We are excited to release new audio versions of He Loves Me and So You Don’t Want to Go To Church Anymore produced by Oasis Audio that includes new, professional packaging. He Loves Me also includes new material found in the Second Edition. Both are read by Wayne and are available now for $20.00 and $23.00 respectively. You can check them out at our Order Page.

At the same time we regret to announce that we have run out of Tales of the Vine and will not be reprinting that book. We will be repackaging that material and the seasonal material from In My Father’s Vineyard in 2009 or 2010 as a daily devotional through the process of living fruitful and fulfilled in our relationship with the Father.

If you ever wonder why it is so difficult to find vibrant expressions of body life today, you have to look no further than the comments to my recent post about the presidential election. I would consider that most of the people who frequent my blog share a passion to know the reality of God’s love and to live in it fully. I didn’t expect everyone to agree with me, nor would I want them to. I wanted people to vote the conscience however that was informed in this election and celebrate the fact that others did as well.

Yet, on a topic as temporal as politics the emotions ran high in most of the 72 comments (and counting!) that were posted. Some included heavy judgments against others, and some felt judged by those who disagreed with them. I know I joked on the podcast about doing this post to “thin the herd,” but that was only in fun. I knew it would be provocative but I wanted to see how people would respond to it and to me. To be honest I was shocked at the scale of the response, not the diversity. I expected lots of people to see this election different than I did, but I was most saddened by the oft-repeated spirit that demanded others see the election as they saw it or have their Christianity or their intelligence questioned. Certainly every comment wasn’t like that, but enough were. And these are just the public comments. I’ve had many more private emails, some applauding what I wrote as they had voted similarly but were afraid to admit it, and some promising they’d never visit this site again because I was obviously a hypocrite or was dumb enough to be deceived by the Great Deceiver.

But this does express why the body of Christ is having trouble finding each other and living in his life together. Many see conformity on these kinds of issues as a requirement for fellowship and respect. On the one had, that’s just passion and I understand it. On another, it derives from a a mistaken worldview that everyone who is serious about Jesus will have the same conscience I have, and if they deviate from mine I have to set them straight or reject them. I’m going to call that what it is—incredibly immature spirituality. The apostles of the early church saw the individual conscience as the arena in which God makes his will known and that the larger community did not have the right to trump that conscience or marginalize a member because they saw it differently, even if you regard me as a ‘weaker brother’ for voting as I did. See Romans 14-15 or I Corinthians 8.

Every gathering of the body of Christ faces this issue, whether it be eight in a home group or hundreds in a larger gathering. If we all have to think the same politically, or even theologically on minor issues to share our brother and sisterhood, then someone has to decide what that standard is. That’s why many people think we have ‘leadership.’ And they would be wrong, because all that leads to is multiple groups who all gather with those who think just like them and reject those who don’t.

If the body of Christ is going to demonstrate herself today in the corporate majesty of her collaboration and cooperation then Jesus will have to be our only focus and loving others will be our motivation, not a demand for conformity. We can be honest in love and no one will get hurt. But we can’t be honest in judgment and hope to demonstrate anything to the world except how empty the cross is, or how irrelevant God’s power.

Jesus asked us to love as we follow him; he didn’t ask us to agree. If we have to agree to love, then what hope have we? If a group has to all think alike to have fellowship then they have pitched a tent at some stage of the journey and will not grow on to know him. In most groups I’ve known, conformity has been the goal. Someone needs to set the standard for the group and people either go along or go away. Neither leads to the reality of Christ expressed among his people.

So here is the problem today. Too many people think they alone are right and anyone who disagrees with them is a threat to their world. And it only takes one person like that in a group to destroy its ability to live, love and grow together. Until we have enough brothers and sisters that have a passion for truth that does not outrun their calling to love others, the body of Christ will continue to be fractured and impotent in the world. And they’ll have to have enough love to lovingly stand up to those who would be divisive among the family by demanding everyone think like they do.

