Jonah and the Worm, tells the biblical story of Jonah through the perspective of a worm called, Little Worm. The worm experiences similar challenges as Jonah’s yet his story has a much different ending. In the process the worm learns the importance of obedience to God, the consequences of disobedience, the fruit of obedience and the never-ending nature of God’s love and mercy.

Jill Briscoe’s tale is cute and approachable for people of all ages. She does a fine job of remaining faithful to the biblical narrative and communicating the accepted intent of the original text. Still, not all of her attempts to add color and originality to the text work. Some additions don’t seem to add anything either imaginative or educational. And the ending seems utterly predictable children’s book material without adding anything substantive to the story.

Since this book was written with children in mind, I read it with mine. And they enjoyed the book, eagerly discussing the reflection questions at the end of each chapter. I enjoyed the book and only thought that chapter six was a bit more graphic than some families might be comfortable with. But Briscoe’s most profound addition to this ancient tale was the depiction of God as “the Wonder Maker.” The God of the Old Testament-so frequently read by today’s reader as harsh and unloving-is painted here as a God that loves yet disciplines. And this can be summed up in her depiction of God’s voice, “that sounded like a million waterfalls.” Beautiful yet overwhelming.

For those looking for material that will assist you in sharing biblical stories with your children, this may be a helpful addition. While certainly better than VeggieTales, I’d recommend The Jesus Storybook Bible over this book. The latter obviously holds more than just one biblical story but also treats the stories with more... holiness. They are not stand alone stories, but part of a Grand Narrative and should be read as such. Sometimes, I fear that books such as Briscoe’s cheapen the biblical narrative in this regard. Our kids are barraged with cute stories with talking animals. I, for one, want them to know that there’s something distinct about the stories found in Scripture. And I feel as though part of our job, as parents, is to help connect the stories together for them to see the bigger story of God at work. If that seems like a big deal... believe me, your kids are more ready for that than you are most likely.

Experiencing the Trinity is simultaneously thoughtful while personal and fervent. It is clear from his resume and passionate tone, that author Darrell W. Johnson believes in the power of the exposition of Scripture. And this is his approach in Experiencing the Trinity. In this book, Johnson sets out to explain what exactly the Trinity is to a Christian. And he concludes that understanding the Trinity is to experience the Trinity; to dwell within the Trinity-so to speak (we'll come back to this).

Johnson begins by explaining the nature of the Trinity. He starts with the history of the term. As the term is not used in Scripture, Johnson moves next into explaining how the idea of the Trinity can be seen throughout Scripture, both Old and New Testaments. While thoughtful, Johnson embraces the mystery of the Trinity. Johnson takes the pressure off of the reader when he quotes Dr. Paul Jewett saying, “The church did not formulate the doctrine of the Trinity in order to resolve the mystery of the God’s self-revelation, but rather to preserve that mystery.” And another choice quote on the matter comes from C.S. Lewis, “If Christianity was something we were making up, of course we could make it easier. But it is not.”

He admits that this requires faith. But for those who choose faith, what does it matter? Here, he moves right into what it means to live a life molded by the Trinitarian God. Johnson boils this down to three “great disciplines” for application: “The three great disciplines of discipleship—worship, community, mission—cannot be separated, because they are grounded in the Trinity.”

In the common, Western church experience these three elements–worship, community and mission–have been divided into programmatic elements. Within some instances, they can become competing agendas. Yet, we fail at all three when we cling to one. Yet, in our worship, we cannot witness to what God has done if we are not on mission. In our worship, who will offer Christ’s forgiveness when we confess our sins without community? We cannot be a community that is something other than all other social forms without worship, which frames Who designs this community and why we come together (read Hauerwas). And faith communities will perish without mission, which grows, extends and multiplies community; giving it life.

This does not explain the theory of the Trinity. For that, you’ll have to read the book. If anything, it may simply be my attempt to find something to wrap my head around. But I agree with Johnson when he writes-drawing from Leslie Newbigin-it’s hard to follow the Christ of Scripture without grappling with the nature of the Trinity. Still, due the mysterious nature of the Trinity, it requires faith. And that is where I remain.

