I get this question a lot, so I thought I’d post the exchange here, so i won’t have to rewrite it so many times:

First of all, thank you for the encouragement you have been to us in the last year. We left the institutional church a little over a year ago and honestly do not think we can ever go back. Your blog, book – So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore, Transitions and The Shack have been both freeing and refreshing to us.

Secondly, not asking you to critique or anything but how does your belief system differ from the organic church movement? We read Pagan Christianity and it really opened our eyes. We don’t want to start a house church because we think that can be just moving the institution to the home. If you are willing to give it, we would like your opinion on the whole apostolic house church movement.

To answer your question, In my view the organic church movement, is not very organic. How can it be when they give you all the models to follow? And I’m never thrilled with movements. They always seem to have too much of a touch of man’s plans and human efforts behind it. People create the illusion of a movement for many reasons. Some might be sincere, thinking they are providing a valuable resource for God’s people, though that is rarely the result. More often they end up only trying to validate people that they are part of ‘something special’, or to sell them their books and seminars. God just doesn’t work that way. He moves freely in the earth inviting people to him.

The apostolic house church movement is also too man-driven and program-centered for my tastes. Body life rises out of brothers and sisters who simply want to learn to share Father’s life together as friends and to have his heart in reaching out to others in the simplicity of living their lives. People doing that will find the life of the church springing up around them. It can’t be imposed by implementing any system or model, which only teaches people to play church instead of really living as it.

Thus, discipleship (learning to walk with Jesus) precedes any depth of real community together. So learn to follow him. Encourage others to do so. Follow what God puts on your heart to do together in joy and freedom and you’ll find yourselves being the church. Set up a weekly meeting with a mini-ritual and soon you’ll feel like its just a routine you’re going through. Because it is. But let God connect you with people who want to share a journey, and your life together can take on a myriad of expressions in different seasons as best serves his purposes in the community in which you live.

God wants to give us real frienships with others and teach you to share his life together. We’ll get to experience that simply if we don’t try to put something else together on our own first. Then we’ll just end up with another substitute, not the real deal.

He can do this in you. Ask him to show you and just follow what he puts on your heart each day as you learn to live in the reality of his love…

Many of you know how I tire of most ‘Christian’ approaches to dealing with culture issues in our world. Despite their rhetoric, their anger and manipulative strategies always come off as hating both the sinner and their sin. And instead of demonstrating the compassion of Jesus for the most marginalized and brokem in our culture, we end up only increasing the anger and misunderstandings on which our conflicted culture seems to thrive.

This especially focuses on public school issues where I occasionally serve as a mediator for cultural and religious conflicts as part of BridgeBuilders. Each April the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network sponsors a Day of Silence each year to encourage students to use silence as a way to identify with the bullying and discrimination that is directed toward students perceived to be gay or transgendered, and to help be a voice to make schools safer for them.

In recent years Christian groups have responded with a Day of Truth to counteract ‘the gay agenda’ in the Day of Silence. These students are told to make it clear at school that homosexuality is an abomination to God. But there is a new alternative being suggested for this year, and I think it offers a much better way for students to be part of a solution, rather than prolonging the conflict. It’s called The Golden Rule Initiative.

While admitting that many conservative students are conflicted about this day. They do not affirm homosexual behavior but they also loathe disrespect, harassment or violence toward any one, including those students who are or may appear to be gay, lesbian or transgendered. The proponent of this approach, Dr. Warren Throckmorton, Associate Professor of Psychology at Grove City College. He suggests participating in a pledge of safety for all students based on the Golden Rule:

We believe the teaching of Christ in the Golden Rule should guide our actions and attitudes regarding all. We also believe that we should work to make school a safe place for all students.

Thus, we advocate students spread a message like this on the Day of Silence:

This is what I’m doing:

• I pledge to treat others the way I want to be treated.

• Will you join me in this pledge?

• “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:31).

Because the Day of Silence participants will be passing out cards describing why they are silent and what the Day means to them, we advocate exchanging a card or paper in return. Write or type the Golden Rule pledge on pieces of paper or an index card and pass it out at your school if the Day of Silence is being observed.

Of course, I think it would be more powerful without the Scripture reference. Most Christians can’t imagine how offensive it is to people who don’t embrace the truths of the Bible, to have a Scripture reference thrown in their face. It makes it appear to them as if we’re only doing it to follow a rule and not out of love or respect for them.

They’ll be taken with the truth of the quote far easier if we don’t reference it. It would be far better to let them discover where it comes from at some future time.