But where we can differ in conscience and still love; where we celebrate the individual acting in accord with their conscience even if we disagree, then we’ll discover relationships that will demonstrate his glory in the earth. I’ve noticed this over my journey, those who are most settled in God’s truth feel no compulsion to conform others to it. They know truth has a power all its own and that a generosity of spirit will open people to it faster than bashing them with their opinion ever will.

How I yearn for the day that enough people understand that so that the body of Christ can gather not based on the false unity of human conformity, but on a love that is greater than all our disagreements and a humility of spirit that allows our differences to be discussed openly without others being loved.

Then we won’t need so-called leaders to police the peace or make us act like we are of one mind, because we will have Jesus’, in ever-increasing abundance. And then the world will see that Jesus was the gift of the Father and that they too can share in his glory.

I got a beautiful email last week and wanted to share it. I do so well aware that it could be easily misunderstood. This sister is in the early stages of moving from the stale emptiness of religion into a fresh and vibrant relationship with Jesus. God is revealing himself to her. Recently God began to open her eyes to one of the ways in which he works. I love it and resonate with the content of this exchange. This is God’s heart for her, her husband and many others.

However, I don’t want you to be put off by the form in which she shared it. She shares it as a conversation between her and God. I do believe he speaks like this, but people who don’t understand may feel that God never speaks to them this directly. I doubt it was a voice she heard externally, nor a conversation quite this way. When God reveals himself to us, he spills into our consciousness with insights that we then put to words. I think it is absolutely fair to characterize it as a conversation as our sister has below, but it could mislead others who think that engaging God happens quite this way.

So don’t focus on the form, focus on the substance of what’s shared below. I think it will encourage you too, especially those who are in the middle of this process:

I have really been praying a lot lately about the decision to leave church and how it has meant being misunderstood by so many people. So as I sat there I started asking why the journey out of (organize religion) needs to be a lonely one, I don’t always get an answer but the freedom to ask Him for some kind of insight has made me feel more like His child and less like an acquaintance.

With that one question I opened up Pandora’s box so to speak. I’m getting better at hearing that still small voice in my heart and it seems that sometimes the Father especially loves to have our ear. Immediately I felt like He was asking me if I really wanted to know Him. Of course I said yes! So he gently reminded me that there is a lot of him to know and that to know him is to know Truth. He IS truth. So much of what we have been taught is not the truth about Him, as if any religion could contain the One who breathed out the stars. “It’s so hard for you to see me through the deception that swirls around you like snow in January“. Instantly I got this image in my mind of a snow globe with the little plastic snow flakes floating slowly down. If we take a big step back from the noise of religion all the deception will fall away and what is left standing will be the Truth. “This is the beginning of really seeing Me”.

I also felt Him say that religion encourages us to live in our heads but to see Him we need to live on our hearts. So hard to do when you’ve been hurt I thought. “Children are all created to live in their hearts. Look at how easily they love and accept. But every time someone hurts you, you pack up a box…maybe trust or courage and you move it upstairs…from your heart to your head. After a while you’re living in your head and my voice gets far away.”

So how do I fix that?” I asked. “You don’t” was the instant reply “I do. I move the boxes downstairs one at a time so you begin to live out of your heart again.”

” So how do I let that happen? How do I know it’s you?”

“I will begin to move boxes downstairs one by one. As I help you unpack it you will begin to recognize ways in which I am teaching you to trust me. As you start to recognize each lesson you will also see more and more of me in it.”

As He spoke to my heart is was as if my spirit recognized the Truth and freedom and love in His words and my skin even felt tingly. It was as though He was infusing me with the strength to believe something that would require me to turn away from so much of what I had been taught for so long. I felt such hope and peace even in the face of going on in this without the support of our Christian friends. I know it has been hard for my husband as he is very hurt that people he believed to be close to us have walked away. I asked God to help him see this wonderful Truth and to help him to hear His voice more and more like I was beginning to. ” What should he be doing to hear your voice?”

