Every day this week I started with the intention of writing a post for this blog about Communion and how it can be the focus of our life as a community of Jesus people, but the days have been so filled with the tyranny of the urgent that I haven’t gotten to it yet. Bummer!

All of this was refreshed in me as my friend Bob Stamps came out for a few days to get my help on a book he’s writing about the Lord’s Supper and how the early believers celebrated it—so very different from what it has become today. I have never thought that our preferences about music styles or teachers we like to hear would never be enough to bring the family together. In fact music styles wouldn’t even bring my own family together. I doubt my family could choose any kind of concert that we’d all want to go to hear.

The only thing we can gather around is him, and one of the key places he promised his presence is when he sits down at table with us and there we encounter the Risen Christ as our forgiver, reconciler, Lord, healer, friend and older brother and by engaging him together we come away transformed. But at this meal we can all come and be enriched by him and our celebration of the larger family to which he’s joined us. Wow, we’ve missed something here…

I have more to share here, but I’m off to Alaska in an hour or so to spend the weekend with some newfound friends. If you haven’t heard our interviews with Bob Stamps at The God Journey, they focus a bit on refreshing our heart in the Lord’s Supper and how we can share it together with grace and reality. Blessings all!

I’ve got some things I’ve been trying to write for this blog space, but have been too busy yet to get them done. I am thrilled, however, that The Shack is out and people are having so much fun with it.

And I like how compelling it is for people who just see the cover or hear about it from someone else. Someone I was with in Kansas City recently just sent this to me:

I am almost done with The Shack, I will finish it tonight. Two things I am learning about reading The Shack in public places.

1) People will always ask you what you are reading and what it is about. So don’t expect to get a lot of reading done. Do, expect many interruptions and some fantastic conversations.

2) People do not understand why you are crying your eyes out while you are reading the book.

This book should come with a warning:

Warning: This book will change your heart. Read at your own risk!

I also found out that a well-known TV actress received a copy the other day. A friend of mine was with her and she was lamenting the lack of quality, thought-provoking writing from serious Christians today. My friend asked her to wait a moment, went to his car and pulled out a copy of THE SHACK to give her. I hope she reads it!

Oh, and one more…

I finished The Shack late Monday. It has really been working on me, kind of like your books! I already can see reading it again sometime if I can pry it out of someone else’s hands… And I find myself going back to various scenes with the God-characters in my mind. Very unlike many movies or TV shows that I promptly forget, and could even watch again and not know what was going to happen. This book definitely got under my skin, in a very good way. All the experiences with God really has given me heightened attentiveness to how God comes to me, in my life. Thank you for turning us on to this book!

You can order your copies here.

The thanks just keep rolling in… We were finally able to get The Shack into people’s hands in the last few weeks and have been blessed by the comments we’re hearing from people who are reading it. Some are reading it in less than a day, as I did in my first read, but also realize there is so much more to go back and mine in subsequent readings.

If you want to order your copy, you might get it done this week. Postage rates (both domestic and international) rise significantly next week and our shipping costs will have to increase accordingly. That goes for all other other books and CDs as well. Gosh, I hate how postage keeps rising while their service diminishes. (And for all you postal workers out there, please don’t take that personally!)

Here are some of the comments I’ve been getting from people about The Shack:

From a 18 year old in California: “I loved it. It kept catching me off guard. I never expected anything to turn out as it did.”

From Kent in Missouri: “The main story was so compelling the first time through I just couldn’t put it down. The second time through, what I would call the hiddeness of the book just grabbed me. The third time something new and different. When you get it into your hands, I encourage you to read it many times. This is not a one-time read and it will be forever a part of who I am.”

From Jim in Washington: “I just breezed through the best Christian fiction book I have ever read over this weekend. It is called The Shack, by William P. Young. The book is heavy-laden with meaning, with the power of forgiveness, and with focus on the real meaning of life.

From Rick in Tennesse: All I can say is WOW! It is a bit unbelievable that y’all were able to put all this into one book (and I’m just now getting to chapter 13). I can’t begin right now to tell you my story, but suffice it to say, this book has poured gasoline on the fire that burns inside me for just a loving relationship with Father. I have listened to you and Brad now for a couple of years, but Father has been lovin’ me into freedom for a long time, I’m just now beginning to see what He has been doing (I am a stubborn old, or rather young, sheep). Thank you for all that you have done with the podcasts, the transitions series, the Jake book. Father has truly used them to show me that I really never knew Him. But now I see Jesus…

Awesome! I love what this little book has done to engage people with God and help share him with others. We’ve heard from people who have found it very easy to talk about this book with others and to give them a copy, even if they aren’t believers. It is THAT kind of book.

