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I get asked all the time what books helped me on my journey and which would I recommend to others. I’ve had a page on my site for a long time that was meant to answer that but it had gotten horribly outdated with the passage of time. I’ve just updated my Recommended Reading page with those books that have been most valuable to me. Don’t think that just because a book isn’t listed there that I didn’t like it or having some concern about it. It may just be that I haven’t read it. But of those I have read, here’s my list of the best books that help people explore this journey. Happy reading!

I’ll let Dan, a friend of mine from Kansas City do the heavy lifting today. Here’s what he sent me this morning and I loved his thoughts on freedom and Christmas letters!

This time of year we receive many of the Christmas letters from friends and family recounting the year’s busyness and major accomplishments. It seems everyone’s ordered lives are perfect – but hectic – very, very hectic. The letter I would really like to get from each of them would be a recount of this past year and the walk with Father, the things He is teaching them and how they are different because of them. I wondered if I was to write that kind of letter, what would I put in it about the past year’s journey? I think the key word throughout the letter would be “freedom”.

It would be two kinds of freedoms. Freedom from and freedom to. Freedom from the many structures, systems and understandings that limited Father in my life. After 35 years of following a system, believe me, I had a bunch. Layer on top of layer.

But the years real excitement and joy came from “Freedom To…”. Freedom to enjoy Him unobstructed. Freedom to enjoy Him in others without denominational lines. Freedom to love the people in front of me each day as Father gives them, with no agenda for them. Freedom to consider an alternative thought, thanks to you and Brad and Kent. Freedom to be his son.

I love that. Freedom is never freedom if it is just a reaction to something else. It really takes on depth when it allows us to live as God’s kids in the earth without expectation or agenda.

And here are two fun things!

Todd, a God Journey listener from the Phoenix area wrote song, inspired a bit by some of my writings along with Jim Palmer’s and Bill Dahl, called Mr. Nobody! It’s quite a catchy tune with a powerful message. You can listen to it here.

Finally, many of you ‘met’ my daughter Julie when she worked for us over the last two years handling book orders and other office items. She’s ‘retired’ now after the birth of her second child. If you’d like to share her joy (along with Sara and mine) she just uploaded a new view gallery of pictures of those lovely two girls. It’s the Kodak site, so if you don’t have an account they make you sign up. But it is free if you want to have a peak at our Christmas joy this year! These are some lovely photos.

I hesitate to post this because I know just about everyone on the planet knows of a sure cure for cancer from eating tree bark, to drinking some kind of reconstituted seed, to visiting clinics in foreign countries. Every time I mention that someone I know is dealing with cancer I get a pile of referrals, all guaranteed to work with anecdotal evidence to back it up. Cancer patients tell me it is one of the most frustrating aspects of dealing with well-intentioned people while you’re also trying to deal with the disease and treatment. People who are desperate are sitting ducks for every expensive procedure and false hope to cure the disease. So I am going to ask that no one fill the ‘comments’ section with more of those cures, and if they do then for those who are dealing with cancer, feel free to ignore them. Please. On both counts!

But I have to share this email exchange with you. Dave Coleman, a close friend of mine who was my partner on the SO YOU DON’T WANT TO GO TO CHURCH ANYMORE project, received a letter from a young couple who are facing a crisis. The sought out Dave for help and, as you will see, could not have approached a better person:

My wife of 23 years was diagnosed with colon cancer. She is recovering from surgery and we are waiting to start the chemo/radiation adventure (mid December). When my wife was in the hospital I had several panic attacks and became so worried about the situation that I almost ended up in the emergency room myself. It seem after years of being a Christian, I am totally unequipped to face the emotional trials and feelings that come with pain, suffering and mortality issues. I guess that I’m just afraid. Afraid for my wife, afraid for my children afraid for me. I am trying to pray and meditate on scripture and it works at times, but I do have an hunger for peace in Christ.

