Graf Martin has sent me two copies of You Lost Me: Why Young Christians are Leaving the Church…and Rethinking Faith by Barna Group president David Kinnaman to review and I want to give one away.

The product description on Amazon reads as follows:

Close to 60 percent of young people who went to church as teens drop out after high school. Now the bestselling author of unChristian trains his researcher’s eye on these young believers. Where Kinnaman’s first book unChristian showed the world what outsiders aged 16-29 think of Christianity, You Lost Me shows why younger Christians aged 16-29 are leaving the church and rethinking their faith.

Based on new research, You Lost Me shows pastors, church leaders, and parents how we have failed to equip young people to live “in but not of” the world and how this has serious long-term consequences. More importantly, Kinnaman offers ideas on how to help young people develop and maintain a vibrant faith that they embrace over a lifetime.

All you need to do to win the book is post ‘Yes please!’ in the comments section of this post to be entered into a draw. Stay tuned.

When one reads Norman L. Geisler’s book If God, Why Evil? one is reading a faith informed philosophical treatise on the subject. Now for some that sentence alone is enough to drive people away but on the contrary, the book is refreshingly free of the deep sentimentality and hyper-emotionalism we often find in “theology” these days. If anything the book is a reaction against the invasion of emotionalism into theology.

The text aims to be a “short, readable and comprehensive book on the topic” of why is there evil if God exists. As much as it is this it is also somewhat of a response to the propositions of the wildly popular book The Shack.

The book is broken into 10 chapters spread across 115 pages making it incredibly accessible, even to people who are not too fond of reading.

While I would recommend the text to anyone wanting a basic foundation on the subject it falls down in the language it uses. The examples and the way the subject matter is approached is rooted solidly in a modernist worldview. It reads a little like the presentation notes of a university lecturer (which Geisler has been for more than 50 years). The reason this is a problem is that it does not speak the language of post-modern Christianity and the world which means the book becomes most valuable to those who likely already agree with its premises while those who don’t will struggle with the lack of narrative and story.

It is almost as if Geisler needs a Rob Bell or a Mark Driscoll to take the content, distill it, and regurgitate it in a post-modern way.

At any rate the book is first class scholarship that I would recommend with the caveat that you will have to put on your modernist glasses to best understand it.

waves
they wash
they wash
they wash
against the rock encrusted
salty shores of this soul
shaping
changing it
into something new
or
nothing

so many twists and turns
bend through
the dark alleys of the heart
a this way
a that way
no entrance
no exit
what sense to move
to crawl through the black
upon hands and knees
blindly seeking true north

when the bass beating confounds
ever-pounding song sounds
a crashing war drum surrounds

till

with internal
with infernal storm raging
we are lost

I was chatting with a friend the other day and suddenly I started thinking about the prodigal. For me the parable of the prodigal is one of the keystones or foundations of the Gospel message. So much about the character of God is wrapped up in the small story that Christ tells. Let’s read Luke 15:11-32 –

“There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

   “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

   “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.

   “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

   “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

   “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

   “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

   “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

   “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

Essentially you have a son who asks for his inheritance from his father, essentially saying “I wish you were dead but since you’re not give me my due now” so that he can abandon the family with half its source of income and go party with prostitutes etc. until he has squandered everything and is starving not even allowed to eat the pig food. Anyhow, you know the rest. He decides to go home and is celebrated rather than chastised.

Here’s the big question…was the son repentant?

Think about that. What does repentance look like and was the son it? By the text one can assume he would have continued drinking and whoring for as long as he had money. He decides to go back to his father’s house as a last resort because he is starving. There is no sense of remorse except for himself. Even the words he says to his father sound suspiciously like words designed to get him welcomed back and not wholly genuine.

“I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ “

Oxford defines the word repent as follows:

verb

[no object]

• feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one’s wrongdoing or sin

The key to this definition is “sincere regret or remorse”. So the question remains – did the son repent? Was he sincere in his regret?