On a related note, Brad and I will be interviewing the author for our 5/18 podcast. If you have any thing you’d like me to ask him, please send email me today.

Some of my dearest friends, Kevin and Val Smith of Lancefield, Victoria, Australia are on a round-the world trip to encourage brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. That’s them at right. They have been close friends to Sara and me over the past 12 years and we count it a joy to touch base with them wherever Father arranges it in the world. They have a marvelous grasp on what it means to live in the Father’s care and how the body of Christ can live as his family in the earth. Kevin has co-authored a few BodyLife articles with me and we have been greatly enriched and encouraged on this journey by the two of them.

On this trip they will be staying with and fellowshipping among some of our dear friends as well. If you live anywhere near this itinerary, I know some days and times are being planned for people to get together and celebrate the life of Jesus. If you’d like to join in at a location near you, please get in touch with them for further details about when and where people will be getting together. You can also contact the designated people below for certain locales. I promise, you won’t be disappointed.

May 25-28 Moorpark, CA (Contact Me)
May 31-June 4 Sacramento CA (Contact David)
June 6- 8 Washington DC
June 11-16 Auburn, MA
June 23-July 1 Dublin, Ireland
July 11-13 Southampton, England
July 19- 24 Usk, Wales
Aug 1-6 Perth, Scotland
Aug 8-12 Frankfurt Germany
Aug 15-20 Chennai India

I’m back from the heartland. Awesome time with tons of people! I’m so blessed and exhausted. I also got to go to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library in Springfield, Illinois as I pass through. That place is incredible. If you live or go anywhere near there, you might want to plan a trip to that locale. There are some awesome technical displays to help tell that story.

I also returned to a very caustic letter from an angry pastor who thinks I’m the anti-Christ for writing Why I Don’t Go to Church Anymore. He accused me of some pretty ugly stuff, in belittling terms. I’ll spare you the details. Actually, my heart really goes out to the brother. I remember feeling like he does now. He has a great passion for God, but can’t see beyond the little knothole he’s known all his life.

As I read it, it reminded me how I used to feel about truth. Somehow when you’re caught up in religion, truth seems the least desirable thing on the planet and you have to attack everything and everyone one that disagrees with you. But when you discover that the life of Jesus is the pearl of great price, you don’t have to attack anything else. Just let people know how real Jesus wants to be in them.

But I also got a letter today from a brother in Alberta, Canada. I love what he wrote:

We are discovering quite by accident that as we keep Jesus centre, He raises up folks to function in specific leadership functions when they are needed. If we need hospitality, folks with that gifting take leadership. When we need pastors, folks with those gifts take leadership. It seems Holy Spirit raises up the right gift at the right time to provide leadership for whatever He wants to accomplish. Everyone gets to play!

This drives my professional pastor friends crazy!!! “What about order? What about accountability?” “You can’t build a church like that!”. That’s my point exactly! We don’t build the Church—Jesus does. When you don’t have something to build, control or to protect, it really frees folks to be who God created them to be and the freedom to step out and use gifts they have been given as He leads them to.

I love that part of not having something to build, control or protect. Then we really do get to be what God made us to be, and not what any institution needs us to be! So cool!

I am having a blessed time moving through the heartland this week. I was in Kansas City over the weekend with a broad smattering of different believers talking about this journey. I met some incredible people and hope I was helpful in encouraging others on this journey of living more deeply in the life of God every day. He has provided us an incredible life in him and we often trade that way for simply keeping religious rituals and trying meet the expectations of others who think that being a good Christian means that we keep certain rules instead of knowing God intimately.

Catching up on some email today, I got a great question from someone in Japan that I get asked a lot:

I don’t *think* God wants us to live under the favor line, but where does “obedience” fall into a favor-line-free relationship? In the Bible, God is shown as one who punishes disobedience among His people, Ananias and Sapphira is a New Testament image, and in Deuteronomy He certainly seems to warn His people that He’ll destroy them if they don’t obey Him in certain areas like shunning idolatry. Although He loves us, He still *seems* to be a Father who punishes disobedience. Can you shed some light here? I’d appreciate it.

I think my response to him might also be helpful for many others who struggle with this same issue. Here’s what I wrote: As to your question, I don’t know that I can do it justice in an email. Unfortunately this is a poor medium for sorting out such theological intricacies. Suffice it to say that Romans 8:15 makes clear that the God who in the Old Testament demanded our obedience under threat of punishment, has now in Christ sought to win our obedience through engaging us by his love and affection. God has not changed, but his ability to deal with our sin at the cross changes the way he relates to us. Now he is not our terrifying judge, but our loving Abba… And when I learn to live in that love I will find myself following him freely—the righteousness that trust produces—far more than fear would ever take me.

