The Manhattan Declaration is a recent essay posted by Christian leaders who are asking all Christians to read it and sign it.  I would say it has two main characteristics:

• It is ecumenical.  It calls to Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical Christians to join together and sign, and
• It calls for protection for the unborn, disabled and elderly, for the protection of marriage as between a man and woman only, and for the protection of the civil liberties of those who defend the unborn and marriage.

I’m not particularly prone to blogging strong opinions… shouting makes me queasy.  But if you were going to write a manifesto, what would you take a stand upon?  What do you think is the most important issue today – one that you would spend countless hours of effort on?  What would you tell your friends about, ask your pastor to speak about, spend countless hours creating web pages about?

If I were writing a manifesto… If I wanted major newspapers to make stories about it….I would indeed go for ecumenical.  But I would not pick those issues.  The first two I am in complete agreement with, but I still wouldn’t make them my manifesto. 

The third (civil liberties) I actually disagree with.  The authors of the manifesto write:

The nature of religious liberty is grounded in the character of God Himself, the God who is most fully known in the life and work of Jesus Christ.

But I don’t see religious liberty as a grounded in the character of God.  Or religious liberty as something he told his disciples to seek.  In fact, we are told we will suffer for Christ, and not to be surprised (Luke 21). 

What would I put in a manifesto?  Perhaps the things that are most important.  The things the Bible talks a lot about. 

• God is the almighty ruler and creator of the universe
• God desires deep relationship with us, and loves us without measure
• The person of Christ is the source of all healing and right relationship with God
• Once filled with Christ, we are called to love the poor, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned, and share God’s love.  Doing so, as led by the Holy Spirit, brings redemption and reconciliation.

I wouldn’t put in morality in my manifesto.  Or common good.  Or laws I want to keep or wish I had.  Jesus brings the Kingdom of God.  Why would something else be more important than that?

An alternative manifesto for your consideration: The Jesus Manifesto

Two other views of the Manhattan Declaration, with interesting comments following:

• Scot McKnight
• John Stackhouse

How would you describe Jesus?  Probably “loving.” And “sacrificial.” A guy with good teaching about loving others and being kind. 

Jared Wilson is a pastor in Nashville, and has written a book that tries to get a fuller, more biblical picture of Jesus into your hands.  The theology is deep, the language is slightly snarky.  He spends 12 chapters emphasizing the powerful, holy…. well, “non-tame” aspects of Jesus.

• Jesus the Prophet
• Jesus the Provision
• Jesus the King
• Jesus the Judge

and so on. 

Your Jesus is Too Safe is solidly and tightly written.  Wilson is evangelical and rather reformed – those who are into that sort of thing will take note when he goes on the record as supporting penal substitutionary atonement (which he does in a footnote, and doesn’t expect the reader to particularly care).  I’m less interested in that, but I particularly applaud his chosen quotations by other authors.  Anyone who recommends I read Eugene Peterson AND John Piper AND N.T. Wright AND Dietrich Bonhoeffer is okay by me.

Perhaps it isn’t Wilson’s fault, but this book took me months to get through.  It sat in the car, and then sat on the coffee table.  I wasn’t reading anything  in its place, so maybe it’s just part of my current low-reading phase.  But I never found myself intrigued.  I didn’t scramble for Twitter just to post a great quotation.  I didn’t think, “Wow, so-and-so should really read this.”

The book was fine.  It is very gospel-based.  He actually acknowledges the Kingdom of God.  He is a theology nut who refrains from blasting the reader with his “nerditude.” His footnotes are funny (I think all the posted reviews likely mention the footnotes).  I think you’ll either really like his style, or he won’t make a big impact on you.  From the conclusion:

The most important way that I’ve tried to synchronize the disparate portraits is by tracing throughout the entire journey the great unifying presence of the gospel.  The gospel is the hope of the world – and these days it’s a hope that many inside our churches are just as starved for as those outside. My prayer is that more and more churches in Western evangelicalism will repent of their relegating of the gospel to a place inside the Trojan Horse of attractive programming and performance-driven worship services and self-help sermons, and once again herald it boldly as the only and supreme hope of a dying world.