“What does your husband know about a father/son relationship?”

Well, I know his dad is a workaholic and so he learned very young that to earn his father’s attention and approval he had to work…for…it….. Ohhhhhhhhh”

“What am I asking him to do right now?”

“Nothing. He has walked away from all the ministries he was in and now even church. He doing nothing right now”

“And because the doing and the relationship were so inextricably tied together it means the relationship he thought he had with me has been taken away and he just can’t see me very well right now. It’s like the shadow of me that he had in his peripheral vision is gone. But that’s OK. He’s where I need him to be because I am about to replace that deceptive shadow of a relationship with something far better.”

“So that can apply to almost all of us. What we learned from our parents or other significant people about what a parent/child relationship is has distorted our concept of what our relationship with you can be?”

“Exactly. And that is why so many of your friends have reacted so strongly. What you are suggesting goes against everything they have been taught about maintaining a relationship with me. If they stop the doing they won’t be able to see what they think is me anymore.”

The way He spoke with such compassion and tenderness about His children that are still living deceived was so beautiful. Immediately I felt my defensiveness fade away and I began to see them as He sees them.

For so long I never knew that He wanted to interact with us in such a personal and direct way. Imagine, my Creator conversing with me like an old friend. So many people think that we have to talk to God like he is the untouchable King and we are the unworthy slaves. But He calls us His children…His friends. I understand what so many have expressed. Now that I know the depth of relationship with Him outside of religion I will NEVER go back.

Don’t get caught up on the form of this sharing. There is a lot of wisdom and God’s heart in the content of it. I hope it helps you respond to him as well.

Almost every day a unique story crosses my desk about The Shack and how it draws people to the heart of the Father, especially those who have endured great tragedy or are facing incredible challenges. It has given them the space to live inside of the love of the Father at such moments, rather than mistakenly see them as proof that they are not loved.

Here’s an interesting one I got a few weeks ago from a dear friend in Kansas City:

A friend of mine died from bone cancer, an extremely painful and slow death. He was only 57 years old. In the memorial service program it said the following;

“Stu grew closer to the Lord through the reading of the book, The Shack, in his last months. He was thrilled to give witness to his faith and provide copies to many nurses while hospitalized at KU Medical Center this summer. Copies of the book have been donated in honor of Stu and are available today. Feel free to take a copy from the display table on a first come, first served basis.”

The church that he attended all of his life and where the memorial service was held refused to sell The Shack in their bookstore stating that the theology was too controversial.

There were 250 copies of The Shack on the display table in the church the afternoon of his memorial service – there were none left after the service was over.

I’m most excited for the comfort this book gave Stu as he prepared to cross the threshold of his first face-to-face meeting with the Father of all Creation. Last Saturday night I had the opportunity to join a local Foursquare house church network to talk about The Shack and the great them of living inside of God’s love that’s addressed in I John 4:16-19. I heard some amazing stories there as to how this book has brought people closer to God.

Finally, two weeks ago I did an open question/Answer session about THE SHACK at the Third Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Virginia. They just posted the audio of that evening for those who would like to listen in. I’ll warn you it isn’t the best quality audio, but you can at least hear the content.

Yesterday I wrote to our friend in Kenya and asked how they were doing since I hadn’t heard in awhile. My friend there notified me that the need persists and that they have recently had contact with brothers and sisters in a region of the country that are still suffering great need from the tribal conflict that erupted last December. He said there was an immediate need for $3000.00 US to help with emergency relief for food, bedding and shelter. I assured him I would make this need available to those who frequent these pages.

To date we’ve given almost $18,000.00 to help and have been really blessed by the generous and thankful spirit of those who have been on the receiving end of those gifts. I am simply putting the call out there again for any who would like to pray for them or send money to help with this great need. Every dime sent to us will go directly to those who need it. Nothing will be taken out for administration on this end or that one. If God puts it on your heart to send something, please go to our Invoice Page and click on the ‘Pay Invoice’ button. You can then list “Donation for Kenya” and the amount you’d like to give. If you use the ‘Donation’ button you will need to also send me an email letting me know you wanted this to go for Kenya and not for Lifestream. All donations to this cause are tax deductible.