Here is Dave’s reply in its totality. In my estimation you will not read better counsel to deal with any devastating calamity in this age, whether it be cancer, loss of a job or something else. Dave not only acted as a hospice chaplain for over 10 years, but as you’ll see has engaged this same kind of cancer, albeit at a more advanced stage in his own life:

I don’t know if Wayne told you or not, but next month (Jan. ’08) I will officially become a Cancer Survivor. In 2003 they found a large Colorectal tumor which was advanced Stage IV. They wouldn’t even operate on me here, but fortunately there were two doctors in the country who would attempt it—one on the East Coast and one at USC. I went thru all the hoops with severe complications requiring an additional 5 surgeries, etc. Won’t bore you with the details and my only reason for mentioning it is to say that colon cancer is not the end of the world—though a battle, to be sure. I want to encourage your wife and yourself, and perhaps share a positive thought or two.

The main thing of course is prayer. Just accept the illness and offer yourself to God, for He alone is the One who does all things well. Go through all the chemo/radiation, etc. but relax with it. Get to know people, share with them. I had some great times in the chemo room, and met some fantastic folks along the way.

An illness such as this is a tremendous opportunity to grow in the Lord. Sometimes though, we panic, and believe the statistics, etc. which has a way causing a certain amount of futility. “What’s the use?” we think. In my ten years as a Hospice Chaplain, the one thing I noticed about all of the patients was that they had given up. The attitude of a cancer patient and family must simply be, “Let’s see what God has for us in all of this.” I am not talking about whistling in the dark. I am talking about spiritual reality. As Jesus said, “God knows all these things that you have need for.” He knows what is going on and He loves us so deeply. He wants us to know that and that is the key. He is not out to, get us.

Sometimes, though, we have a tendency to panic. Why? If we really understand ourselves deeply, the bottom line in all of our personalities is our deep-seated desire to be in control. This to me is the basic meaning of what the Bible calls sin. We want to have everything run smoothly in order to look good, and when it doesn’t, we feel threatened and when we are threatened we get scared (afraid) and that moves us into anger, which causes panic, anxiety and/or depression, etc. The opposite of love is control (fear). There is no fear in love, because perfect love cast out fear, writes the apostle. God is constantly at work conforming us to His image (the outward expression of an invisible reality). So that like Jesus told the disciples, “He who has seen me, has seen the Father.” So often rather then to accept what God is doing, we have been taught the ‘principles’ of how to get from God whatever you want. And we forget that if God is love. He doesn’t control us and we, in turn, cannot control Him. He is there to see us through, and bring us into a deeper awareness of who He really is, and not what we want Him to be, which of course is far better. Allow your wife’s illness to bring you closer together in your family and of course closer to Father. You have been and will continue to be in our prayers on your behalf. Again, there is no need for fear, for the many reasons all ready mentioned, and also because being uptight (stress) just knocks out our immune system and destroys the healing qualities of our body.

I remember about 6 days after my major surgery, the Dr. said that I was not healing as fast as he would like. Why? I asked, “Well, he said, the immune system is trying to deal with all of the pain medication that you are receiving, so that your healing is slowed down to a crawl.” Pull the needle out, I said, and in a few days, I was on my way home. Painful? You bet, but necessary for healing. There is an old Gaelic blessing that goes, “May you have the commitment to heal what has hurt you, to allow it to come close to you and in the end, to become one with you.” Don’t run away from this. It will be the biggest blessing in your lives.”

In His Peace, Dave and Donna

You gotta read this! This came in my inbox this morning as a question. But as you’ll see only a brief answer was needed. You can throw out all your books on ‘covering’ or the lack thereof. This young mom from Central California gets to the heart of it in one simple paragraph!

Do you think Adam and Eve’s need for physical covering is the same need the people of Israel experienced in their desire for Moses as mediator between them and God? The people of Israel, full of sin, thus shame, felt they needed something (or someone) between them and God. Is it this shame, which we religiously call a “covering” that keeps us from being in true relationship with a God we don’t yet understand? I had never considered that in Adam & Eve’s covering, they were inhibiting a transparent relationship with God and each other. In which case, is it possible that a jargon like, “you need to be under a spiritual covering” is nothing more than a manipulative statement meant to scare us into believing God is full of wrath and we are sinful, so stay covered! Is a “covering” not a place of safety after all, but a place of hiding and in reality- bondage? Does our current Christian culture’s concept of “covering” (nice alliteration, huh?), parallel Israel in their fear and shame? Could it be God desires for us to throw off our “covering” and begin real relationship?