I would suggest to you that the son was penitent but not the way we have made it. Like so many things Christ says that we are uncomfortable with we change it. Repentance has become loaded with words like genuine and sincere and real like code words or legal caveats added to what we fear is a weak argument.

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If the prodigal is repentant it looks like this: He took his money, wasted it on prostitutes and drunkenness and then when he ran out and was starving hoped to trick his father into letting him back in as a servant by admitting to his failures. This is a far cry from how we define repentance which is a tad more works oriented in our vocabulary.  The son does not even expect forgiveness…he expects to be punished and to have to work off his sins and we would expect so as well.

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What makes this even more brilliant is the way the father responds. The father starts running toward his son to welcome him back before he can offer excuses. The father runs to accept his son back before he knows why he left and why he came back and what he did because he does not care…his child has returned and this is all that matters.

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The older brother (who is so much like us in so many ways) is offended by the father’s response. The older brother is indignant because he has been a good, obedient, hard working son and dad has not so much as offered him a goat to roast with his friends but his sinful, lying brother returns and dad throws an enormous party. What gives? The older brother even says the younger one spent his money on prostitutes? How does he know this? Did the younger brother send letters informing them of all the sin he was involved with? Not likely. More likely the older brother, in his jealous rage, simply assumes these things – correct or incorrect. As far as he is concerned this feels wrong.

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The father explains – your brother was dead but is now alive again.

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Who cares why he left? Who cares what he did? Who cares if he even really wants to be here for sincere, real, genuine reasons – he is here, I love him, that is all that matters.

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If this is what repentance really feels like what does that say about the character of God? Or another question could be – how many times would the son have to run away and live a sinful lifestyle before the father finally says – ENOUGH! I do not want you back. Does repent mean to return to God or does it mean return to God under these circumstances and conditions? What if, just maybe, the real transformation in the son comes as a result of the father’s response – and not before?

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Lots to ponder…looking for feedback.

What I love most about children, especially the younger ones, is their total disregard for hate, hypocrisy, prejudice, bitterness, judgementalism and cynicism. It is as if they recognize them for what they are – a waste of time and ultimately harmful.

Children navigate through the world under the power of trust, hope and faith. It is not until they get older that they typically take on the burden of these cement block emotions that drag us down to dark depths. They learn them from us…the adults around them. No matter how many times we teach them to avoid these things it is our actions that teach loudest, clouding our words and lessons.

The irony of course is that they do not pick up these traits because they are in any way attractive…it is, in fact, their very trusting, faith-filled perspectives that lead them into the dark. It is their trust and faith in us – their elders – that teach them that our dark actions must be correct even if they don’t feel right…and so we are emulated and the cycle of corruption continues.

I regret the many times I have likely been responsible for teaching one of these corrupt lessons through my actions. I am, however, thrilled that I can learn from these children and try to trust and have faith despite the bleakness of the world. They give me trust, hope and faith.

“And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” 

Matthew 18:3

For anyone who has both an X and a Y chromosome I am thinking of planning a weekend retreat to Assumption Abbey in Richardton, North Dakota in the Spring. My thoughts are loose at this point so I need feedback.

It would be a weekend retreat with a planned departure of Friday and return Sunday night.

This would not be your typical man retreat in that we will likely not seek to get in touch with our inner wolves or femine side. There will not be a teststerone fueled gathering around a fire where we howl and offer man-hugs and the like. This would likely be a tad more contemplative.

I am thinking that it should be a retreat focused on the spiritual disciplines of scripture reading, prayer, silence and possibly journaling with some discussion time on each. LOTS of free time to explore the beauty of God’s creation, the abbey etc.

I want FEEDBACK however. Cost would be very reasonable…$100 per person covers two nights stay and the best food ever (and lots of it). I imagine a car-pooling scenario of driving down. I am thinking between 8-12 guys would be ideal. Forward this to people you think might be interested.