Or, if you prefer, you can also send a check to Lifestream • 7228 University Dr. • Moorpark, CA 93021.

Thank you for giving this need your time and attention and I’m sure the brothers and sisters there would also appreciate your prayers. May God make himself known in extraordinary ways in the ongoing frustration of human survival. May he demonstrate his glory in great tragedy and open doors to people’s hearts to see his grace and mercy.

Yes, I did. Both Sara and I voted for Barak Obama. I know that won’t sit easy with many of my evangelical friends. I’ve received scores of emails the last few days warning me that this election was pivotal for America and that God wanted McCain to win. One even sent me a dream he had of Obama plotting with Satan to destroy the United States.

I hate fear and all that it destroys in the human heart. People still don’t see how horribly binding it is and how it distorts us into really creepy people. Emails from Christian friends driven by fear and appealing to fear in hopes of conforming the culture to their expectations, sickened me. I know they are just misguided. I know God loves them deeply, and that they are responding the only way they know how. But it is time for God’s children to move beyond fear. This whole world is in HIS hands and we are his children living in it. We need not fear anything, because God’s kingdom is the unshakable one. His purpose will endure and we dare not look to the governments of men as our hope.

Even though I disagree with many of Obama’s social policies, the Republicans needed their comeuppance. I am a life-long Republican, and have never voted for a Democratic presidential candidate. But eight years of Republican arrogance and corruption in Washington has devastated this nation and destroyed our reputation abroad. How could I reward that with my vote? Are the Democrats any less arrogant or corrupt? Of course not!

But Obama sings a different tune. He speaks of hope and sacrifice, of bringing people together instead of manipulating our political differences to chop this country up into little pieces. To be honest, I’m ready for some sacrifice. My generation has saddled future generations with a horrible debt and an irresponsible, short-sighted, selfish approach to the problems of our world. It is time for a different course. Yes, I know when President Bush in his first campaign talked about being a “uniter not a divider”, he completely ignored his own promise. I can only Obama won’t do the same. I hope he’s serious about being a President for all of the people, even those who didn’t vote for him. I hope he brings diverse factions together and helps them learn to work together, rather than running headlong into a Democratic agenda. Time will tell.

This was a hard vote for me. McCain was my favorite Republican candidate from the beginning. I was surprised he won the nomination, but then even more shocked that he once nominated he became a mouthpiece for the worst elements in the Republican party. He quickly abandoned his life-long principles to appeal to the base of a party sadly out of touch with the demands of our time. I was disappointed by the lack of experience and gravitas in his vice presidential choice. I was disappointed in his negative ads that depended on rumor and innuendo. McCain has served this country well in days gone by. He didn’t do it so well in this campaign, except for his concession speech last night. That’s a McCain I could have voted for, even though I was disturbed by the mocking anger of those in his audience. He had to keep rebuking his own supporters who demonstrated such contempt for Obama. I hope that tells him something about the campaign he ran.

I know this won’t make sense to those who only focus on gay rights and abortion in voting for president. But I look at other issues that are being ignored to the detriment of our country. We need to build credibility abroad and make significant reforms at home. Obama offers us a fresh course and seems to display the intelligence, passion and fair-minded resolve to help us accomplish that. I do regret that he will serve with such overwhelming Democratic majorities in both houses. That doesn’t bode well for serving the interests of all of the people. But I’m rooting for him to get this right and demonstrate a generosity of spirit to those who don’t see the world the way he does.

And when I watched the faces of my African-American brothers and sisters last night overwhelmed at the election of one of their own to the highest office in the land, I was overwhelmed with gratitude. The greatest stain on our nation’s history is the white arrogance that first owned slaves for hundreds of years, then when freed kept them repressed economicaly, socially and politically for over a century and a half.

