Despite my charismatic leanings, there are few charismatic books that have shaped my spirituality. The obvious exception would be John Wimber’s first two books, Power Evangelism and Power Healing. Whatever their imperfections, and the apparent contradictions some have detected in books that were write-ups of lecture notes, they introduced me to a way of understanding the kingdom of God that has stayed with me ever since (even if I interpreted it in my own way). It was the adoption of a now/not yet model of the kingdom that I found particularly helpful. It provided an ‘optimism of grace’ about what God could do in the here and now, but it also set the framework (although not any explanation) for the times when prayers did not seem to be answered positively. Combine that with the emphasis in the prayer approach in the second book that models both listening to the person and listening to God, and I shall always be grateful for those foundations.

Beyond that, two books helped me with the aversion to written liturgy (“It’s boring!”) with which I grew up. One was Robert Webber’s book Evangelicals On The Canterbury Trail. His ability to document how these structures could frame a biblical spirituality was significant for me – and it was also my reflection on his words that made me realise my own conversion actually came through liturgy! No longer could I accept the ignorant criticisms of liturgy from places such as some ‘house church’ circles, which said it was just a device to produce an act of worship without ‘the anointing’.

A quite different book taught me to see life sacramentally. Henri Nouwen’s Life Of The Beloved takes the four actions of Jesus at the Last Supper, which have become the four movements of liturgical communion services since Gregory Dix wrote The Shape Of The Liturgy, and makes them into discipleship actions. What Jesus did with the bread and wine, he does with us. He takes us, blesses God for us, breaks us and gives us to others. It’s a stunning way to see the life of faith.

Then there is the question of how to read the Bible ‘spiritually’. Many from my evangelical tradition talk of Bible study, and I think ‘study’ is a telling word. It’s meant to have an application, but ends up staying in the brain. So although I was influenced at college by historical-critical methods of biblical study and developed a healthy scepticism for those who make fanciful applications, I had to learn other ways. A little booklet by Brother Ramon SSF entitled Praying The Bible did it for me. It was a simple introduction to Ignatian Bible study, with the uses of the senses and the imagination.

All of which gets me into the ‘How does God speak to us?’ issue. Without giving a long reflection here, I grew up – at least implicitly – with the ‘Wesleyan Quadrilateral’ of Scripture, Tradition, Reason and Experience (with experience for me including that which came through ‘charismatic’ gifts). But I heard a speaker at a conference recommend Ken Gire’s book Windows Of The Soul. I hunted it down, and found it a wonderful introduction to the many areas of life in which we can hear God speak. Gire is also a wonderful writer. Too few Christian authors can craft their prose beautifully; Gire is an exception. (At time of writing, it’s back in stock at Amazon: don’t miss it.) A similar book that took me down similar roads was Seeing God In The Ordinary by Michael Frost.

Finally, a book for the heart. Many have read and eulogised Philip Yancey’s What’s So Amazing About Grace? I’m afraid I haven’t. But a similar book on that theme did me a power of good: The Grace Awakening by Charles Swindoll. Although I am someone whose conversion story is one of a conversion from legalism to faith, it’s surprising how often I need the reminders about grace. The old bad habits of perfectionism and shaky self-esteem still pop back up like a jack-in-a-box. And besides, if grace isn’t central, we’re all sunk!

Technorati Tags: JohnWimber, RobertWebber, HenriNouwen, BrotherRamonSSF, KenGire, MichaelFrost, PhilipYancey, CharlesSwindoll

Soon after my conversion, I developed a passion for the Church. I think it’s when I discovered the words of the theologian Mick Jagger, who once said, “The church doesn’t scratch where I itch.” It was also about the frustration of having grown up in church but having misunderstood the Gospel until I was sixteen.

Somewhere I saw the works of Howard Snyder. New Wineskins (a.k.a. The Problem Of Wineskins or Radical Renewal) was a popular read, with its famous chapter, ‘Must the pastor be a superstar?’. But his next two books were significant for me. The Community Of The King has been my basic ecclesiology for a quarter of a century now – even the title is significant, for the way it denotes the relationship between church and kingdom. Then The Radical Wesley made important connections for me between contemporary radical evangelicalism and core Wesleyan beliefs and practices. It’s Methodism as I would like to know it.