I think we’ve pretty well established at this point that I’m cheap.  So I was one of the few people who live in Southern California who wasn’t at the U2 Concert last night at the Rose Bowl.  But my small family sat squished together at the computer, watching enthralled as they sang their hearts out – live – on YouTube, and I read minute-by-minute updates from my eight Facebook friends who did go to the concert. 

And it struck me how small the world has become. 

And how some people (organizations?) like U2 have realized it.  They get they can stream their whole album on YouTube and I will buy the CD anyway.  They get that there is more to be gained from giving their concert away than clamping down on it.  And I hope they get that when I watch Bono sing “Magnificat” and know the whole world is also watching… know my friends are watching there while I watch here … that we are joined together.  And when a band is about justice and love, being joined together is an important message to send.

I want to be the kind of person who gives God glory and honor through my actions.  Sometimes this is something I know I need to do, and sometimes it’s something God SHOWS me I need to do.

I had the opportunity to hear Francis Chan speak this morning as part of the Torrey Conference.  The thing about Chan’s talks is that they start, and then they wander, and then they come back and nail the original point, and you suddenly realize God worked the whole thing together.  So his talk was about being a Christian for a long time, and really reading the Bible to understand what it says.  And to then DO the things that it says, but not be surprised if everyone is surprised and disapproving when you do so.  Because, basically, doing what the Bible says isn’t comfortable.  Or safe.  And frankly, it leads to suffering.  Which seems wrong….

And yet, somehow, right.  Especially if you really read the Bible to understand what it says.

And just now I wandered around in Lala.com and re-found Jason Gray’s latest album, and listened to his excellent song, Fade with Our Voices.  Where the lyrics point out this same truth – if worship fades with our voices, then apparently we haven’t quite grasped what worship is.

After all the songs are sung
And our prayers for Kingdom come
Did we bring honor to the words we sing?

Does our worship have hands?
Does it have feet?
Does it stand up in the face of injustice?
Does our worship bow down?
Does it run deep?
Is it more than a song
That fades with our voices?
Does it fade with our voices?

Lord it’s you we long to please
Make our lives a melody
That we proclaim when we live in Jesus’ name

So I’m taking the hint.  God, give me your spirit, so I can make my life a melody that I proclaim when I live by your name.

I live in the suburbs.  I wear my seat belt. I wash my hands after using the bathroom. 

I live a safe life.

It turns out I also live a safe Christianity.   I read books and the Bible. I go to a small group.  I go to church every Sunday.  I give to the poor, and bring up Jesus in the conversation a lot.   But I don’t live as if Jesus was the real treasure in my life.   If I felt God might be telling me to invite the single mom with her children to live in our spare bedroom, I would decide I was mistaken.  If God wanted me to go to India to help rebuild homes after the recent floods, he would pretty much have to pick me up and put me on a plane.

But not everyone lives that way.  There are some who have realized that this safe, dull Christianity is not what God had in mind.  Gary Haugen’s Just Courage is a book that is dedicated to helping God pick me up and put me on planes.

International Justice Mission was founded in 1997 to meet the needs of the poor beyond food and medical aid.  The book describes how much of the suffering of the poor comes from violence by those with power.  The mission of IJM is to work around the world to bring justice to those who cannot afford to seek it themselves – from slavery, from loss of land, from sexual exploitation.  And because those who are in power do not want to lose it, the workers of IJM are regularly threatened and sometimes physically hurt. 

Haugen shares story after story about what becomes possible when Christians step out in faith, and put the call to serve above their fears about safety.  Oh, it’s so refreshing.  The utter dependence on God, and the complete freedom that it provides.

Haugen ends his book with a discussion of the Gospels’ Rich Young Ruler story.  He points out that too often, we interpret this as some spoiled king who refuses to let go of his great wealth (and, since we are not “rich” or a king, the story doesn’t apply to us).  But Haugen points out a different emphasis of the story.  The young man RAN to Jesus.  He was respectful and deeply interested in Jesus’ words.  He was more spiritual than most of us – carefully following God’s guidelines for living and wanting to fully live in God’s will.  And Jesus didn’t scorn this young man – he loved him.  Loved him enough to show him the one weakness, the one fear that was hindering this man.  And it wasn’t that Jesus was mad at him for being rich…

Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.

Mark 10

Jesus was sad that the young man’s fear was stronger than his faith. 