Read Hebrews 3 and 4 carefully and you will see that the problem in the Old Testament was never disobedience, it was the unbelief that caused the disobedience. Disobedience was only the symptom; unbelief was the disease. As Father wins us to himself through is love, our trust in him as our Father will grow. As our trust in Father grows, our sin gets displaced and we find ourselves truly living in the righteousness that comes from faith. People who live this way risk far greater obediences than those who are just afraid of being punished.

Does God punish us today? Not in the way most people think of it. Hebrews says he disciplines us, which means to train us to follow his ways. This training can be hard at times and even painful, but its purpose is not to punish us for doing wrong, but to help us learn how to live in the world as Jesus did, free from the tyranny self so that we could do what Father wants instead of being seduced by our own indulgences.

I guess the best way to say it is that the New Testament doesn’t change the goal of bringing us into God’s holiness, but it certainly changes the process. He always knew that his love being made real in us through the work of the cross, would change us far more deeply and far more completely than the law and its punishments ever could.

I know that may sound impossible for someone who has never tasted of this incredible process. The rules look far safer, but they are not. God has superseded them with a much better way to actually lead us into his life and our transformation from the bondage of sin…

Tomorrow I leave for the heartland with a stop this weekend in Kansas City, then Monday and Tuesday I’ll be in St. Louis, Wednesday in Springfield, IL and in the Quad Cities area of Iowa over the following weekeknd. I’ll be hanging out with some old friends meeting some new ones and might even get a game of golf in.

There are a number of upcoming opportunities, for people to gather from a broad region in some of my upcoming travel. If you live in or near any of the following places and want to join in, please email me for contact information.

• May 17-20: Palmer, AK
• May 20-22: Anchorage, AK
• June 15-17: Bournemouth, UK
• June 18-19: Holland (tentative)
• June 23-July 1: Dublin, Ireland
• July 20-23: Stratford, Ontario, Canada
• August 17-19: Lake Tahoe, NV

In addition, I’m going to be hosting two gatherings in the Southern California area. One will be the first weekend in May as an old friend and long-time colleague is visiting from the east coast. He has as good a grasp on the gospel of grace and the place of Scripture as anyone I’ve met. We’ll open up our home on Friday night or Saturday night for those who would like to glean from the wisdom in his life. Date will depend on who wants to come and when they’re free. Contact me if you’re interested.

Then, on Memorial Day Weekend Sara and I will be hosting long-time friends and a co-writer with me on some BodyLife articles, Kevin and Val Smith from Australia. We’re planning a Sunday get-together for folks in the area who would like to discuss the journey living in the Father’s affection and as the New Testament family with any who want to come. Again, please let me know if you are interested and we’ll schedule it on Saturday or Sunday depending on the availability of those interested.

One of the running jokes in our family is that you have to get my attention around the house before you can talk to me. Sometimes I’m so deep in thought about something or other that I tune out every other noise in the room. My wife and kids have learned to get my attention before talking to me. Oh, I hear their voices, they just don’t register. I only know some one’s talking to me when the room grows strangely silent and I look up to see people looking at me waiting for a response. But, not having heard the question, I have no idea how to respond.

Well, Aimee is starting to learn that about me as well. My daughter and granddaughter were over for dinner the other night because dad was away on business. Aimee is at the age now (two and a half) where she is just loads of fun. I was hanging out with her in the front room while Sara and Julie were busy in the kitchen. When it came time for me to start the grill, I told Aimee I’d be back and left the room. I was already thinking about something else when I saw Sara and Julie walk out of the kitchen with disapproving eyes looking in my direction. “You can’t hear that?” my wife asked.

Oops! Come to think of it I had heard some yelling in the back of my mind somewhere. “She’s been yelling ‘Grandpa, wait’ over and over again.” I turned and there was Aimee with sad eyes, completely bewildered as to why I hadn’t responded to her. Bummer! I gotta listen better and not so quickly shift gears into something that’s rattling around in my brain. I went back and made amends to Aimee and then took her outside with me, saddened that I had not responded when she called to me.

As I got the grill ready, I heard a faint chuckle in the back of my heart. “Wow! I know how that feels!”

Instantly I knew. How many times is the Spirit yelling, “Wayne, wait!” when I’m off to follow some passionate idea of mine or some busy plan of mine. It was a gentle rebuke, but a great reminder for me. I really do have to listen better. I don’t want Aimee or God feeling neglected because my mind is too preoccupied to hear them. And that goes double for Sara!