Later came the call to ministry, but what that involves for me has taken a long time to work out – and I’m still in process. But one book became a compass for me, and another gave me a good shaking, because it made explicit some subconscious doubts I had about traditional church and the accompanying patterns of ministry. The compass was Working The Angles by Eugene Peterson. He set out three fundamental tasks of the minister: prayer, Scripture and spiritual direction. These help me with my sense of priorities.

The book that shook me I only read about three years ago. It was The Shaping Of Things To Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. It is one of the most solidly biblical books to come out of emerging/missional church circles. It was their emphasis on the fivefold gifts of Ephesians 4 (the apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral and teaching) as given to the whole church, but key to missional leadership that articulated my anxieties with traditional ordination better than anything else since Marjorie Warkentin’s seminal study of Ordination. Frost and Hirsch so unsettled me that I ended up having a pastoral conversation with my Chair of District where I expressed some of my unease. I continue to live with, and work through that unease. It isn’t pleasant, but I pray it will be productive in the long run.

Well, I think that will do for Part 2. Do chip in with your own favourites in these areas. At present I am planning at least two more posts in this series: one on spirituality, and another on what I call my ‘pastoral first aid kit’.

Technorati Tags: books, HowardSnyder, EugenePeterson, MichaelFrost, AlanHirsch, MarjorieWarkentin

I am an avid reader. There have been many times when reading
a book has transformed my outlook on life and faith. Sometimes it has been
near-instant. Other times I only look back and see the influence. With this in
mind I thought I might highlight from time to time some of those books. Are you
sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.

Foolishness
To The Greeks by Lesslie Newbigin
was required reading in my undergraduate course on Church Growth And Decline.
It introduced me to the way we are unaware of the effects of the culture we
live in – as a goldfish doesn’t think about the water, Newbigin says. He shows
how the post-Enlightenment sacred/secular split led to the language of ‘my
rights’, which made the individual human being sovereign, instead of God.
Ultimately it was the book that started me thinking about the need to relate
the Gospel to our culture.

That links to a book that on the surface was very different.
Elegantly written with flowing prose (why were the church historians always the
best writers?), Evangelicalism
In Modern Britain by David
Bebbington was the book that made me understand my spiritual heritage
better than any. The link with Newbigin? Bebbington consistently and
controversially demonstrated in every era the effects of the prevailing culture
on the shape of evangelical Christianity – from John Locke’s philosophical
impact on John Wesley to Romanticism in Victorian times, and on into the
twentieth century. Implicitly, Bebbington and Newbigin (without either of them
being biblical scholars) helped me see that even in the New Testament there is
no single expression of the Gospel. It is shaped differently in various
cultural contexts.

More specifically in recent years, this concern with Gospel
and culture has led me to explore the connections and contrasts between that
Gospel and postmodern culture. I have read extensively in this area, and of the
making of books about postmodernism there is no end. The one that got me going
was Truth
Is Stranger Than It Used To Be by Richard
Middleton and Brian
Walsh. They helped me understand the ‘totalising’ nature of metanarrative
and the way a Cross-shaped Christian metanarrative could be ‘anti-totalising’.
And besides, any people who liberally quote Bruce Cockburn have to be all right by
me!

Of course, the theory can be one thing, and the practice
another. Then perhaps about five years ago I read an interview with Brian McLaren in a British evangelical
magazine. He just seemed to make sense. It saddened me in following months when
other readers wrote in, questioning his orthodoxy. So I jumped into his work,
initially with The
Church On The Other Side (previously entitled Reinventing Your Church). Apart
from where he seemed to wobble over the place of evangelism in mission, I found
myself saying, ‘Yes! Yes!’ in every chapter. Sometimes McLaren’s concerns don’t
match British ones, but that isn’t his fault. British evangelicals have less
trouble arguing for a social dimension to mission and ministry, for example.
But he is always a welcome voice –and (unlike many of his strident critics)
consistently eirenic and humble in tone, however passionate he is.

I think that will do for starters. In coming days I’ll post
about some books that have influenced my understanding of church, mission and
ministry.

Technorati Tags: LesslieNewbigin, DavidBebbington, RichardMiddleton, BrianWalsh, BruceCockburn, BrianMcLaren