Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller
I finished reading this book a few weeks ago. I had started it last summer, reading off and on, and then got hooked on some fiction, so finally I finished. Dust had a review somewhere on his site. There is a lot in that book that struck me, but the what is fresh in my mind comes toward the end, because I forgot what I read this last summer.
Chapter 13 Religion – the dangers of marketing formulas
“It is true that people need Jesus, not religion. And at times I am concerned our most passionate missionary endeavors are more concerned with redeeming our identity as Christians within the lifeboat than with presenting Jesus to a world looking for God.”
The chapter talks about how Christians look for validation from the culture. We want people to admit we are right and they are wrong and how we need to redeem ourselves to culture rather than show Jesus to a hurting world. There are some funny stories about Youth Pastors always seeking out the cool kids, because if they come to your youth group the other kids will follow. I particularly liked the experiment of finding ugly people on album covers at a record store (easy) and then going into a Christian Bookstore and trying to find ugly people on the covers of Christian music (hard.)
Simplicity by Mark Salomon
I just finished this book last week. Mark was the vocalist for the harcore punk band The Crucified that I used to listen to back in ’89-’91 era before I got bored of the hardcore/punk music. I had seen The Crucified live a few times. Now he is in a band called Stavesacre. I don’t have any of their albums – I think it is post-hardcore, whatever that means.
It was a fun and eye-opening read, learning about his life and being a part of the Christian underground music world, his struggles being a Christian and being a spokesman for Christ (the doublelife), the downfall of the crucified, God giving him over to his life of sin until nothing was left but for him to call out to God, getting back into music, and how he sees his role as a christian and a musician and the expectations the Christian world puts on an entertainer, etc. A good read for those who like music, art, God and his pursuit of you, and what it’s like touring.
3 comments:
I have got to read the section you mentioned in "Searching for God knows what" regarding Youth pastors seeking out the cool kids. I have been hurt in the past because a pastor got excited about me and what I could do for the group and then realized that I wasn't "cool". People should not be marketed. It seems so wrong.
Lark News had a spoof story about youth pastors who go to other churches to recruit the cool kids who are "totally sold-out". It talked about...O here it is: http://larknews.com/september_2004/
funny!
Something that Don didn't mention, but that I had been thinking about is that part of the attractiveness thing goes beyond the lifeboat. The Christian culture is so obsessed with appearance in moral or family areas of life that it naturally bleeds over into physical appearance. I may be off on that, but that is what I've been thinking.
On Simplicity, I don't think I will ever feel comfortable as a spokesman for Christ.
Post a Comment