But over all, I like this approach.

I am completely overwhelmed here with more emails, phone calls and business items than I can possibly manage at the moment. Pray for me, please. There are way too many opportunities and needs coming at me at the moment, and I just cannot keep up. There are some opportunities ahead that will decisively affect my life and restructure my time. As much as I don’t want to give up the simplicity of life as I live it now, I do sense the Lord is asking me to walk through a door that will help us get his message out in a way I’ve not been able to do before I’ll write more as things are clarified here. You can hear about some of it on today’s podcast.

For those interested, however, I’m going to appear as a guest on The Drew Marshall Show tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time, which is 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time). You can listen on line if you like, or there will be podcasts later. I like Drew. This should be a lot of fun. We’re going to be talking about So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore.

In closing, here is a superb illustration of how believers can function together as the church of Jesus Christ in the world.

And I didn’t even know what orphism is! Now I do!

I am reading through the minor prophets these days and found a mind-jarring passage in Zechariah 7. This is God talking, and I’m taking these quotes from THE MESSAGE:

When you held days of fasting every fifth and seventh month all these seventy years, were you doing it for me? And when you held feasts, was that for me? Hardly. You’re interested in religion; I’m interested in people.

It’s a poignant contrast, isn’t it? You get to be concerned about the religion or the people, but they don’t mix too well. Religion is all abut using God’s things for our own gain or amusement. God’s heart is about loving the loveless, healing the broken, comforting the distraught and standing up for the marginalized in our world.

How well does religion do that, even if that religion is Christianity? Look at the political involvement of the so-called Christian conservative that is so passionate for dead-on theology (pun intended) compared to their concern for people who are in need? How many congregational meetings did I sit through in my past that were mostly about the needs of the institution and how we could make things better for us? Were we really doing it for God, or for our religion?

That was God’s conclusion as well in Zechariah. So instead of trying to protect our religion, keep it safe, and try to use it to make our lives better, this is what God asks us to do:

Treat one another justly;
Love your neighbors.
Be compassionate with each other.
Don’t take advantage of widows, orphans, visitors and the poor.
Don’t blot and scheme against one another—that’s evil!

Don’t we find ourselves closer to God’s heart living each day taking an interest in the people around us, than we do trying to protect or develop our religion? I think so!

And this is the Old Testament! So cool!

I couldn’t help but share a few loose ends hanging around my desk this morning:

My listening audience is expanding. I got this from the mother of a fourteen-month old:

Our son loves listening to you read the Jake book. He just sticks his thumb in his mouth and stares out the car window. Too cute. I wish you could see it. He knows a grandpa voice when he hears it!

Hilarious!

Drew Marshall, host of The Drew Marshall Show is a talk show host in Canada who is a real outside-the-box thinker. I game him a copy of The Shack a year ago and asked if he’d look at it. He finally got around to it and sent me the following endorsement this week:

“It took me a year to read this book simply because I had never heard of the author. Publishers send me 2-3 books every week wanting to have their authors as guests on my show. I really thought that this book was just another book. Trust me folks – IT’S NOT! Usually, because of my spiritual gift of pessimism, when bandwagons come along I usually just take a step back and let them go right on by. However, when it comes to The Shack, I’m not only on the stupid bandwagon, I keep asking the driver to stop and pick up all of my friends. Sad to admit but I can’t remember the last time a book, let alone a work of fiction, had this much of a healing impact on my life. As Brennan Manning says, “healing our image of God heals our image of ourselves.” Something is going on with The Shack and all I know is that it ain’t because of some multi-million dollar, well oiled publishing campaign.”

Paul, the author of The Shack will be on his show today. You can listen to it on-line or in the archives at their site. Also the Nashville newspaper did an article on Paul and The Shack this week.

And finally, some of you know that I spent two days this week in New York City with Brad as we were being courted by two of the most powerful publishing companies in the world. They would like to help us take The Shack to level of distribution that we could not begin to duplicate here, with a partnership agreement that allows us to control the content as well as share the entire process of how this book finds its way into our culture. Our logo will stay on the book and they also want to work with us to release some of Wayne’s titles at a wider level and to publish other books we feel have an important message to our culture. We were blessed that God would open such doors at the highest level of national dialog with no one wanting to change the message and content of people thinking outside the stale boxes of organized religion.