Finally! I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve spent on this amazing piece of fiction in the past 16 months, from rewrites to edits to layout and design to putting up the website, but the finish line is in sight. I can’t wait to share this book with so many of you whom we’ve tortured over the last year by talking about a book few of you could actually read. Well, we’re about to fix that.

As I write this, the books are being printed about 25 miles from my study. We should have them in hand to send out even before our May 1, 2007 pre-publication date. We’re doing two releases on this book to help us generate some buzz that might encourage bookstores to carry this book. As you know we did not go with a regular publisher here because some of the Christian publishers we talked to wanted to change the most powerful parts of this story and secular publishers thought the plot was too ‘Jesusy’ for them! So, we’re depending on viral marketing, word of mouth and ultimately a work of the Spirit to take this book as far and wide as he desires.

Many people I’ve discussed this book with cast a suspicious glance when they think I am talking about Christian fiction. And I understand why. I read very little Christian fiction because most of the plots are too predictable, the answers very religious and the characters often one-dimensional with plastic answers for life’s difficult challenges. This is NOT that book. In fact when many of those I talked into reading it, finished with it they wanted 10 or 20 more copies for their friends and family.

When I first read The Shack it reminded me of a young Lewis or Tolkien, and I realize that is high praise indeed! I’ve now read it seven or eight times and I love what this book says about the God I love so deeply!

If you’d like to pre-order a copy you can do so now at the Lifestream Book Page. You’re also welcome to vist TheShackBook.com where you can sample a couple of chapters and find out what others who’ve pre-screened this book have to say about it. I just got another one today by Bart Campolo, Founder of Mission Year, who wrote:

My biggest disappointment with Christian books is that almost all of them seem to say the same things in the same way. Not so with The Shack! It reads like no other book, and tells a story I guarantee you have not heard before. Enjoy the adventure!

Even you are even one tenth as blessed by this book as I have been, you’ll still consider it money well spent. And when you read it, I’d love to hear how it touched your life too.

I got this email yesterday and it is one I get a lot from people who are trying to rethink the nature of sanctification outside the religious process of setting expectations and trying to coform people to them. I don’t that that’s exactly what this brother was asking, but it does invite that deeper dialog.

Does God change us by setting a standard and holding us to account, or has he prepared a better way for us? Here is the question that got this rolling in my mind:

I’m confused as to how to distinguish between what you call “performance-based establishments” and churches with biblical expectations. The scripture clearly lays out some expectations for overseers and deacons (as just one example), but of course these expectations shouldn’t be interpreted as a reflection upon earning one’s salvation. Isn’t there a way to maintain the biblical expectations for the church without undermining the truth of grace in salvation?

‘Expectations’ isn’t one of my favorite words. It kind of reverses the process by which transformation takes place, though I realize you might be using it in a wholly different context than I hear it.

In my mind ‘performance-based establishments’ use guilt and pressure to conform people’s behavior. I think Galatians is makes it clear that this process isn’t necessarily evil, it just doesn’t work. The law may get people to ACT different in the short term, but it cannot transform them from the inside. Elsewhere Pauls says law only adds to our sin by increasing our temptation and multiplying our shame.

On the other hand nonperformance-based environments will extend people the authentic grace of Jesus as it invites them into a relationship with him that will transform them from the inside. So while the goal is still the same—being transformed into his image—the process is vastly different. And they wouldn’t see the attributes of an elder in Timothy and Titus to be an expectation to perform to, but the fruit of God’s transformation evidenced in their daily lives. Remember, the ‘elders’ in Ephesus and Crete didn’t have those lists BEFORE they were ‘appointed’ by Timothy and Titus. This was not something they tried to live up to, but rather what had become true of them out of their relationship with him.

Thus a performance-based environment will be one where people feel they have to pretend, are looked down upon when they don’t measure up, and usually picks on the obvious sins of sexual brokenness or the obvious failures that impact the institution, such as giving and attendance. But they ignore the weightier issues of spiritual arrogance, greed and gossip. Nonperformance-based environments encourage people to be authentic even in their doubts and struggles realizing that it is only Jesus who change us and thus none of us end up with anything to boast about, nor to look down on others…

If we introduce people to the living Jesus, we don’t need to “maintain biblical expectations without undermining the truth of grace. They will WANT to be like him and as they learn to live loved and love, they will keep the entire law. I don’t think the new covenant changed the outcome God wants in us, but id did change significantly our perception of the process.