Sara and I just spent a week in Virginia visiting Thomas Jefferson’s home in Monticello and the historic colony of Williamsburg. To think that the man who penned our Declaration of Independence citing that “all men are created equal,” and then returned to his plantation in ownership of African men and women only shows the extent to which human blindness can reach.

What a moment in history! An African-American family will occupy the White House. So many said it couldn’t be done. And while it alone won’t make up for 400 years of abuse, it does open a very wide door of hope for those who have been most marginalized in our culture. How could we deny them this joy, this fulfillment that all men truly are created equal. I will pray that this reality further heals the despicable divide in our culture and allow us all to celebrate what we hold in common.

The stakes are high. The opportunity is great. I do pray that Obama will be blessed with wisdom and insight and that he will live up to his promise to not represent the narrow interest of party, but do work for a common good that offers equal justice for all.

On January 20, Barak Obama will take the oath of office, looking down the Mall past the Washington Monument to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where Martin Luther King gave his famous “I Have a Dream Speech.” His election doesn’t fulfill all that King hoped for on that day, but it is a giant leap forward to fulfill a promise too long denied to people of color.

Some day I’ll be able to tell my grandchildren that I voted for the first African-American president of these United States, not because he was black but because he held the best promise to reverse the course of our failed politics and open a new chapter on American public life.

I pray he lives up to that promise. If he doesn’t, it really can’t be any worse than the last eight years.

Sara and I made it home from Virginia, and we had an awesome time all around. We met some incredible people and connected with some dear, old friends. I took questions from about 300 folks in a Presbyterian Church about THE SHACK and met with all kinds of people on relational journeys who are learning to live loved by God.

It’s great to be home for a while. If all goes well I’ll not have to board another airplane this year. Awesome, if true!

Someone sent this to me the other day. It is from a website called: The Ongoing Adventures of ASBO Jesus.

I love that. The dogma, doctrines, and rules just will not hold up when the storm surrounds you. Love, trust, and relationship with Jesus will. I get hundreds of emails from people who know the rituals, doctrines, and rules well. They have observed them all of their lives, but when the tide turns against you, those things are as shifting as sand on the shore.

Learning to live inside a relationship of love is where real Truth is found. Settling into the confidence that Jesus and his Father love you and that you can trust them no matter how hard the wind blows or the rain falls, is as certain as a granite boulder.

I’ll admit it isn’t easy making the shift. I hear that every day from people and I still remember my own. It’s incredibly disorienting when your doctrine lets you down and your rules aren’t enough to sustain you. It’s easy to get angry at God and others.

But there is no better time for Jesus to show you the way that really is Truth and Life. And finding that, you’ll find the incredible peace that endures even through the most despicable of tragedies.

But finding a relationship with Jesus and his Father is where this relationship really begins.

Sara and I spent the weekend in Charlottesville, VA with believers from all over central Virginia as well as those from as far away as Texas and Ohio who came to join us. Someone from ASSIST News Service wrote up an article about the weekend. You can read it here. We had three packed days of conversations with some wonderful people who are sorting out what it means to live in the love of the Father.

On Friday, Sara and I got to go to Monticello, the home of President Thomas Jefferson (pictured above) and then spent the last two days in Colonial Williamsburg exploring our early American heritage. Dovetailing with my work in BridgeBuilders, this has been a wonderful time to re-examine the history of those men and movements that culminated in our Declaration of Indendence and then a new government based on principle not monarchy or heritage.

Today it is back to work in Richmond with some dear, dear friends. One is writing a book on communion that will be an incredible gift to the church. Tonight I’ll make a a presentation at the Third Presbyterian Church of Richmond on THE SHACK and related topics. Then Sara and I will spend Friday and Sturday with some fellow-travelers on the north side of Richmond before heading home on Saturday night.

Sara and I are headed to the east coast and there will be no one around here to fulfill orders, answer phones or keep up with other business items during our time away. Thus our offices will be closed until November 3. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this causes you.