I am providing LOTS of lead time on this because I know that us XY types need it. For more info on the abbey check out – http://www.assumptionabbey.com/

Of late I have been noticing increasing levels of protest around the world regarding a number of different issues and it has given me pause for thought. We remember the Arab Spring which swept through the Middle East not so long ago and is already turning into Autumn in preparation for Winter. There is the Occupy Wall Street protest that is spreading throughout the world as well.

Each of these things represents something of the iconoclasm of the age…a shift is occurring on a global scale that has been brewing primarily in the western world for nearly a century or more and is impacting every aspect of life. Something new is coming; we feel it in our deepest places like a great tide set to sweep through things and we just don’t know how to respond or prepare.

There is a huge level of dissatisfaction among people nowadays… dissatisfaction with government, with corporations, with employers, with churches, and even with one-another and so whenever we feel discomfort and pain we seek to root it out.

I have begun to wonder though if the cancers we seek are not actually being found. I wonder if, as my friend trained in holistic medicine would say, we are in fact treating symptoms rather than causes?

Case in point – Egypt went through a radical sea-change recently. The population long suspected corruption in the government…a cancer if you will, and in response they toppled the government and are slowly finding that many of the same pains still exist.

Any government, organization or relationship that is in pain will often, in a knee-jerk fashion, seek to root out the cancerous culprit in a rather haphazard way only to find more of a scapegoat…remove or destroy scapegoat and find they are still in pain.

Questions arise. Uncomfortable questions like “if we dug out the cancer why am I still dying?” or “If we removed the cause why am I still in pain?”

One should be suspicious of doctors who diagnose a problem and then point to a source that has been removed and try to convince you that things are fine and the pain that is felt is nothing to worry about. I have seen this happen again and again at every level from global to individual.

“The reason you are not feeling well is because of this tumor but since we removed that two years ago you are fine?” To which we go away suspicious and wondering “if I am fine why do I feel so awful?”

The danger in pretending to have dealt with a root cause when all you’ve done is dealt with the symptom is a little like the dangers of leprosy…you stop feeling or mask the pain and die as a result.

Leprosy does not cause rot…leprosy is the death of the nervous system…that system that causes us to feel pain. The pain is wired into us to warn us that there is a problem that needs to be dealt with because if we don’t we could die. Lepers do not feel pain. They hurt themselves without knowing and their wounds fester and rot because they have no idea how serious things are…that is what I am talking about.

There are a lot of countries, corporations, businesses, churches, couples and individuals that are willfully shutting off or ignoring their pain to their own doom.

If it feels like there is something wrong it is likely because there is something wrong. If someone tells you the pain you are feeling is because of something that is no longer there than they are fooling themselves and you…there is a clear and present danger, as it were, in the midst of you and yours that needs to be dealt with before it kills you.

Remember the euphoria that Egypt felt after the fall of Hosni Mubarek? It was that sense that “we are healed…we have removed the cancer and are better now.” But a few have worried aloud wondering “what if Mubarek was merely a symptom of a greater malaise? What if the sickness runs deeper?” They are not being listened to?

I would ask this same question to the protesters on Wall Street, Bay Street, Fleet Street and elsewhere. What if corporate greed is simply symptomatic of a much deeper, more frightening cancer? What if we are protesting symptoms instead of causes?

I fear we need a more holistic approach to the great cancer spreading through western culture, one that digs to the root causes. This is not easy and it takes great patience and much suffering but in the long run it may mean the difference between life and death.

This is the question we all need to ask ourselves? “If the source of my illness has been removed as I have been told why do I still feel pain?” I suspect the truth is that you have simply masked a symptom rather than dealt with the root cause…the cancer that runs beneath.

born under steel moon
cold shines the world
beautiful like teeth in the night
was all i knew of lasting light

till liquid gold
the sun it rose
lone Luna lost herself
what once was bright
dark shadow by compare
to the warmth of life
blazing blindness
brought peace
the end of strife

to swallow truth
is but one thing
it is a good thing

but

to regurgitate
in foul cry
said truth now
filth as black lie
is to play pale rider
to oneself
encloaked in bitter
a shroud of gall
wailing banshee
before all