Yaconelli has an annoying habit of speaking the truth. As an author, he changed the face of youth ministry over the past three decades with his honest approach to the challenges of today’s youth.
As former editor of The Wittenberg Door (now simply The Door), he and his staff humorously challenged what they saw as the church’s many hypocrisies and inconsistencies. Here, Yaconelli explores the perfectionism that plagues so many in the church, an examination that is both challenging and deeply personal. He does an excellent job of naming some of the unspoken assumptions in today’s church context, arguing, for example, that the church “has communicated that competence is one of the fruits of the Spirit”. But even more effective are his vivid stories, where he gives blood and flesh to the idea of grace lost and found again in the church.
The power of these stories makes the book reminiscent of Philip Yancey’s What’s So Amazing About Grace?, but Yaconelli’s stories are more personal, many coming from his own congregation. His honest reflections on his own frustrations and deep feelings of inadequacy are unusual for a book about Christian spirituality. While he seeks to connect with and help Christians who feel secretly ashamed about their lack of discipleship, he may lose some readers who feel uncomfortable with such levels of honesty. Those who persevere will discover a wonderful treasure.
If you’re a perfect, upstanding, respectable, fully mature Christian, you may not identify with very much in this book. If you’re like the other 99.9% of us, this book is a capital-G Godsend. It may be a revelation to some that a person can sincerely love Jesus and be a seeker of God yet continue to display weaknesses, areas of non-discipline, and, let’s just say it, sins that would seem incongruous with “true” Christianity.
There are many out there that feel like second-class Christians because they feel they don’t pray enough, or may occasionally use salty language, or smoke cigarettes, or…fill in the blanks. This is a book not only for those people, but for those who are tempted to sit in judgment over those people.
Related Books:
- The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith : Timothy Keller
- Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God : Francis Chan
- Spirituality Simplified : Jeff Maziarek
- Essential Spirituality: The 7 Central Practices to Awaken Heart and Mind : Roger Walsh
- Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future : Bron Taylor
