Deal Me In

I’ve come to find that churches are the worst places to clean and organize. The reason for this is because nobody ever throws anything away, and the reason nobody ever throws anything away is because nobody owns the stuff at a church, and nobody feels that they have the authority to get rid of it. So, things that haven’t been used in 20 years in a church get put into a box and tucked away into a corner closet because you never know, somebody might use that stuff someday. I and a few other folks at the church have been trying to clean the place up and get things better organized, and we’ve found boxes and boxes of files, decorations, and all kinds of other weird stuff that hasn’t seen the light of day since the 80’s. Don’t tell anybody, but much of that stuff has finally found its proper place in the dumpster.

Above is a picture of my favorite discovery so far. I know what you’re thinking…that is the sweetest deck of Jesus playing cards I’ve ever seen. That’s exactly what I thought when uncovered several packs of these babies. I was ready to call up the boys and have a sanctified game of Texas Hold’em right there in the church. I hoped in this deck that the King, Queen, and Jack have been replaced by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I hear a Holy Flush is the new highest hand you could have in poker.

To my dismay, the above cards weren’t actually playing cards. The other side is totally blank. I have no idea what they were used for. I’m thinking about drawing in all the appropriate numbers and symbols and making my self the sweetest deck of cards ever.

The Shack

A friend recently asked me if I had read "The Shack" and what I thought about it. So, I figured I'd post my response to him:

Dear friend,

Back in October a lady from our church came up to me and said, "Pastor Tristan, you have to read "The Shack." I want to know what you think about it. I loved it so much that I went out and bought a second copy, so take this one and let me know what you think.”

My first thought was, oh great, now I have to read some poorly written Christian fiction book (not exactly my favorite genre). But I did want to read because I really appreciate the lady who gave it to me. She's only been a Christian for a few years, so I figured I'd bite the bullet and suffer through some cheesy Christian novel in order to connect with her.

A few pages into "The Shack," I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book was fairly well written. Also, I was relieved to find that its plot didn’t center on a dispensationalist view of the end times…I’m amazed at how many of those the Christian press can publish in a given year! When I finished reading it I had a lot of thoughts on the book, but I’ll try to limit them here to a few positive ones and a few negative ones:

Here's what I liked: 1. Young at least attempted portray God as Triune. All attempts to write about the Trinity in fiction will fail because the Trinity is intrinsically mysterious and beyond our understanding, but I found it refreshing that Young emphasized God's 3-ness. Most popular writers tend to write generically about God, and their writings unintentionally assume God’s oneness. The Trinity is central to all we believe about God, so I commend Young’s attempt to bring the Trinity into popular Christian conversation, even though his attempt falls short at times.

2. The book is about suffering and the problem of evil, and I think it does an ok job of addressing the question of how a Good and All-powerful God would allow people to suffer. I believe this is the hardest questions that Christians have to answer, and Young does an adequate job of speaking to this question in the form of popular fiction.

3. Young also stresses freewill. I’ve read a few scathing critiques of “The Shack” by popular evangelicals, but almost all of them were from a Calvinist background. I could see why a Calvinist wouldn’t like this book because the characters are free and God’s sovereignty doesn’t infringe upon their freedom.

Here's what I didn't like: 1. I have to agree with you that Eugene Peterson’s statement was laughable. I think we need to give “The Shack” a few hundred more years of assessment before we put it on par with “Pilgrim’s Progress.”

2. There was one passage that I found particularly troubling in which Jesus says something like "it doesn't really matter if a person is a Christian or not. If a person really wants to seek me, they will find me. All ways lead to me" (that's not an exact quote, but it was something like that). Anyway, in this one passage, the Jesus character seems closer to being a Unitarian than a Christian. Because Young focuses so much on the Trinity, it wouldn’t be fair to label him as a Unitarian, but I did have big problems with that one passage.

3. Along the lines of the last point, one of my friends thinks that “The Shack” implicitly affirms universalism, and I can definitely see what he means. The book consistently paints a picture of Jesus as Loving and Good but fails to recognize him as the Coming King and Judge. In Young’s defense, the book isn’t about judgment, but any hint of judgment by Trinity seems to be missing.

Curious if any of you have read it or have any thoughs?