I read the book. Then I went to the Woodland Hills Church website and listened to the sermon series that Boyd preached leading up to the writing of this book. Boyd offers much insite on the followers of Jesus in the 'blue states' and I have to admit he changed my way of thinking about the abortion debate. I have been leaning (falling actually) toward a different approach than signing petitions and voting conservative on political issues. Boyd reinforces the position that Jesus has been drawing me to. The book is an easy read, informative, and really does complete his purpose. His main point is that in following Jesus, christians should take a "power under"(love, support, forgiveness, love, etc.) approach rather than a "power over"(conservative laws, conservative judges, military actions, censorship, etc.) to become yeast in the dough. I have posted before that I thought we (as followers of Jesus) should be taking a different approach to engaging the tough issues. I'm pleased that there are men like Gregory Boyd, Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo, Brian McClaren, and others that help us to look at life a different way. I don't always agree with everything I read from these guys but they have helped me discover a new richness in following Jesus. Read the book or listen to Boyd's message if you're feeling the "church" in America isn't quite what you expected the "Church" should be. When in doubt, follow Jesus, be what he was, hang out with who he did, love like he did, give like he did, pray like he did, stand up like he did, turn the other cheek like he did, love like he did.
One of the kids from the rental across the street got locked out of her house and spent the evening with us last night (until her roommates returned home). I thank God for giving us the opportunity to love these kids, they need it real bad, they are all from broken and abusive homes. Oh, I've posted before about the teen center in our town that my friend started. Its not overtly christian but my friend is and he's there alot. Last night 50-60 Goth kids from another city came in with two of their own bands and equipment and took over the teen center. The leaders were a little overwhelmed but all turned out okay. A group representing the 'leaders' of the kids was inquiring as to how the facilities came to be in our backwater town and who funded it. My friend did most of it but he did explain to them that there are four churches in the area that thought the teens "were of unsurpassable value to our community". They were very surprised that churches actually did that. We've got a long way to go but I really feel there is a strange and beautiful breeze blowing.
1 comment:
I listened to the first sermon in Boyd's series last night, and it's pretty good - a very clear presentation of the distinction between the kingdoms of this world (which Boyd shows to be necessary AND limited) and the Kingdom of God, which operates on an entirely different set of values. Thanks for the recommendation. I hope to listen on thru the series.
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