help lift the great sadness was a wonderful use of story.
I am including a comment by Amanda on this post in case you didn’t read the comment section on week 2.
Comment by Amanda on 15 November 2008:
At first, I was surprised that Papa was a woman! Jesus was portrayed in a way that I had read before and I suppose that Sarayu is kinda how I’ve thought of the Holy Spirit, just not as a female. At first, I wondered why Young would portray Papa as a woman, however, as I read further, I realized that God and Jesus were showing up in the forms that Mac needed them to be. Had God initially been a huge gray headed guy who was all ruling, then Mac would have not been comforted in the least.
One of my favorite chapters is chapter 7 where Jesus and Mac spend time on the dock at night. What a picture of the true and awesome friendship that we can have with Jesus! I too understand that this is not theology, but I think we can pull some great theological concepts from the story.
The conversation that takes place in chapter 8 is heavy! It’s the conversation I can see all of us having, no matter our life experiences. How many times have we battled the question of the Holy Trinity and the chain of command. And how many times have we said “That’s not fair!” I was especially touched by the place that Mac tells Papa that he will never understand how Missy’s death will be justified. And Papa simply tells him it won’t but that it will be redeemed. Wow! What a concept!
I love that Mac expresses his anger toward Papa, Jesus and Sarayu. I think too often we feel as Christians we feel that we have to be thankful and righteous and proper all the time. God is our friend, and when we are upset, we tell our friends, we don’t hold back. We let them know how we feel. I really feel that this is the type of relationship that God wants from us, we are just hesitant to give it to Him.
I am going to leave the “Shack” comments open for a while as I would like to hear from all of you on your thoughts of the book.
I will also include a link here in case you need to order a copy of the book.
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The Shack |
The Rabbit and The Elephant
I was recently asked if I would be interested in reading a book titled, “The Rabbit and the Elephant” as part of a virtual book tour. Here on the Christian Book Club we are always happy to review new books when we can.
I started the book with a little skepticism, because I pastor what the book might call a “legacy church”. However, as I dug into the book, the author’s (Tony and Felicity Dale) painted a picture of what “simple church” looked like and I felt as though it opened up a lot of new avenues for me to ponder. I don’t personally see the “simple church” idea as a complete replacement for “legacy churches”, but I can see a lot of potential for them to work side by side in the harvest field.
Chapter 13 provides a great discussion on Luke 10 principles. When Luke 10 is looked at in light if the “simple church” process it seems to really fit well. I also enjoyed reading the chapter called “Stories From the Harvest”. The story about the “Church at Table Number Two” reminded me of some of my own missionary/church planting experiences. We had started churches that met in funny places and we gave them names to match. One of them was called “Light Bulb Church” because we started that church by stringing an electric cord with a light bulb in the center of it between two apartment buildings that were about fifteen feet apart. We had another church we started we called “Garage Church” because they met in a garage.
One of the biggest advantages I found in reading the book was the challenge to not get stuck in our definitions of what a church “is”. I have gotten used to starting small groups and home groups and affinity groups in my area with the idea of gradually assimilating the people gathered into our existing church. I am now thinking that the goal doesn’t need to include those people ever stepping foot in our church building. The goal is just to meet people where they are and get them o step into the Kingdom.
“The Rabbit and The Elephant” by Tony and Felicity Dale is a worthwhile addition to your reading list. It is a quick read and flows well. It also includes some interesting statistics from George Barna. One of the statistics that jumped out at me was that “the average Protestant church probably sees no converts in any given year”. That really shocked me! I hope you will read the book and I would be interested in having you comment about your thoughts as well. If you are interested in purchasing a copy of the book, you can use the link below.
By Tony Dale, Felicity Dale & George Barna / Tyndale House