I Like Jesus, but the Church? . . .
August 1st, 2007 by AjA couple months ago a wonderful friend and advocate got for me a great gift: an autographed copy of Dan Kimball’s They Like Jesus, but Not the Church. And my wonderful advocate told him that I’m a writer (or at least doing a good job pretending to be one), and Dan actually knew that I had a blog. Totally made my day!
My experience of reading the book wasn’t mind blowing but rather, “this friend speaks my mind!” I greatly appreciated him detailing the stories of those who were willing to share experiences that honestly reflected modern churchdom. I became more aware of wanting to seek those folks out: the folks who dig Jesus but question the way the church is lived out.
So the other night as my Hubby and I are getting ready for bed, he mentioned that he needed a new book to read. Being his personal librarian, I wracked my sleep-deprived brain for a good recommendation, and Dan’s book came to mind. I don’t normally recommend my emerging-quaking-churching-books to Jason, not because he’s not into that, but he generally seems to appreciate hearing my rundown rather than reading it himself (and I appreciate hearing his rundown of the status of the Red Sox or the latest Mozilla creation rather than reading it myself). But he seems to be enjoying it, and it’s stimulating some conversation rather than “did you water the lawn” and “your turn to walk with the Yowler.” 
Dan Kimball’s book is the being reviewed and discussed this month at Barclay Press. I’d highly suggest you tune in: should be some good conversation. Who knows: you may even hear from my hubby.
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Here’s a great sermon, sort of related.
Making a pilgrimage means setting out in a particular direction, travelling towards a destination. This gives a beauty of its own even to the journey and to the effort involved. Among the pilgrims of Jesus’s genealogy there were many who forgot the goal and wanted to make themselves the goal. Again and again, though, the Lord called forth people whose longing for the goal drove them forward, people who directed their whole lives towards it. The awakening of the Christian faith, the dawning of the Church of Jesus Christ was made possible, because there were people in Israel whose hearts were searching – people who did not rest content with custom, but who looked further ahead, in search of something greater: Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna, Mary and Joseph, the Twelve and many others. Because their hearts were expectant, they were able to recognize in Jesus the one whom God had sent, and thus they could become the beginning of his worldwide family. The Church of the Gentiles was made possible, because both in the Mediterranean area and in those parts of Asia to which the messengers of Jesus Christ travelled, there were expectant people who were not satisfied by what everyone around them was doing and thinking, but who were seeking the star which could show them the way towards Truth itself, towards the living God.
We too need an open and restless heart like theirs. This is what pilgrimage is all about. Today as in the past, it is not enough to be more or less like everyone else and to think like everyone else. Our lives have a deeper purpose. We need God, the God who has shown us his face and opened his heart to us: Jesus Christ.