The Anxious Christian - Rhett Smith

Sorry for turning this into a book review blog of sorts. One of these days I’m going to get to some more serious posting. For now, though, I’m going to get the books reviewed that I need to. Bear with me.

The subtitle of Rhett Smith’s book The Anxious Christian is either a very silly rhetorical question or designed to feed the anxieties of the target audience. “Can God use your anxiety for good?” Well, of course He can. God’s ability in that regard has never really been in question. If you’re one of Smith’s anxious Christians, though, maybe your anxiety about God’s ability will drive you to buy the book.

Smith uses the early chapters of the book to recount his own struggle with anxiety as a young man. The loss of his mother and several other close relatives at an early age drove him to compulsive behaviors in an attempt to bring some control to his anxious, insecure life. Smith then explores the lessons he has learned from seeing God’s work in his life.

Christians who don’t wrestle with anxiety on a regular basis may immediately point to Phillippians 4 where Paul instructs us to “be anxious for nothing”. Smith addresses this directly in the first chapter, saying that while the instruction is “powerful” and is often counseled by those who “mean well”, we can inadvertently communicate the wrong message.

When we discourage others from safely expressing their anxiety, then we are essentially saying to them that anxiety is a bad emotion, and that it is something to be done away with. It communicates to them that perhaps something is wrong with their Christian faith…

Kierkegaard referred to anxiety as our “best teacher” because of its ability to keep us in a struggle that strives for a solution, rather than opting to forfeit the struggle and slide into a possible depression.

There, in a nutshell, is what Smith is going to come back to in nearly every chapter of the book: to recognize that God is continuously at work in us, and that our anxiety can be useful if it drives us forward to continued struggle and action. He says that God “uses [your anxiety] to awaken you and help turn you toward Him.” In chapter four he goes further to say that “God wants you to pay attention to it [anxiety]. He wants you to listen to it. For in your anxiety God is speaking to you and He is encouraging you to not stay content with where you are.”

In the last few chapters, Smith puts his experience as a marriage and family therapist to good use as he provides some practical suggestions for working in areas that often cause anxiety; he discusses setting good personal boundaries, refining personal relationships, and asking for help.

With a topic like this, an author runs the risk of playing the victim card, but Smith handles it deftly. As one who has struggled with anxiety at various times in my adult life, I appreciated the reminder that God is at work in my life. While I know it to be true, Smith’s book was a welcome kick-in-the-pants reminder.

Note: Moody Press provided me a free copy of this book asking only that I give it a fair review.

The Road Trip that Changed the World - Mark Sayers

Australian pastor and author Mark Sayers put out a request for reviews of his new book, The Road Trip that Changed the World a few weeks ago, and I’m happy today to take him up on it. I had previously read his book Vertical Self and enjoyed it quite a bit, so I was looking forward to his newest offering.

The Road Trip that Changed the World draws its title and chief topic from the classic American novel On The Road by Jack Kerouac. Sayers examines how Kerouac’s novel incited a generation to leave the ideals of home, family, and place and instead to chase the dream of the road, the hope of whatever lays just beyond the horizon.

He spends a good chapter discussing our search for the transcendent, and notes how when we fail to notice and embrace the transcendence in the material here and now, we end up constantly looking for the next “woosh” - a fleeting moment of awe that makes us feel alive but quickly leaves us searching for the next hit.

The first two-thirds of the book is devoted to this examination of the shift in American culture brought on by Kerouac; the last third brings things around to the gospel. Sayers discusses Abraham as “the first counter-cultural rebel”, and traces a path through the Old and New Testaments, ultimately concluding that we need to reject the endless search for the “woosh” over the horizon, instead finding joy and meaning and transcendence in the here and now, as we experience true community and relationship with God.

I’ll say this - Sayers has the spirit of the times nailed. If anything, I didn’t respond to it more because it already seemed so familiar. His diagnosis of cynicism, distance, and the search for transcendence in “woosh” moments is right on. His prescription of embracing community and finding transcendence in experiencing God is a call appropriate for the time. If my cynical generation is willing to hear it, The Road Trip that Changed the World is a great call back to what really matters.

Note: I was provided a free copy of the book in return for reading and posting a fair review.

N. T. Wright sings

Monday night I had the privilege of meeting Bishop N. T. Wright and hearing him speak in Nashville, TN. I’ve written about it for 800 words over at the BHT, so I won’t repeat that here.

After his talk and some Q&A he was pressed to pick up a guitar, and the second song he sang was this one. The story is that he was bored during a conference and so wrote these lyrics about Genesis to the tune of “Yesterday”. Francis Collins (brilliant scientist, Christian, and currently director of the National Institutes of Health) made some tweaks to them and (as the story goes) they sang this song at a BioLogos conference in New York.

