Note: I’ve decided to change up the blogging schedule a little bit. After a little more than a month since the relaunch of the site, I’ve discovered what I enjoy writing about the most, what encourages the most conversation, and ultimately what the focus of my writing should be. Monday’s I will now focus on my reading. Sharing with you excerpts and thoughts from books I’m currently reading, or recently read.

I’m not sure how I found out about Shane Claiborne’s “The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an ordinary radical.” Probably through Amazon.com’s feature that shows you books that others liked with similar reading habits to you. The book made its way to my Christmas wishlist, which my grandparents then purchased. As I opened it, my grandfather, who is right on board with the emerging church, said he read it before it got gift-wrapped, and loved every word. It was obvious he was moved by the book, which just intensified every word, because I wanted to read it as my grandfather, a hero of mine, read it.

In chapter two titled “Resurrecting Church,” while writing about the disconnect between the well-off in the church and the poor, Claiborne says,

I sat puzzled, grieving over the state of our church. “I think I’ve lost hope in the church,” I confessed, brokenhearted, to a friend. I will never forget her response. “No, you haven’t lost hope in the church. You may have lost hope in Christianity or Christendom or all the institutions, but you have not lost hope in the church. This is the church.” At that moment, we decided to stop complaining about the church we saw, and we set our hearts on becoming the church we dreamed of.” (p.63-64)

It’s obvious reading this blog, that’s where I am. But, maybe even more so than me, this is where my grandfather is. He’s in his mid-70’s now, and is still a very active man. He spends his days doing maintenance and yard work for the church (the place I grew up) where he’s attended since the 1950’s.

The church membership and subsequent tithing has been spiraling downward since its peak in the late 1970’s, and the church campus that once served a few hundred members, now hosts around 50 people once a week. This has led to financial problems which have lead the church into looking into selling it’s far-to-large campus. Nearly 100-percent of church income goes into maintaining the church, meaning almost zero-percent of tithes to the church are used for ministry purposes. In the words of my grandfather, “Why are we wasting all this money to keep Rich (speaking of himself in third-person) comfortable on Sunday mornings? We should be doing ministry and helping those who we’re called to help with this money.”

Later on in chapter two, Claiborne tells a story of,

Two guys (that) are talking to each other, and one of them says he has a question for God. He wants to ask why God allows all of this poverty and war and suffering to exist in the world. And his friend says, “Well, why don’t you ask?” The fellow shakes his head and says he is scared. When his friend asks why, he mutters, “I’m scared God will ask me the same question.” Over and over, when I ask God why all of these injustices are allowed to exist in the world, I can feel the Spirit whisper to me, “You tell me why we allow this to happen. You are my body, my hands, my feet.” (p.64-65)

My grandfather has the guts to ask the question, not just of God, but of others. Those who are part of the church, members of the Kingdom of God, and most respond like the man in the story, with fear. What are we so afraid of?

Note: This was Part I on The Irresistible Revolution, which will be a series of a few posts. The next installment will be posted Thursday as part of “Thursdays for Theology.”

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