The Shack

"The Shack" by William P. Young debuted in 2007 on top of the New York Times bestseller list; last month, it was #3 on Amazon's book list. It's a story about tragedy - the murder of a young girl - and, most importantly, her father's subsequent encounter with God.

This bears repeating: A book about tragedy and the love of God hit the top of the charts.

While the book has some doctrinal flaws, I'm reminded of what Fr. Dave Pivonka said in a talk excerpted in this podcast: we need to engage the culture. Which means when a book about God is a bestseller, Christians should think of that as an opportunity, and not shy away from the book just because it's not 100% orthodox.

I haven't yet read The Shack, but Fr. Robert Barron recently wrote a review, which is worth reading. (And while you're on his website, check out the Catholicism project if you haven't yet.)

If you have read The Shack, what do you think of it? Have you used it to talk to people about Christ?

Jesus in the Workplace

It has been an incredible experience, thus far, interning at ChristLife. The focus here in every task and activity we do is to do it in the same manner as Jesus himself would do it. That requires strength and grace through the power of the Holy Spirit, which is why we start every day with mourning prayer and worship in our chapel. Yet, you do not have to be working in a Catholic ministry to have Jesus as the goal and center of your workplace. In any occupation and vocation Jesus can and should motivate everything thing we do, by showing us how He himself would do it, as Dallas Willard points out in his book The Divine Conspiracy:

"But let us become as specific as possible. Consider just your job, the work you do to make a living. This is one of the clearest ways possible of focusing upon apprenticeship to Jesus. To be a disciple of Jesus is, crucially, to be learning from Jesus how to do your job as Jesus himself would do it. New Testament language for this is to do it 'in the name' of Jesus.

Once you stop and think about it, you can see that not to find your job to be a primary place of discipleship is to automatically exclude a major part, if not most, of your walking hours from life with him. It is to assume to run one of the largest areas of your interest and concern on your own or under the direction and instruction of people other than Jesus. But this is right where most professing Christians are left today, with the prevailing view that discipleship is a special calling having to do chiefly with religious activities and 'full-time Christian service.'

But how, exactly, is one to make one's job a primary place of apprenticeship to Jesus?....

A gentle but firm noncooperation with things that everyone knows to be wrong, together with a sensitive, nonofficious, nonintrusive, nonobsequious service to others, should be our usual overt manner. This should be combined with inward attitudes of constant prayer for whatever activity our workplace requires and genuine love for everyone involved....

It is not true, I think, that we fulfil our obligations to those around us by only living the gospel. There are many ways of speaking inappropriately, of course - even harmfully - but it is always true that words fitly spoken are things of beauty and power that bring life and joy. And you cannot not assume that people understand what is going on when you only live in their midst as Jesus' person. They may just regard you as one more version of human oddity.

I once knew of a case in an academic setting where at noon one professor very visibly took his Bible and lunch and went out to a nearby chapel to study, pray, and to be alone. Another professor would call his assistant into his office, where they would have sex. No one in that environment thought either activity to be anything worth inquiring about. After all, people do all sorts of things. We are used to that. In some situations it is only words that can help toward understanding." (Divine Conspiracy)

Ministering to Young Adults

“Fewer than one out of ten young adults mention faith as their top priority” (UnChristian, 23).

A shocking statistic - yet one that should challenge Christian young adults and youth leaders to evangelize! As a resource for my own Christian discipleship and for leading others I found some interesting statistics as well as great ideas in the books UnChristian and Googling God:

• Ministers too often give a quick fix approach to God and introduce the “born again” mentality rather then consistent truth. (Googling God)

• Our generation often follows teachings of the Church without even understanding why we believe those things, thus not having true conviction. (Googling God)

• Web site resources for Ministering to young adults: www.bustedhalo.com; www.sacredspace.ie; and www.rejesus.com (Googling God)
  

• We must provide venues for all the Catholics we are dealing with: adoration/ sacraments, volunteer opportunities, videos, Q & A, Theology on Tap, etc. (Googling God)

• There needs to be young adult events where they can unite with the Church, bishops and Pope/ young adults need to know that the Church cares about them. (A young adult, Googling God)

• “Jesus didn’t put a sign on a palm tree and say, ‘All those willing to be disciples, please meet here at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday; refreshments will be served.’ He personally invited people!" Ministers must: “be in the world but not of the world” so as to understand where young adults are coming from, use technology but not as an only means rather to draw them into the richness of the Church, also invite personally. (Googling God)

• "84 percent of young people say they know at least one Christian personally, and only 15 percent see a lifestyle difference in that Christian." (UnChristian)
  

• Living with integrity starts with being transparent. Doing what you say you are going to is the number one quality young people admire. (UnChristian)

• “We have experienced the presence of a living God, but outsiders are wary of feeling brainwashed or manipulated." (UnChristian)

• Many people do not associate with Christianity as something new but as something old and commonplace, they have “been there, done that”. Many young people have been involved in a church and then left, so evangelizers must keep that in mind and not try to portray Christianity as something that they have never heard of before. (UnChristian)

• Nearly one third of Americans believe that there are some crimes and sins that God cannot forgive. (UnChristian)

• “It is more important than ever to think about and respond to political issues in light of a biblical worldview.” (UnChristian)

• Be creative – Jesus was, He attracted people who were unaccustomed to His style, ability, message, etc. (UnChristian)

• 2 Corinthians 7: 11-12 – Christians should respond well to correction. (UnChristian)

My point in these statistics and ideas is not to discourage Christians, but rather to challenge them - and myself - to be able to respond well to correction and be more faithful witnesses of Jesus Christ. These books really opened my eyes to new ways of approaching people with understanding and respect, but without watering down the truth. I think it is helpful for anyone working with or ministering to young people to be aware of these things.

There are so many stereotypes of Christianity that sometimes repel people from it. “Jesus said Christians would be known by their love” (UnChristian), let us make that our stereotype!