I’m incredibly amazed by many of the questions I get asked on a weekly basis. People I don’t know write me to ask my advice on all kinds of things, like what to say to a friend of theirs who is in sin, what kind of decision to make for their future, what they should do about fellowship, or even what might be the key to free them from some element of bondage.

Now, I don’t take those lightly. I know the people on the other side of those emails are incredibly desperate. Some are angry or lonely or at the end of their rope and feel they have no one else to turn to. But what they don’t realize is the incredible limitations of email, either for me to truly know what is going on in their hearts or in my ability to communicate with them what they would most need to hear in a limited email.

But beyond those concerns there is something more fundamental that disturbs me. I am a total stranger to them and they to me. I can’t really get to know the situation they are in by their own assessment of it. I’m only getting one side of a story. I don’t know the people they are interacting with or the nature of the relationship they have with them. Why would anyone trust the words of a stranger a thousand of miles away, to the God who already lives in them?

Is this part of the residue of our religious systems that always sets up an expert between us and God? We think the “man of God” has a more direct pipeline to God than what he wants to share with each of his followers. This is one of the sad fruits of our practicing Christianity as if it is a religion. We’re just certain that there are techniques others know that I don’t, rather than embrace the reality that God wants to have a personal connection with all of his children to help them learn to live freely in his life.

A couple of days ago, I got one of these emails from a woman caught in some very desperate circumstances and feeling like God was no where to be found. Her email was titled, “Where is God?” My heart went out to her as I read it, but I again felt as if she needed something more than a ‘word from Wayne’. She needed him!

Imagine my joy when less than 12 hours later, and before I had a chance to respond, I got another email from the same woman titled, “Never mind.” I thought at first she might be upset that I hadn’t responded in the twelve hours since she’d sent it to me. But that wasn’t the case at all. What she wrote thrilled my heart:

Don’t feel like you need to respond to my last e-mail. I sat for a few hours and watched the moon inch slowly across the sky. Sitting under the night sky all night helped clear my mind. God answered a bunch of my questions. So I’m pretty sure I’ll be OK. Our conversation started like this, “Why do you keep asking (other) people these questions? I’m waiting for you to ask Me.”

I think God is waiting for all of us to ask him. And I mean exactly like this woman did, in a quiet place. Too often we think we’re praying when we rush around throwing up desperate requests to God and yet we never draw to a quiet place long enough to listen to his response.

This reminded me of an experience I had with my daughter when she was twelve. She was afraid we were going to make her go to something she didn’t want to go to. We assured her we wouldn’t make her go. Now that she was twelve she had the freedom to go or not go, depending on what God wanted for her. She asked how she would know that, and we told her just to ask. Get in a quiet place and ask him if he wants you to go or not, sit in silence for a bit and see what she felt God was saying to her. She did. Fifteen minutes later she told us that she felt God wanted her to go. And she did, with a much-improved attitude because God had asked her to, not her parents had demanded it of her.

Hearing God and knowing his presence is not rocket science. It only takes a simple heart willing to be honest with him, to pause long enough to see what impressions he puts on our hearts, and to follow him as he leads us. It will help if you discard all your expectations about what he should say or should do. Let him be God and don’t so much see him as the fairy-godmother who will fix everything to make you happy, but the Abba who can walk you through anything with his grace and glory.

Will we make mistakes learning to follow him? Sure. But he can overcome those, too, and in doing so we all get to learn better the difference between his voice and yours.

And, please none of this is not meant to discount the value of a helping friend when we’re so buried in our own pain that we can’t see our way out. Just make sure that helping hand comes from someone who knows you well enough to really be of help, and that they are helping you connect with God instead of listening to God for you. Those who try to build a ministry out of other people’s dependence really don’t get what the Gospel is all about.

Anyone who truly knows the glory of living in the Father’s reality wouldn’t dream of robbing that same opportunity from someone else.