Sorry for the lousy video quality; the sound is good, though.

What I wrote to 16,000 people

This email went out on The Listserve this afternoon.

There’s good news, and then there’s GOOD NEWS. It’s good news when an unexpected check comes in the mail, or when your kid comes home with improved grades. But GOOD NEWS is life-changing. Today I’d like to talk about the best news I ever received. Here it is:

There is forgiveness for my failings. There is grace for my faults. There is love I can’t understand.

This was life-changing news for me, because at heart, I’m rotten. I’m selfish. I’m a liar. Even when I do good things, too often I do them to try to impress other people, or to try to prove to myself that I’m not that bad, even when I know deep down that I really am.

People talk about karma; karma scares me. I’ll never be a good enough person to deserve what I want. This is why this really good news changed my life.

The GOOD NEWS is that God knows me, knows all about me - and that he loves me anyway. That he offers me forgiveness if I’ll just accept it. And that he offers me grace every day, and the chance to really be a changed person.

God sent his son, Jesus, to earth for all of us. He lived a perfect life. He was the only person who karma really should’ve fully rewarded, and instead he died in my place, in your place. And then he didn’t stay dead, but instead demonstrated the power to conquer death. One day he’s going to come back to earth to set things right.

That’s the best news I’ve ever received. It changed my life. It can change yours, too, if you’ll believe it.

What would you say to 16,000 people?

A few weeks ago I heard about a little online project called The Listserve. Email mailing lists are one of the older forms of internet communication; everybody signs up to get the distribution, and when a post goes out, everybody gets it.

The idea of The Listserve is this: once the list hit 10,000 subscribers, the list moderators would pick one person per day to get to send a message to that list. A message about whatever the lucky person wants. The constraints: 400 words. No links or images. Just good old text.

I was intrigued. I signed up.

The Listserve hit 10,000 subscribers a couple of weeks ago and the messages started coming. They’ve been entertaining, but mostly on the self-helpy. encouragey, lifehackey side of things. Still, while dozens of unread emails get deleted from my inbox every day, the one from The Listserve always gets read.

Yesterday I got an unexpected email: “You’ve been selected”. I have until mid-day on Sunday to write 400 words that will be sent out to, at last check, more than 16,000 email inboxes. No pressure!

So what would you write if you could send an email to 16,000 people?

Leonard the Lonely Astronaut

My friend Andy Osenga has a new record available to purchase (download or physical CD) today over on the Rabbit Room store.

Leonard the Lonely Astronaut is quite a concept. Leonard is off on a solo intergalactic space flight, and while he’s traversing the galaxy he’s writing songs. We build a rocket ship set for Andy to record this thing in. It was awesome. The record has turned out awesome as well.

Ten bucks gets you the mp3 downloads today. Don’t wait long, though, because in a few days it’s going back into the AO vault until its official release in the fall.

Leonard the Lonely Astronaut is rated A for AWESOME. No space rocks were harmed in the making of this blog post. This author did not receive any compensation for writing this post other than the satisfaction of plugging a friend’s record. In fact, this author is still waiting for the t-shirt that is coming with the Kickstarter pledge. Pictures to follow.

Some thoughts on Matt Chandler's move to lead Acts 29

So, it’s official: Matt Chandler will be taking over as president of the Acts 29 church planting network, moving the A29 headquarters from Seattle to Dallas. Pastor Matt will be taking over from Mark Driscoll, the fiery pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, who helped found the network over a decade ago. While others have served as president of Acts 29 at various times over the past 10 years, it is still Driscoll (and, to a lesser extent, Darrin Patrick of The Journey in St. Louis) who primarily comes to mind when you say Acts 29.

The move from Driscoll to Chandler is a significant one, for several reasons:

  1. Strong enough to bring about change. In an evangelical ecosystem already dominated by leaders with strong personalities, Matt Chandler comes in to this leadership position as an already-established “brand”, separate from Acts 29. His story is fairly well known within evangelical circles, reluctantly accepting the pastorate of a dying Baptist church in the Dallas area only to turn it into a thriving multi-campus megachurch. More recently, his diagnosis of brain cancer and the following struggle through surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy have been the subject of many a blog post and tweet over the last two and a half years. In short, Matt’s standing within the evangelical community is strong and distinct enough from Mark Driscoll’s that Matt has a reasonable chance of effecting real change where it’s needed, rather than just existing in Driscoll’s shadow.

  2. Leaders set the culture. While Chandler’s theology is close in line with that of Driscoll and the Acts 29 network, culturally the lanky Texan will provide a sharp contrast to the Seattle spark plug. Over the past decade, young Acts 29 church planters have picked up not only Driscoll’s theology but also his personal style. There seems to be a contractual obligation for Acts 29 pastors to love Mixed Martial Arts, tattoos, beer, and alternative music styles. Now, I don’t know whether Chandler is a fan of MMA or not… but that just illustrates my point. If Pastor Matt can help separate the cultural stylism from the heart of Acts 29 ministry, it will be a very good thing.