All I have to add is, “YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! And YES! You’ve got it, Sis, on all counts!”

The cross was about God blowing up our need for a covering by resolving our shame in himself. If people really lived in that reality, they would find all this talk of a need for covering to be absolutely irrational. Covering from what? God? The one I want to know and the one who knows me at the core of my being.

What do you do when your children don’t understand? I often get emails from parents of older children, who do not understand why their parents no longer attend the religious services they made the children attend when they were younger. Some are curious, but I get lots of email from those whose kids are deeply confused, fearing their parents have fallen away from Christ. Some have even threatened to withhold their grandchildren from their parents for fear they will lead them astray somehow. “What should we do?” they ask.

I just tell them to love them right back. Don’t get angry or defensive, just keep opening your hearts to them trusting that your relationship with them some day will overrun their fears and apprehensions. It would be nice if we could go back and re-train our kids, but once they’ve become adults, they will resent attempts they perceive are manipulative.

A couple of days ago I got an email from one of those adult children who had had a hard time with their parents’ journey… for a time! But God has ways of sorting these things out. I have corresponded with the parents in the past so it was fun to hear from their daughter:

I grew up in a small town in the southwest where my parents gracefully raised me and home schooled me and my brothers through high school. Through my growing up years I was raised as a run-of-the-mill Christian, who attended a small non-denominational group of believers where I grew accustomed to their rules and regulations. I attended this place up until I was in college where I started attending another non-denominational congregation. I met my husband there and dated him for three years. We attended this place, and made long lasting relations with these brothers and sisters.

Meanwhile, back home my parents stopped attending and started this other profound way of living for Father. My mom talked a lot about your blog and podcasts, but at the time it never quite registered. Quite frankly, I was shocked and amazed that my parents were doing the exact opposite of what they taught us kids growing up. It was hard to fathom that this type of lifestyle, not going to a congregation, and following all the rules, was okay with God.

A couple months after attending our new fellowship in Denver, my husband one day woke up on a Sunday morning, and said, “We don’t need to go today”. And that is how it all started. At first, I was quite happy not having to get up so early on a weekend day to attend a large group of people, but as time went by, about 6 to 8 months later, my relationship with Father started developing in a more natural form than what I have ever experienced before.

I began to listen more, started finding myself in Father and was finding out what Father wanted from me. He wanted my heart, and that was it, nothing more just my heart. I thought for the longest time that as long as I lived up to others expectations and thought that they were coming from God, I was ok. And as long as I used my gifts and read my Bible every single day for at least 30 minutes, I was in the Lord’s will. But, instead of all that nonsense, he just wanted my heart, and he wanted me for himself. Once I grasp how easy Father was and how complicated everybody around me made him out to be, life became lighter and less demanding and all that was missing was knowing that Father was an gentle God who just wanted to love me. That is when I started getting to know my father more intimately than I have ever experienced before.

That is where I am today thanks to Father and the brothers and sister (my mom and dad, you, Brad, and people on the forum) that he chose to help me along the way. Just recently, Father has just opened the door for us to move back home close to our families and brothers and sisters. My husband, Jonathan and I are very excited for the move.

However, our friends back home know that we don’t attend any kind of congregation, but some don’t acknowledge that, and still try to put pressure on the subject of attendance. I am a little worried that the pressure will build more strongly once we are down there living day to day. My hope is to focus on our relationships with our brothers and sisters and develop them with Father, but how can we do that if they are so focused on the congregation and activities and things of that nature than on bonding and sharing life together like Jesus did with the disciples?

I love what God has done in this young woman and I’m sure her parents are elated to have their daughter finally appreciate and share their journey. And I love the gracious and God-focused heart it is all producing in her.

But now it comes full circle doesn’t it? The same concerns the parents had about their daughter, the daughter now has about her friends. She is realizing that there are others who may not approve of her journey and wondering how her relationships will work when she moves back to her home town. She also sees how the activities and busyness of congregational life can actually rob us of real relationships rather than promote them.

One of the worst things religion twists us to do is to try to make other see what we see. When we’re doing that we’re not just loving them where they are, but trying to get them to be where we are. That doesn’t lead to effective loving. In fact you’ll find people pushing you away, and even worse retreating into the defensiveness of their own bondage.