Today marks the 6-month anniversary of earthquake that shattered the heart of Haiti. News reports throughout the day have not been promising. But one organization has continued to make small, smart steps towards dealing with root issues that are certain to help the recovery of Port au Prince and the overwhelming poverty that has long been faced Haiti. That organization is Plant with Purpose. For years, they were known as Floresta and have recently changed their name. But their amazing, holistic work around the globe hasn’t changed.

Plant with Purpose’s Executive Director, Scott C. Sabin recently penned the book, Tending to Eden. Sabin has proven he can write. And about a passion of his, yet from various angles. I hope we see more in the future. Tending to Eden is part an autobiographical sketch of Sabin’s development from a Christian burdened by global poverty to a leader in advocating for creation care around the world. But more than this-peppered with insightful, brief essays by Christian leaders such as Tony Campolo, Robert Linthicum, Matthew Sleeth and Mark Labberton-Tending to Eden is a primer to understanding global poverty, environmental degradation and a Biblical perspective on these issues. I especially enjoyed chapter eight, where Sabin unpacks the connection between immigration and creation care, an issue close to my heart living in San Diego.

But potentially one of the best aspects of Tending to Eden is the overview of Plant with Purpose’s approach and work. I have read many books where the whole thing seems like a sales pitch for the organization the author represents. But Sabin’s approach feels different. It is the fine representation of the organization that makes this book worthwhile. Plant with Purpose does incredible work, dealing smartly with root causes of poverty. Yet, they also view their work as Kingdom work and therefore weave discipleship closely into what they do. It is for this reason, specifically, that I encourage you to read this book. You need to know about this organization. When we look at tragedy such as that still unfolding in Haiti, it is organizations such as Plant with Purpose that give me hope that things can change.

I mentioned earlier that I was reading Jesus Manifesto by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola. And here it is:

There has been a lot of attention over recent years drawn to the two authors of the book, Jesus Manifesto. Beginning about a decade ago, Leonard Sweet stirred imaginations and pushed boundaries of the evangelical community concerning Church and Christianity in a postmodern context. Frank Viola was for years on the fringes of Christian publishing, writing primarily about house church expressions of church. His partnership with George Barna in writing Pagan Christianity has brought more attention to his pen.

In Jesus Manifesto, the authors thesis is found in their subtitle: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ . Sweet and Viola set out to call for a radical commitment to the centrality of Jesus to Christianity. As they say in chapter two, "Christianity is Christ." I appreciate what they authors set out to do. They are right in this regard; we too often become absorbed with our various agendas, placing them under the banner of our faith without thoughtfully considering how it relates to our understanding of who Jesus is. The authors don't shy away from taking on both conservative and liberal definitions of Christ:

Some have made Jesus the chaplain of the American dream. Others have made Him the chaplain of the Democratic Party. Still others made Jesus the chaplain of capitalism and Republicanism. All are equally blasphemous. (emphasis mine)

This short-sightedness of Jesus has, for Sweet and Viola, diminished our view of the gospel from each end of Christianity:

The contemporary gospel boils down to a fire-insurance policy, a Santa Claus God, or a performance-based religion. As long as we stay on that plane, we'll never see or comprehend the staggering enormity of our Lord.

But articulating well that enormity is where Sweet and Viola struggle in my opinion. And while they humbly admit in the Introduction that their work is only "dry straw" there is an air of "we've got it right and no one else does" in their tone. This is most evident at the beginning of chapter 2. The presumption that the two authors bring something new to the conversation of Christology demands a fresh approach that they often lack. In order to draw in some of the audience I assume they hope would read this requires the explanation of some "Christianese" they depend on. They do their best with a few different metaphors. But they often break down. Additionally, their limited perspective is made evident when they write things such as all "Christians retreated to the suburbs" during the 1980's. Really? Only if by "Christian" they mean white and middle class Americans.

Oversights such as this are inevitable. All of us are limited by our own perspective. Still, there are some profound, fresh pieces in this book. At times, the book is almost an act of worship. Their work with the knowledge of "good and evil" v. "life" is fantastic (chapter 8). And the way Sweet and Viola tie Jesus and the Kingdom of God together is excellent. I also appreciated their Christ-centered approach to justice and mercy as outlined in chapter 7. The influence of theologians such as Hauerwas and Yoder seems evident here and in their thoughts on ecclesiology (but as I've admitted before I'm biased on that account).