  3. Some distance from the controversy. There have been a couple of widely-discussed controversies in the past few months concerning Mars Hill Church in general, and Mark Driscoll’s leadership strategies in particular. I don’t want to comment on them here other than to say that it appears less than coincidental that the Acts 29 move comes on the heels of those issues. Maybe this move will help provide some distance and perspective for Acts 29 pastors who may be finding themselves uncomfortably trying to deal with these controversies.

  4. Room for Pastor Mark to refresh and grow. Whether you love him or hate him, you’ve got to acknowledge that Mark Driscoll has been one busy dude over the past 10 years. Taking a church from zero to thousands, writing a gazillion books, teaching all over the evangelical conference circuit, and founding and growing a church planting network of 400+ churches, all while trying to also be a good husband and father to a growing family is enough to run anyone ragged. Add to it the stress from being a flashpoint for some contentious cultural issues (Don Miller named him “Mark the cussing pastor” for a real reason, after all), and maybe it’s time for Pastor Mark to back it off just a bit and recharge. Bringing in Pastor Matt to fill a prominent role could help that happen.

Time will tell how this move affects both pastors, their churches, and the Acts 29 network as a whole. We should take the time today, though, to lift up both of these men, their families, and their churches in prayer, asking God’s blessing and protection on them as they serve.

15 Reasons to Show Grace

A couple of days ago I posted a link to Rachel Held Evans’ “15 Reasons I Left Church” on my Facebook wall, along with this comment:

While we may not agree with all of Rachel Held Evans’ reasons, or her conclusion, those of us who are church leaders should be aware that Rachel is not alone - there are undoubtedly people sitting in our pews thinking the same things.

To lay my cards on the table: I resonate with 7 or 8 of the 15 reasons that Rachel lists at my current church, and have been there with another couple of them at previous churches. On a few of the items I disagree with her doctrinally, and the frustrations I’ve had over some of these issues haven’t driven me to leave my church… but that may be because I’ve chosen to simply be quiet about some of the topics rather than being vocal and stirring the pot. So I was curious to see what sort of responses I’d get on FB, and I wasn’t disappointed.

The responses ran the gamut that I sort of expected; a couple friends identified with it quite strongly; a couple more felt the pain and frustration in her post but materially disagreed with most of the content or with how she said it; one graciously said that she “didn’t get it at all”, but that it was unhelpful whining. A college acquaintance reposted the link and got several responses from other college folks universally accusing Evans of whining and “making it all about her rather than about God”.

I’m not surprised by these reactions any more, but I am significantly saddened. Questioning is not sin, and wrestling with theological issues is a sign of healthy, involved, real faith, not a pointer toward apostasy. As Chaplain Mike over at InternetMonk.com so eloquently ranted a couple of weeks ago:

It is Islam that sets forth submission and unquestioning acceptance as the ultimate in piety — not Christianity nor our parent faith as expressed in the Hebrew Bible. The faith we follow is one of lively dialogue between the Creator and his creatures. We question, complain, express our anger, cry out in pain, and bargain with God. Sometimes, if you believe the Bible, God even changes his mind at our behest. Like Jacob, we refuse to let him go until he blesses us. Like Moses, we argue with God. Like the psalmists, we groan and hurl curses toward the heavens. On the other hand, preachers like [name redacted - that’s not the point] want us to get in line and behave. They rebuke our messiness, our humanness. They use the sovereignty of God to shut us up.

Maybe you wrestle with doubt and questions on a daily basis. Or maybe you’ve gone to the same church your whole life and never had the slightest inclination to doubt or argue with what is taught. Maybe you’re somewhere in between. No matter where you are on that spectrum, though, the first response has to be grace.

Grace allows us to disagree with a brother or sister but embrace them anyway. There is a time for teaching and correction, but for the hurting brother or sister, that time comes after love has been lavished and healing has begun.

Jesus didn’t rebuke the doubters; he encouraged them. Even Thomas, who after three years of following Jesus around really had more faith - even Thomas Jesus graciously called close and encouraged him to believe. The rebukes were reserved for those who thought they had it all together and were judging those who they thought didn’t. Judging by the reaction I’ve seen over the past few days, it’s time to go back and learn that lesson again.

Happy Birthday, Number Three!

Our third daughter, KP, turns three today. So big, so fast. So blessed to have her.

Happy Birthday, Addie G!

Our delightful middle daughter turns 6 today. Happy birthday, little lady! You’re an amazing blessing to your mom and me.