Perhaps the most difficult thing for us to learn is how to simply love people, being honest with them about the life Christ has shown us without trying to manipulate them. But that is the environment where the Holy Spirit works most easily to open people’s eyes. I know it takes a lot of trust in God’s ability to lay down our need to convince others that we’re right, but it is a big part of learning to live in his life and to share that life with others in a way that promotes his work in them.

I love those moments when God pulls back the curtain and I get to see what he has been shifting in my heart. I used to think most change came from hearing a new truth and applying it. I am increasingly discovering that real change comes from a relationship with him that changes the way I think about things, and thus the way I live. I almost recognize change after the fact. Sometimes that comes from being in a familiar circumstance, but finding that I’m not responding in the way I used to because I don’t have the same reactions or emotional triggers I had before. That’s fun!

And, because I’m a writer, sometimes I get to see that when people send me a quote of something they read of mine and I realize that’s not quite the way I think anymore. I had that happen this morning. Someone sent me an email quoting from THE NAKED CHURCH:

Much has been written in the last few decades about the church being an organism and not an organization. We are comfortable with that theology, but the models are hard to find…

They concluded their note with these words, “We continue to pray here for transformation and transformed models.

I had to chuckle when I read that. The one thing most folks don’t know about writing is that it is only a snapshot in time of the thoughts and experiences of the writer. If that writer continues to grow on, he may look back on some of his earlier words and phrasings that make him cringe, thinking he wouldn’t say it quite that way today. I always find that to be true, which is why I usually tinker with one of my books when I reprint them. I want to keep updating them to reflect my current thinking.

By the way, this is a good reason why we’re encouraged to follow Christ, not an author or a book! While either may be helpful to discover things God is doing in us, when we shift our focus from following him to implementing someone’s ideas in a book or even a seminar, we’ll find ourselves losing the vitality of his life in us. You cannot follow Jesus by following someone else’s idea of following Jesus. Hopefully the someone else’s in our life are helping us learn how to follow him.

Anyway, back to the point. Since my last rewrite of THE NAKED CHURCH in 1998, my thoughts have shifted yet again. When I read, ‘the models are hard to find..’ in that quote this morning, I laughed. Wow! I remember being there, in the desperate search for a model that would put this all together. Since, I’ve discovered the search is ill-fated. Jesus did not leave us with a model to implement, but his Spirit to guide us. Finding a model always suggests we’re replicating some THING instead of learning to live in someone.

Now, I’m not looking for models at all! If I wrote that line today, I’d probably say something like this:

“We are comfortable with that theology, and though the models may be impossible to find, examples of people living in the reality of the church are not. They exist all over the world as people who know how to love those God puts before them and to walk in concert with other believers on a similar journey as Jesus connects them.”

While I was praying and seeking for a model, I kept stumbling over people who were simply living the reality that I hungered for. And you know what? None of them were following a model. In fact a lot of them were disconnecting from models they had served fruitlessly most of their lives. And when I stopped looking for models, I found examples of people living in him everywhere!

My whole view of the church had shifted. I no longer see her as weak, corrupted and rare in the world, but strong, growing in purity and in every nook and corner of the world we live in. So perhaps instead of praying for ‘transformed models’, we can simply ask God to open our eyes to those who are simply living in the reality of his church—with a growing trust in the work of the Father and growing connections with others on a similar journey that allow the church to take shape in each locality and in each circumstance as he desires.

For those of you that have been waiting for THE SHACK in hardback, it is out today! And, do they look awesome! This edition has larger type and an appendix in the back entitled, “The Story Behind The Shack“. In it, the author, William “Paul” Young wrote it to tell how he came to craft this story, and how it came to be published by a circle of friends.

But shouldn’t the hardback version come out before the paperback? Well, that’s how most publishers do it, but we’re accidental publishers, remember? There is a larger profit margin in hardback books, which is why publishers do them first and then bring out the paperback version. We considered all that with the first printing, but our priority was to put this story in the hands of as many people as we could, and not worry about our profit margin. But so many people want to plow through this story again and again and take notes in the margin, that they asked us for something more permanent. That made sense to us so we ordered up a hardback printing for those who wanted it for their libraries, or those who wanted something more fancy to give as a gift. You can get it from us at Lifestream, or you can order it from the Windblown Media site.