While I wouldn't frame everything the way these two authors do, I highly recommend the book to just about anyone. It draws our convictions and relationship to Christ to the surface. And whether or not you agree with Sweet and Viola, its a needed exercise that we too often put on the shelf-until we need it for our cause or in order to beat someone over the head with it.

My only lingering contention is with the book's title. It seems an act of ignorance to borrow a title that others have already been using. Many will assume I'm referring to JesusManifesto.com. In part, I am. I'm certain this title is part of the reason why Mark is merging with JesusRadicals.com. Both networks are run by people I admire and love. But I am primarily speaking about the fact that both the site and book borrow a title used by Ken Oster for his interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount. Ken's Jesus Manifesto is still available for free from Duolos Christou Press. It's wonderful, shocking meditation on Jesus' words. You should check it out.

It's crazy to think that the devastating earthquake in Haiti was almost 6 months ago. While it is far from many of our minds, there is still a lot of recovery work still to be done. I was glad to hear that groups like Plant with Purpose are still hard at work in Haiti. Since the earthquake, they have "employed over 2,100 farmers... to plant over 170,000 trees and construct over 260 miles of soil erosion barriers." (Some of you may remember Plant with Purpose joining us for an art show last year.)

Monday, July 12 is the anniversary of the terrible quake. On that day I will post a review of Tending to Eden by Scott Sabin, the Executive Director of Plant with Purpose-which I've been hoping to do for some time now.

Stay tuned. Support the work of Plant with Purpose. Read Sabin's book.

As I wrote last week, my friend Matt Casper came by First Pres' on Sunday to speak with my class. It was great having him. In our brief time, we talked about several things regarding outreach. I'll outline those briefly here...

Listening
When we talk with people of other faiths-or no faith-about our own, we have to first acknowledge that it isn't a one way conversation. We don't earn respect and the right to be heard without first listening to them. Which leads me to my next point...

Respect
People are people. Treat people with respect. Just because they have made different conclusions than you doesn't mean they haven't thought it through. Which leads me to my next...

Humility
You don't have to have all the answers. Be willing say, "I don't know." As Matt often says, "It's about dialog not debate.

At the same time, I added another aspect:

Confidence
As I written before, "evangelism" has become for many a creepy or embarrassing term. But we need to rediscover how to speak about these things with confidence (while with humility) in ways that are "normal" to each of us. And I am also assuming a couple of other things:

- That we are in relationship with people that are not of our faith
- That we have conversations with others about our faith

I hope that in my class, people got a chance to see that this doesn't have to be weird and contrived. That this can be quite natural... even with an atheist. We'll talk about this more next Sunday at 9:45am. Author and pastor, Henk Vigeveno will be back to talk about this with me. Henk has been advocating this kind of approach for half a century. I'm glad to have him.

On Sunday nights, our little group has started taking a book of the Bible each week and discussing it. Going through the the books in written order, we talk about the book’s history, intent and what its implications are for us today. We decided to do this because several in our group have a precarious relationship with Scripture. Some of of us have very little exposure to it previously. For others it’s intimidating. And some are simply deciding what their relationship to the Bible is.

With this in mind, I was anxious to read Fee and Stuart’s How to Read the Bible for All its Worth. The book provides an overview of how to understand the the tools, terminology and effective approaches to reading and understanding the Bible.

Approachable?
Gordon Fee taught at Regent College, which is known for providing a theological education for lay persons. With this in mind, I was curious as to whether or not this book was really useful to the lay person. The book does requires familiarity with Scripture. I wouldn’t recommend this to someone who does not have previous exposure to Scripture and Christian thought without a dialog partner.

Bias?
While potentially an unfair expectation, I was interested in whether the authors are able to direct the reader in how to study while allowing the reader to develop their own conclusions This is not necessarily a bad thing, but there are several doctrinal issues that the authors clearly couldn’t avoid speaking to. And not always convincingly in my opinion. It may very well be that directing the study of Scripture can’t be done without directing some of the outcomes. Still, should the reader be told what his or her conclusion ought to be if honest study is the goal?

Brevity?
Considering how much has been written on any given book of the Bible, can such a short book cover the subject of biblical study fairly? The authors actually do a superb job of covering the “basics” of reading the Bible. Their explanations are concise, provide examples and is, usually, easy to follow. The fact that the book is so comprehensive while so pithy is certainly a testament to the writers’ expertise.

