BLOG 2/18/13: SHAYNE WHEELER’S THE BRIARPATCH GOSPEL
I read a lot. I’ve taught evangelism on three continents, lectured on it in half-dozen theological schools, been head of the denomination’s office of evangelism, and written books on the subject myself. One troubling thing I learned in much of this experience is that many (so-called) Christian communities conceive of evangelism more in terms of marketing their congregation than they do of joining Jesus in his mission to seek and to save those who are lost. It is also quite easy to become just plain jaded with the plethora of books written on the subject.
That is why a new book by Shayne Wheeler has my full attention. Not only is Shayne my very dear friend and encourager, but also he is a gifted practitioner of Christ’s compassion to those men and women who, for whatever reasons, have never entered into the joy of being made whole by Jesus Christ. He is also a profound teacher of scriptures, and a gifted storyteller. This new book of his is both a study of the scripture’s portrayal of God’s infinite love in Christ, and an anecdotal visit into the author’s own pilgrimage in being the incarnation of the love of God to real sinners.
I have lived a long and full life, and every once in a while there has appeared on the scene a book that dusted off the subject of the gospel of God, decluttered it, delivered it from all of its churchy jargon, and made it compelling. I think of Keith Miller’s The Taste of New Wine some fifty years ago, or of the impact of Brennan Manning’s writings forty years ago.
Meanwhile, one notes that there are all of those folk who inhabit so many congregations, who are thoroughly churchified folk, who are content to attend all the church meetings week by week, engage in all of the typical (and inane) church talk, listen to comfortable sermons … and never even notice that those same communities almost avoid those men and women most broken and in need of God’s transforming grace in Christ. Shayne doesn’t allow us to go that way.
Shayne’s book is entitled: The Briarpatch Gospel: Fearlessly Following Jesus Into the Thorny Places (Tyndale House Publishers).
I love it. I am refreshed by it. I am motivated again to join my Lord Jesus in hanging out with publicans and sinner, i.e., those who are indifferent to, have no connection with, been burned by, suspicious of the Christian church and faith … or are too busy ever to stop and ask the most profound questions about the meaning of life. Shayne has immersed himself with just such folk.
Shayne’s anecdotes deal with agnostics, guilt-ridden and fearful folk, victims of broken marriages, the community of gays and lesbians, the alienated, the spiritually hungry, the confused … and those in so many ways expressive of the existential experience of lostness. He exalts the love and grace of Gods to all. While holding a wholesome orthodox Christian faith, he also holds on to the infinite love and grace of God to real sinners such as you and I.
And he does it with his own whimsical, humorous, but well crafted and expressed understanding of what Christ, and the mission of God, are all about in this very real world.
I am, as you can tell, enthusiastic about this new book, and encourage you to buy it and read it to your own spiritual benefit.
Peace!
[This may be a duplicate, but some didn’t get it on their email subscription.]