I almost hated to post this today, because there’s been so much focus on THE SHACK here this week. I know some of you are loving the behind the scenes look and, yes, we’re having a lot of fun with what’s going on. But in the end, the book is still an ‘it.’ and I want most of our conversation to be filled with a HIM! This journey is not about books or publishing ventures, as fun as that might all be. It is about knowing him, about learning to live in the love of an awesome Father, and by living in him be transformed into his image.

He is still the reason I wake in the morning, and behind all that we do here. Don’t ever let your excitement (or even despair) over anyTHING going on in your life, ever trump the simple glory of living in him on this day! May he grow in you this weekend and may we all learn better how to yield to his ways!

Sara and I reading some of the key conversations in THE SHACK in the mornings as she gets ready to leave for work at 6:30. This morning, we came across this:

“McKenzie, even if you had been to blame, her love is much stronger than your fault could ever be.”

What a way to start the day! I must have missed this little nugget in the eight or nine times I’ve read through this book. Or, at least it didn’t hit me in the same way, because I don’t recall seeing it before. Sure it’s talking about a daughter’s love for her father, but doesn’t this also reflect the love the Father has for each of us? Isn’t that so often missed in our religious attempts to get people to feel guilty or to work harder?

God’s love is much stronger than our faults could ever be!

Think about that. There is no failure, no place of brokenness in our lives that can separate us from the love that is so much stronger, so much more fathomless than any of us can conceive today. If we really, truly knew that we would know how to simply live in him today and enjoy his presence with us! I’m pretty sure that’s all he wants.

I can hardly bear to think of climbing on an airplane any time soon. Don’t get be wrong. I love hanging out with people who are in various stages of sorting out this incredible journey in the life of Jesus, but I don’t enjoy all the airport crud you have to endure, or being away from home. Fortunately, I am in the midst of an extended stay at home to take care of a lot of other things and even do some writing.

I have the sense I’ll be doing less travel in 2008 because of other projects on Father’s heart here at home, including some a couple of books I’ve long held in my heart. And I’m sure THE SHACK will take an increasing amount of time as its influence grows. However, some trips are already starting to take shape fpr 2008. I just updated my travel page today with and thought I’d share it here for anyone who wants to plan to join us anywhere along the way:

January 25-28: Omaha, Nebraska
February 7-10: Washington, DC
February 17-22: Wichita, Kansas
February 22-24: Pratt, Kansas
March 7-17: North and South Carolina (tentative)
April 17-28: New England
June: Germany/Switzerland
July 9-11: Orlando, Florida

A letter we got last week about THE SHACK, said this: “(Your book) took me places I really did not want to go; but having made the journey, would not have missed it for the world.” What a great observation!

Doesn’t that describe the ways in which Father works. Follow your own agenda and desires and you end up shipwrecked in the consequences of your own selfish independence. Follow Father, even though it’s scary and uncertain, and you’ll end up smack dab in the middle of his life in situations beyond your wildest considerations! That expresses so well the last decade and a half of my life. God has put me in places I’d never choose to go, and then in the middle of it, he just overwhelms you with the wonder of himself!

Specifically that’s been true of this marvelous story called THE SHACK. I know some of you are probably tired of hearing about this book, but others have been praying with us about this over the past two years and are interested in the back story of this increasing tsunami! It is the craziest story I’ve ever been part of and now starting to draw some major attention. As many of you know this little book appeared in my inbox nearly three years ago. I loved it when I read it and encouraged the author to get it into print.

The author, Paul Young, didn’t want to do much with it. He’d written it for his kids and thought he’d share it with a few friends. But myself and others saw something in this story that begged to touch the world. Brad, my God Journey co-host, and I helped Paul ready the book for publication and I took it to a number of publishers with whom I’ve had working relationships. All turned it down for reasons I could not understand—until yesterday! In an exchange with a publisher on an unrelated matter, THE SHACK came up. This editor had been one of those to whom I’d submitted THE SHACK for publication. They had passed on it, and this was her explanation:

It’s tough to talk publishers into doing something unusual. I call it the Catch 22 of publishing. If somebody has done something like it, then we can’t do it. If nobody has done something like it, then we can’t do it. I’m speaking not just of of our house… but every house I know. Sometimes it takes the people closest to the project to launch it.