We sat in conference rooms with the top executives of these organizations as they shared with us how this book had touched their lives and how they wanted to help this find a broader audience than we had found. One executive told me in a personal conversation that if they had released this book a year ago by an unknown author with such a unique story, and would have sold 400,000 books in the first 10 months with all their sales and marketing forces behind it, they would have called it phenomenal. “What you people have done with THE SHACK, without any of that is well beyond phenomena.”

Of course we know that we’ve had an even more potent sales and marketing forces, A God who appears to have breathed on this book and the word of mouth of folks like you who kept passing this book along. Last week we showed up as #47 in USA Today’s Best-Selling book list. This week we jumped up to #33. We have almost 500,000 in print and still have not reached our first-year anniversary.

We have some huge decisions to face in the next few days that will affect not only the future of The Shack, but my books as well and how my time and schedule will be altered by new responsibilities. We need God to give us direction at every turn, take advantage of those doors that are his and to say no to those who are not. While the decision is incredibly important, it is not a choice between good and better. It is a choice between awesome and awesome. This is the opposite of voting in presidential elections where you have to choose the lessor of two evils. We couldn’t go wrong either way here. The level of respect and the open doors they have extended us for other things we want to do is shocking. We’re not blind as to what they want on their side of it, but we’re also amazed at how committed they were to the passion of this book and our other ideas to help people connect with the amazing love of the Father and think beyond the rigid lines of Christianity-as-religion in the 21st Century. Your prayers in all of this would be most appreciated.

When Brad and I decided to publish The Shack on our own, I had no idea how we’d find an audience for this story. But believing it was what God wanted us to do, we put it out and released it on May 1, 2007 primarily to the audience of this website and The God Journey. Without any paid advertising in magazines, newspapers or websites, we have watched this book find an audience simply through word of mouth—friends and friends of friends.

Those who most defend our religious institutions and denominations always ask the question, “How can we have an impact in the world if we don’t support these kinds of organizations?” While those can be a way we cooperate, I also see the incredible power of interconnected relationships that we may not even be aware of. Look how many people have found out about this book, simply because friends have recommended it to friends, who’ve recommended it to friends. God has limitless options to get his work done. Just when we think we’ve got him in the box that fits him best, he shows that no such box could ever contain him.

Today we reached a bit of a milestone. The Shack appeared for the first time on USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Book List at number 47. We have continued to be amazed at the growing demand for this little story, and the attention it is now catching at the highest echelon’s of the publishing industry. Brad and I will be flying to New York City next week to meet with some of those people about the future of this book. Please pray for us if you think about it. We want Father’s wisdom in continuing to position this book in a way that brings glory to him. And to all of you who have helped pass this book along, we are grateful for your part in this unfolding story.

Now it’s time to get to work on the screen play!

Recently I’ve received a whole raft of books for me to check out. The best by far was The End of Religion: Encountering the Subversive Spirituality of Jesus by Bruxy Cavey. He’s a Toronto pastor of a church “For people who aren’t into church.” His premise is that Jesus came to make us irreligious by superseding the basis on which religions thrive, and invite us to a radical life in him. “Blue Rose Tuesdays” (Chapter 3) in the book is worth the price of admission and makes a powerful point how the attempt to find life through ritual will always end up in incredibly weird places.

And I love his point about religion is not really for the God we’re trying to serve, but for our own self-interest. I loved this quote:

The religious system of Israel (like any religious system today) was repeatedly used as a spiritual hideout for people with the guilty conscience. Rather than change how they live, the people of Israel simply added a little religion to their lives, to keep everything in balance. Like the godfather going to Mass on Sunday morning or going to confession before returning to his life of crime, religious systems make it all too easy for self-centered people to find complete familiar rituals without experiencing a change of heart or committing to a life of love.

Though occasionally he lapses into the vocational clergy habit of talking down to the reader, I love the premise and Cavey shares some wonderful insights. Many of you will enjoy the squirming he has to do in the end to make sure his religious system isn’t counted as one, and that people are encouraged to a set of priorities that he strains not to call rituals. I found this part a bit sad. It is easy to identify religious activity in others and yet exempt our own. I like the core of this book, though, I just wish he’d been able to take it further.

I also received Becky Garrisons, Rising From the Ashes: Rethinking Church. I was actually excited about getting a woman’s perspective on this, but unfortunately it’s mostly a rehash of the emergent conversation and that done through interviews and emails. If you care about that conversation you’ll find it a solid resource. However, it is difficult reading because the question/answer stream of consciousness approach makes it choppy. I would have preferred her to act more like a journalist and synthesize these approaches into a more readable narrative. But if you want to know more about the church views of Brian McLaren, N.T. Wright and others in the emergent conversation, you will find it very helpful.