And I’m afraid that is WAY too applicable to me.

Recommended to any Christian who is wondering why Christianity seems so bland and powerless.

I have heard about churches, universities and other organizations using the Strengths Finder assessment tool.  When Thomas Nelson listed Find Your Strongest Life in its book review program, I thought I would get an opportunity (read: free key) to take this online inventory, since the book is written by the person who developed the tool – Marcus Buckingham.  Which seemed useful.  But it turns out that the Strength Finder inventory isn’t part of this book.  This book is directed at women, and Buckingham has developed a new inventory for their needs. 

The book was a quick read and interesting.  It can be broken down into three major sections:

1. Women are over-busy, stressed and unhappy
2. Find out your strengths and make decisions that enable you to use these strengths
3. Examples and applications in work and family

The reader is directed to a free online “Strong Life Test,” an inventory that gives you your primary and secondary strengths.  These strengths have names like Influencer, Caretaker, Pioneer, Teacher, etc.  It is the choosing to use these strengths that are supposed to keep women from feeling frazzled and helpless, because it is when we are doing work we are good at, we are energized rather than exhausted.

I got the same feeling from this book that I get from eating a big bag of Skittles.  I enjoyed it while I was reading it, but there was a sugar crash almost immediately afterward.  Perhaps this is somewhat my fault – I don’t have the same goals as Buckingham does.  My goal in life isn’t to be happy and fulfilled.   I certainly enjoy moments of happiness and fulfillment, but my goal in life is to proclaim God’s kingdom in all my circumstances.  Since that is the case, I don’t really want to make major life choices based on what makes me feel strong. 

Other petty problems with the book:

• If you are a man who has decided to write a book for women, don’t put yourself on the cover.  Really.  There’s no need for that.
• The website for the Strong Life Test is rather cheesy looking (though the test itself is free – google it).
• The Test itself was not particularly appropriate for me.  Most of the questions seemed framed for those who work in an office environment.  When I got my result, I read the relevant sections in the book and decided no, I wasn’t a “teacher.” I was more of an “advisor.”

All other things being equal, I suppose, I should not choose a job or a volunteer position or family role that I am bad at or find boring.  And I do have a somewhat better sense of what I am good at, thanks to this book.   The trick for me, now, is not demanding the right to do what I want.  I like finding the joy in both good and bad circumstances.

Do you remember, back in high school, when you had to read To Kill a Mockingbird?  And then you had to write an essay? And the prompt for the essay was “Explain how the title of this book relates to the book’s theme?”  This book reminds me of that.

Donald Miller’s new book is called A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.  It is essentially a continued memoir since his bestseller Blue Like Jazz.  To oversimplify, Miller is invited to help convert his first book into a movie, he discovers his life needs more purpose, then he gives his life more purpose.  But the plot both is and is not the purpose of the book.  In learning about screenplays, Miller researches the idea of “story.”  He learns about the necessity of ambition, and inciting events, and conflict.  And he becomes more and more aware that he, the average American, does all in his power to NOT have those things happen in his own life. 

The ambitions we have will become the stories we live.  If you want to know what a person’s story is about, just ask them what they want.  If we don’t want anything, we are living boring stories, and if we want a Roomba vacuum cleaner, we are living stupid stories. 

And so this book is really about story, and choosing to live a story instead of choose safety and comfort.  Miller shows how this works in his own life and in the lives of others.

One of the things I liked least about this book is that Miller makes no attempt to really tie the whole book together tightly.  The bones of the book is this story about story, about how Don the slob becomes Don the character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it.  But it is a gentle, rather meandering journey.  Miller is very self-deprecating, and seems almost surprised that he learns things along the journey, and doesn’t seem to have much belief that he will remember what he’s learned. 

But this is also what I liked most about the book.  The wisdom that the Don of the book finds is out there for anyone to find – it isn’t because he is some genius.  Miller writes in his blog:

…many of the Christian authors I read make the same mistake the secular authors do, though to a greater degree, and that is the writer gets in the way of the truth. The truth is in there, but so is the writer. The writer wants you to know about his message, but also that he or she is smart. The writer wants you to know about their message, but also that he is tough and you better not mess with him, and that you are a coward in comparison. The writer wants you to know about his message, but also wants you to know he is a good writer! The trick is, even if you are talking about yourself, to get out of the way. Tell the truth.