That explains a lot about the lack of creativity in Christian publishing today and why it has been so frustrating over the years to get them to think outside the box. Finally, as many of you know, Brad and I formed a publishing company,Windblown Media, and printed THE SHACK last May. What began as slow, lapping waves on the shore is now swelling into a rising tsunami. Here’s how one of the top media consultants in Christian publishing recently wrote this to Publisher’s Weekly:

I’m not sure if The Shack by William Paul Young is on your radar yet or not. It’s becoming an independent press (Windblown Media) runaway best-seller. Here’s the scoop:

Windblown did a soft-launch on May 1, 2007 just on their company website. They sold 10,000 (paperback) just on their website from May 1 to the end of August. It wasn’t on Amazon or in stores unless stores heard of the book from readers and ordered it through their site.

September 1st they hard launched at retail via Ingram for national distribution. They sold 22,000 copies from Sept 1 to the end of the first week of November. They just took delivery of a 50,000 third printing, and in two weeks have sold over 20,000 of that print run including orders for over 7,000 copies just yesterday.

They’ve ordered an immediate 4th printing of 25,000 to get them through Christmas. Windblown is also now launching the hardcover edition with a small 3,500 print run, available now for Christmas sales.

The cool news: They’ve spent only $200 on marketing. The rest is all word of mouth.

But there’s more. I got this report from my partner Brad today, who is the President of Windblown and the one behind order fulfillment:

As of December THE SHACK has jumped up to #19 of ALL books being sold at Ingram. We just beat out I AM LEGEND—that has $$millions of dollars ramping up their marketing machine. We’re just 5-6 steps down from THE SECRET, which was last year’s word of mouth phenomenon. There’s maybe only 4-5 paperback in the whole top 25—most Everything else is hardcovers.

Just today we sold over 12,000 books with new orders from major bookstore chains, who want to display it prominently on their front tables. One buyer asked us about our advertising campaign behind the book. We laughed. We can’t keep up with sales now, why would we advertise? Daily we hear from people who feel their spiritual lives have been rescued from anger, doubt and frustration toward God and renewed a relationship of love with him. We’re hearing from celebrities who love this book and are endorsing it to their fans. We’re hearing from theologians of every stripe, some who want to use the book in seminary classes on God and suffering. We’ve also been contacted by major movie studios about purchasing the movie rights. We’re not selling those, by the way. The dream from the beginning was to make this into a general-release feature film that would offer our culture a view of God that religion has totally obscured. It looks like now we’ll get that chance.

And we hear from authors who want to work with Windblown Media or those who want to know the ‘secret of our publishing success.’ We laugh. There is no secret. We did everything wrong with this book. We were just three brothers that wanted to take something we considered a gift from the heart of our Father and make it available to folks . The power of the story itself has swept people up with it. After reading it, many order cases to give to friends. So many people have blogged about it, and recommended it to their friends, that it just keeps growing by word of mouth.

It is all just beyond us to comprehend, and almost beyond us to keep up with it. To all those who have prayed with us, and helped pass it along, please know how deeply grateful we are for your participation in this process.

i know this is long, but it’s a story we wanted to tell. Remember the top-tier media consultant I referred to earlier, he wrote us a note last week that blew me away:

“Not by might or by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord.”
You may see this only once or twice in your lifetime.
It is unique, in the full sense of that word.

When I read that, I sat back overwhelmed. It’s true, you know. You couldn’t orchestrate something like this if you tried. And tere are hundreds of multi-million dollar publishers who try every year to do just that with all their demographic surveys and business expertise. This is not our deal. This is God’s gift. We’ve simply been asked to be it’s steward—keeping the message clear, the story available and our hands open before him. Which is what we’re trying to do!

When the idea of publishing this book ourselves came up, I was the one most dead-set against it. We’ll never be able to do it justice, I thought, and there were so many things we didn’t know about getting this book out there. Trying to find the time, the energy and the resources to do it, just wasn’t in my thinking. But one small, gentle step at a time, Father took me places I didn’t want to go.

And now, I wouldn’t trade it for the world!