Life After Church: God’s Call to Disillusioned Christians by Brian Sanders is an interesting read as well. He handles well the frustrations of people seeing through the failures and fantasies of organized religion and treats their concerns with empathy and compassion. That part is very helpful. But unfortunately he has another system he thinks is an answer to the malaise of organized religion. I like many of his priorities, but you’ll notice him harking back to the familiar lists of Bible reading, fellowship, mission and honoring leaders. There’s some good chicken to eat hear, but you’ll find some bones as well. In the end he encourages people to stay if at all possible, but also makes room for people to leave it and find other expressions of church life. In summary, he says if you can’t find something to participate in freely, you owe it to the rest of us to start your own and show us how it is done. That’s not advice I’d want people to take seriously. If systems could replicate God’s work on earth, you’d think we’d have discovered it after 2,000 years.

Take This Bread by Sara Miles was an interesting read, but I just couldn’t find the passion to finish it. It’s the story of another liberal finding here way to the reality of Christ. I was led to believe this would be similar to an Anne Lamott read, which got me excited. But, alas, it doesn’t have near the humor that gets me through a Lamott book. Don’t get me wrong. This is a personal story and one who really demonstrates a heart for the poor and marginalized in our society and how Jesus met her there and how she continues to pour out her life in the wider culture. It’s an honest, passionate story of grace. I’m sure many of you will enjoy it more than I did. It just felt like a story I’ve read dozens of time and other books on my shelf beckoned me away from it.

Now I’m reading The American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson. Every once and a while you’ve got to break out of the ‘church’ books and read a bit of history!

Also, Sara and I are taking a few days off at the end of her spring break to escape for a few days. So, if it takes a while to get an email response or get or order filled, you’ll understand way. We’re looking forward to a brief break. Also, if anyone needs a CD duplicator, we have upgraded ours and are looking to resell the old one. Email me if you’re interested. I’m not sure how safe it is to mail this delicate equipment, so it will help if you’re close by…

it looks like we’re going to make one more transfer of funds to Kenya to help our brothers and sisters there. To date we have sent over $14,000.00 to help. Even though the tensions in the country have lessened, the need is still great and we want to send one more offering to help our brothers and sisters there who have been rendered homeless and jobless by the violence earlier this year. We received the following update last week from our contact there:

Thank you for standing with us and your involvement to this ministry especially through the books we have received. Our hearts have been changed and (brought) great changes in the ministry. (We have helped) 1201 people, including adults and the children. This is so great and with over 50 families who are now standing on their own. This includes hiring the houses and self support. This is wonderful work which you have done.

Although there is large number who are still in need of our help day after day. But we shall not care for all of them but God will direct us those who are ahead of us. Thank God for the love you have shown to us. We still have around 40 families who are still in total need, we visited last week . so we still pray for the brothers and sisters to help with anything which God has granted in your hands.

Here are pictures of some of the people that have been touched by your generosity:

Please pray with them if Father lays them on your heart. And, if any of you want to help us help them on a financial level, 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 and every dime sent to us will go out for relief in this Kenyan crisis.

Or, if you prefer, you can also send a check to Lifestream • 7228 University Dr. • Moorpark, CA 93021. And if you send us a check, please email me and let me know it is coming so we can wait to do the funds transfer when all is accounted for.

In closing, I have got one extra treat for you today. If you want to see what warmed my heart this past weekend, take a look at this!

During my recent trip through the Carolinas I met hundreds of people hungering to live in the reality of Jesus. We had all kinds of conversations with people all over the spectrum of expressions of church life. As part of my time in Charlotte, I was asked if I could meet the family of a man Sara and I met in New Zealand three years ago. He has a daughter, son-in-law and eight grandchildren there. We made arrangements to meet at his office, in the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. We were going to get a tour and go out to lunch.

Unfortunately the man who arranged it all had to cancel because of sickness in his family. But he wanted us to take the tour anyway, so my hosts and I did. We got the full tour around the place, which is an incredibly opulent facility in Charlotte. Later, we also toured the Billy Graham Museum (pictured at left). As many of you know, I’m not at all convinced we should glorify a man like the world does especially when the life it celebrates was mostly about Jesus and his kingdom. I’m glad we don’t have the Apostle Paul Museum for instance. It might be interesting, but it gives glory to the wrong thing, doesn’t it? That’s not to say Billy Graham has done some incredible things and maintained a life of integrity in a time when such seems to be in short supply with those who are in the big spotlights.