The authors’ confess in the preface that they are admittedly scholars and write as such. Still, it is a comprehensive book for most looking for an introduction to the Bible, how it is assembled and how it ought to be read. I wonder if it is fair not to provide more significant information on differing opinions. But the authors write with conviction and reading the Bible in a manner that does effect our living is often a challenge. I appreciated that Fee and Stuart actually encouraged the reader to respond to Scripture not just in thought but in living as well.

When I ran construction crews, I once hired a young man fresh out of prison. He came to the U.S. as an infant. While serving his nine-year sentence, he had an encounter with Jesus. Raised Buddhist, he knew little of Christianity. He asked a prison ministry to send him a Bible. For five years this was all he read.

One day, he informed me that he was being deported. I was devastated to lose him. Astonished I asked, “What will you do!? How will you survive?!”

He looked at me puzzled, “What do you mean?”

“What do you mean, ‘What do I mean?!’” I said, “You’re being sent to a land where you don’t know the language or people, with a criminal record!”

He scrunched his forehead up looking at me surprised, “Jason, if God took care of Moses, he’ll take care of me.”

I think this young man got what Stanley Hauerwas is aiming for in A Community of Character. He looked at the world through the lens of Scripture. Every experience was first calculated through his understanding of the Story of Scripture. Hauerwas’ vision for the church is not so different. He hopes that the church will process each experience as my friend did, “What do we know of this circumstance through our own History?”

My friend could’ve hidden. As so many do, he could have bought a Social Security number, moved and gone by another name and lived as many undocumented residents do. A little risky, but potentially much more comfortable than going back to an unknown homeland. But the narrative drove him towards the adventure... with hope. When we process Scripture in our communities as knowledge and lose an imagination for how we are to live into it, we grow safe. Nurturing a narrative role of Scripture sweeps us into a story that requires risk and loss yet brings hope and excitement to our experiences.

If you haven’t read Stanley Hauerwas you should. His writing has had a significant impact on the missional church conversation in general and certainly me in particular. He is an ecclesiologically eclectic Christian theologian. His influences pull from several streams. He frequently credits impact on his work by philosophers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein and Alasdair MacIntyre as well as theologians such as Karl Barth and John Howard Yoder. As he states in the introduction of this book, he is a Methodist that appreciates high church worship yet finds Anabaptism to be one of the most faithful Christian forms. He is a professor of theology and ethics at Duke Divinity School, having previously taught at University of Notre Dame.

In his introduction to A Community of Character, Hauerwas states that his thesis is “to reassert the social significance of the church as a distinct society with an integrity peculiar to itself.” In other words, Hauerwas argues that Christian ethics begin not through our cultural lense, but Christ. Through Christ, we understand our relationship to each other as the Church, God, and Scripture. Through this lense we see how we are to engage the world.

I admit that Hauerwas has made a significant impact on my thinking but it is interesting that he often makes clear that he chose to be a theologian, not a pastor. Yet his writing deals with how theology is worked out within the church. He touches on subjects that are often the most difficult to lead on. It's easier for him to say some of this from the towers of the academy than pastor people in this way in the real world. But as I read this book I was reminded that I increasingly view a great part the Christian leaders role to be the story-tellers of the Grand Story as well as the histories of our own communities. This reminds me that I love the way Jerry at First Pres’ has ended sermons sometimes, “The is your Story. Live it.”

My buddy Joel just sent me a copy of Wilbert R. Shenk's By Faith They Went Out. (Thanks, Joel!) I'm looking forward to reading this little book as soon as I get a chance. A Mennonite and former Fuller professor, Shenk always does a fantastic job of explaining what mission looks like from the margins, and from a global perspective. As San Diego continues to more and more become a global city in which the church is no longer at the center of people's lives, Shenk is a helpful partner in thinking through how we do mission thoughtfully in such a context.

I'm behind on reporting to you what I've read lately. This will have to come after I get a few of those due posts up.

I've invited a dear friend of mine to join me in my class at First Pres' tomorrow morning at 9:45am. Matt Casper is an author, a great musician and an atheist. Check out the video above to hear a little about the background of his book with co-author, Jim Casper and what it feels like to visit churches as an outsider. In my class, we've been talking about what outreach and mission looks like here in our city. Tomorrow morning, we will get the chance to talk with Matt and hear what outreach looks and feels like from an outsider's perspective. Hope you can join us.