And that is the kind of book Miller has written.  It is full of truth, and he stays out of the way.  Or he is in it, but is honest enough that I think – geez.  If he can get off the sofa and live a story, then I can too.  Anyone can.

Which brings us back to the title of the book, and how it relates to the theme.  The title is mentioned right at the beginning of the book, as Miller picks up these two screenwriter guys from the airport.  And he talks about how his favorite movies are the slow, literary ones that don’t seem to be about anything but are really about everything.  And I suppose, though I really don’t see this very clearly, that the title of the book means that life is like our trip to heaven.  We’re in a car, driven by angels, on a journey that goes on way too long before we get to happiness.  And the trick is to make the car ride, even though it’s long and not much seems to be happening, important and meaningful to the people in the car with you.

Thanks to Ed Cyzewski, who sent me one of his two copies of A Million Miles, just because he thought I would like it.  Read his review and blog here.

Some blessings this week are physical:

• Hot French fries and tangy Greek salad on date night
• Snuggling under a warm blanket on the first cold morning of Autumn
• Designing a training program that gets good results at week

Some blessings are natural:

• Watching a Cooper’s hawk float on an updraft as I bicycle home from work
• Watching the evening fog float in over the western hills, across a purple sky

Some blessings are relational:

• All family members tucked on the same sofa
• Making my mother laugh during an afternoon telephone call
• Choosing to invite an acquaintance to dessert and having them accept

And some are spiritual:

• Grace beyond law, given when a mother seeks baptism for her autistic son
• The beauty of virtue, when practiced to herald the kingdom of God
• Choosing to live a story rather than just live a life.

What are your blessings this week?

I’ve never met Vince Antonucci.  I’m not even a friend of a friend.  At some point, a blog post of his was brought to my Google reader, and I’ve been following him for a month or two. 

Vince is starting a church.  On the Las Vegas Strip.  And his desire is to make his church something that people on the Strip who never thought they would go to church… would want to hear more about his church.  So he’s thinking about weeknight services instead of Sunday morning.  Food co-ops, seminars, block parties.

It’s been a great journey to track from my suburban home.  But I was particularly touched by his list of first worship songs.  Since I’m a fan of Needtobreathe and Tenth Avenue North, I decided to check out the rest. 

Most aren’t hymns.  Or overt worship choruses.  I love hymns and worship choruses, and think they have an important place in the church.  But considering where Verve Church is trying to go (and where many of us are), it’s a great list.  Here are a few examples:

Take Me Away (Lifehouse)

this time what I want is you
there is no one else who can take your place
this time you burn me with your eyes
you see past all the lies
you take it all away
I’ve seen it all
and it’s never enough
it keeps leaving me needing you

Typical (Mute Math)

‘Cause I know there’s got to be another level
Somewhere closer to the other side
And I’m feeling like it’s now or never
Can I break the spell of the typical

Amazing, Because It Is (The Almost)

I was so scared of everything you put in front of me
I’ve been marching to every part of me
Just to see,
See
Why you need me to be
The boy you need me to be

Surely We Can Change (David Crowder Band)

And the problem is this
We were bought with a kiss
But the cheek still turned
Even when it wasn’t hit
And I don’t know
What to do with a love like that

I’m Not All Right (Sanctus Real)

I’m not all right, I’m broken inside
And all I go through, it leads me to you
Burn away the pride
Bring me to my weakness
Until everything I hide behind is gone
And when I’m open wide with nothing left to cling to
Only you are there to lead me on.

I’m less of a fan of churches that deliberately play whatever song is popular this week at church.  I am a fan of carefully chosen songs that cry out about loss, brokenness, love beyond ourselves, and redemption.  Visit Verve to learn more and support their ministry.  The full list is posted here.

… if it’s a post about blog posts?

I was walking the dog tonight.

• Past the backyard of the guy who took two weeks to lay his own patio bricks.
• Past the upstairs window of the guy practicing the electric guitar
• Past the patio table of the woman that keeps the tablecloth out, because they have glorious family dinners every Sunday night

And it occurs to me that important things take a) work and b) actually starting.