In any case, back to my tour in the offices themselves. At one point we were in the photography library when one of their workers asked if we’d attended any of his crusades. When I told her I had gone forward as a nine-year-old boy at the Billy Graham crusade in Fresno, CA in 1962, she told me she might have a picture of that. Sure enough, she found a photo (see below) of the end of one of those evenings in Fresno.

As I recall my dad was an usher, way up at the top of the tall bleachers on the right hand side. It’s amazing how vivid the memories of that night still are.

Forty-six years ago, who would have known what Father had in mind for me? I remember wanting to go forward the first night of the crusade, but my dad thought I was too young. The second night I was so overcome during the invitation that my dad said it must be time. Having grown up around the Gospel all my life, I know I believed in him before that night. But that was my first willful act to give my life to him.

Tomorrow I turn 55. What a journey it has been! Who knows what still lies in store in unfolding days to come. I’ve never regretted selling out my life to Jesus at a young age. Certainly I had no idea what it meant at the time, and how much I would be stretched at times to stay true to that decision. But I have never wavered in my passion to know him and my willingness to follow him even if that meant I had to disappoint others who didn’t like or agree with what I felt he asked of me. But in the end, right or wrong, I kept trying to follow him even when it cost me.

And I’ve no doubt I’ll continue on that journey to the end of this age and through the ages beyond. It’s been fun to reflect back on my childhood, the choices I made in the face of how he made himself known to me. I’m so grateful we connected early and often.

And I want nothing less for you too! Blessings!

A couple of nights ago a few of us were talking in a home outside Charlotte, NC about giving, and how we can live it out more relationally rather than paying an obligation many people call a tithe. Someone brought up something they had seen a couple of days before—a single mom confronted with a need for car repairs she couldn’t afford. He thought of helping, but had no idea what to do. We talked about possible options of helping people just like that as we cross them in our lives.

Just yesterday, I got the following email from him. It’s amazing what Father does, isn’t it?

At the beginning of this year I asked the Lord to show me what it means for Him to be my Daddy. I wanted to experience His love in the way that I knew He wanted for me. I didn’t know what that meant really. I just wanted more than I was experiencing. A month later I was sharing this desire to know God as my Daddy with two close friends. Immediately they looked at each other and said, in unison, “The Shack.” They gave me a copy that they, by pure coincidence, happened to have with them. I devoured it in two days.

Approximately two weeks later, I left the ministry in a fit of what I’ll call disgust. I immediately went to my friend who gave me So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore. I cannot express to you how Father used that book to change my life.

I now believe that Father has answered my request to know Him as my Daddy. I could really relate to the great sadness that Mack experienced. I have experienced a similar thing myself for most of my life. Even though I know I have a long way to go, I have peace. I know that Father is at work in my life. My wife has seen the difference in me. I am excited about my growing love relationship with Father. Thank you for allowing Him to speak through you so clearly and with such love.

I wanted to share something else with you. Do you remember me talking about a lady at the car dealership who was upset because her repair was more than she could afford?

On Wednesday, I took my wife’s van to get the oil changed at the Chrysler dealership. I was in the waiting room when the service manager came in. He sat down next to a lady and began to talk to her. I didn’t hear what he said, but I saw tears welling up in her eyes. I heard her say, “Oh no! I don’t have that much money.” The two of them got up and went into the service area. I immediately said a prayer for her. A few minutes later, she walked past the waiting area with tears streaming down her face. I didn’t get to say a word to her.

She was on my mind the rest of the day and night. As I prayed for her, the Lord clearly told me to “meet her need.” Not knowing what that need was, I went to the dealership yesterday morning and asked. She needs a total rebuild of her transmission. I gave the service manager my name and phone number and asked him to have her call me.

An hour later, she called. We have since had 3 wonderful conversations about God, how much He loves her and how He wants to have an intimate, loving relationship with her. There is no way for me to be able to express what took place during those calls. I can share with you that she told me that she has no family to turn to except for an aunt who has yet to return her call. She has no way to meet this need. Wednesday night she cried until she had no more tears. At some point, she look down at her wrist where she saw the bracelet a friend had given her. This bracelet said, “Miracles Happen.” She tore the bracelet off and threw it on the floor thinking to herself, “I don’t think so.” All I can say is that a woman who thought God had abandoned her now knows that He really does love her.

Anyway, I wanted to share that with you because you had a part in it. As a result of the truth you share, I am experiencing Father’s love and that love is beginning to spill out onto those around me.