I Found a Good Book!

I Once Was Lost was a quick read, and fantastic! Now, all I need to do is apply it to my ministry - easier said than done.

Don Everts and Doug Schaupp share their experiences ministering in the post-modern college world, specifically in regards to evangelism. The 5 "thresholds" a non-Christian can go through before they decide to follow Jesus are: distrusting a Christian to trust, apathy to curiosity about spiritual questions and Jesus, closed towards life change to open, meandering to seeking, and death to Kingdom life.

They cover steps to take in each threshold to help a non-Christian walk through it, and caution about what is unhelpful during that time. And in true postmodern fashion, they uphold the mystery and uncertainty of the whole process, making it clear that there are no guarantees and that the Spirit is the one at work.

I'm trying to think through where most non-Christian Aggies are, and what kinds of events, activities, and training we need to plan to engage with people in each of the 5 thresholds. Any ideas, brilliant or otherwise, would be greatly appreciated. I'm kinda stuck in my typical InterVarsity ministry answers, and would love anything outside my box to consider.

Hearing God

Back in May, I finished reading Hearing God by Dallas Willard, and I loved it. And now, only 2 months later, I'm reviewing it! It was a great reminder about a lot of what I've learned, and it shored up some doubts and misconceptions I've accumulated.

Some of the points I really appreciated:

Willard pointed out "we must enter into our study of it [the Bible] on the assumption that the experiences recorded there are basically of the same type as ours would have been if we had been there (p. 35)." Without that assumption, the Bible stories can taunt us with their false promise of miraculous communion with God. Or worse, we brush over those stories and the Bible becomes a book of doctrine. "We must make the conscious effort to think that such things might happen to us and imagine what it would be like (p. 90)."

Willard argues that when God communicates to us "subjectively" it's most commonly through "our own spirits, thoughts and feelings (p. 96-100)." He believes this way God can redeems us more, because "it most engages the faculties of free, intelligent beings involved in the work of God as his colaborers and friends." I felt encouraged but still hesitant to believe that idea wholeheartedly. Sometimes I feel we've shut out God's voice through the miraculous, so he can only communicate to us through the mundane. Any thoughts?

"God created, God rules, and God redeems through his word... Through our words we literally give to others a piece of our mind... Through words, soul impacts soul, sometimes with a great spiritual force (p. 118-119)." I enjoyed his discussions of Jesus and the Bible as God's Word, and also the way our words affect God's Kingdom and one another.

It dragged a little sometimes. The chapter "Our Communicating Cosmos" felt like a shallow introduction into several big questions - whether God would, could, or should communicate with us.

I loved some of the simple encouragements to deepen your conversation with the Lord, like meditating on Scripture, paying attention to what's happening in our lives and hearts, taking everything before God, and listening intentionally and carefully.

Finally, it rang true with me that God's communication is more about living life with us, not giving us infallible guidance. I need that to be my purpose in more of my prayers.

For Those of Us Who Hate Conflict

I just finished Difficult Conversations, by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, and Sheila Heen. They come at the subject from a business perspective, working with the Harvard Negotiation Project, but their book encompasses all sorts of difficult conversations.

They pinpointed the three underlying subjects that get people into trouble when they're not raised - what actually happened, feelings, and identity. They covered how we often assume our opponent's intentions and that the other person knows the impact they've had in our life, and assume that our intentions were completely innocent and that we know the full impact in their life. Also, when we don't identify and bring up our feelings (that's plural for a reason), they fester and leak out somewhere eventually. And our identity is terrifying to bring up, but often difficult conversations flow out of a threat to our perceived image of ourselves.

They offered some great tools: focus on contribution instead of blame, shift your purpose for having the conversation to learning and sharing, and reframe accusations into feelings and truth into perceptions.

It was well worth the read. I'm feeling encouraged to have some difficult conversations I've been avoiding!