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Someone from Alberta, Canada sent us these photos today. A few days ago he’d driven by a makeshift roadside memorial to a recent death on the highway. When he passed by it yesterday he noticed something had been added. Do you see it there on the post? Let’s zoom in by looking at the picture on the right. Someone had attached a copy of The Shack to the signpost near the accident.

That’s all we know. We have no idea who died there, who posted the book, or what is going on, but what a poignant statement. The mail we continue to get because of this little book is astounding.

One of the people really impacted by it is Wynonna Judd, the Country-Western recording artist. Here’s what she wrote:

“I received a copy of The Shack during a very difficult transition in my life. The story has blown the door wide open to my soul and during this time I’ve asked many questions. It reminds me that though I ask, ‘Why?, I know who is still in control.”

Just today I received this from a sister in South Carolina:

I’m half-way through The Shack and have been to Willie’s web site. I haven’t yet found the words to express how it has touched my heart. If only we were told of the inexplicable love of God when we were growing up, instead of the hell, fire, and brimstone so many of us were introduced to! When they taught us to sing, “Jesus loves me, this I know…” And we were like, “yeah, right!

And this from a South African couple who have recently re-located to England:

We really enjoyed our time with you in Bournemouth when you were out. We picked up a copy of The Shack that weekend and, man oh man, it was such a refreshingly different truth-injecting non religious read. I am busy giving it a second go due to the rich content that I seemed to have missed the first time round. We recently made a trip back to SA for a friend’s wedding and spent a lovely 2 weeks there. We took some copies of the book for people and the feedback has been really amazing.

Now I’ve got to get back to formating the hardback version for those who have requested copies that will be more permanent…

Sorry it has been so long again. My life is pretty crazy at this point. Only had 11 days between a trip to the East Coast and turning around to make my third trip this year into Canada, this one to British Columbia. And it’s been busy since we’re trying to get out a new hardback version of The Shack, for those who have been asking for a more permanent copy for their libraries.

I also got a shocking package in the mail Friday from an old publisher of mine. Thomas Nelson sent me a new copy of a Portuguese translation of In My Father’s Vineyard) (pictured at left, which is no longer in print in English). I had no idea this was even in process. This is the beautiful coffee table book that is now out of print. They did a beautiful job on the book. I miss the fact that we no longer have that available in English. It brought back so many rich images of growing up on my dad’s vineyard.

I had a great time with some old friends in upstate New York and down in central Pennsylvania. This trip produced some interesting conversations, some newfound friends and even defined some new terms. And in Pennsylvania, I picked up a new term for believers on this journey that we discussed on the last podcast. In case you missed it, I’ll fill you in here.

Someone was talking about a wine list they saw at a restaurant that was offering “free-range wine.” They were asking me what that was, knowing I’d grown up on a vineyard. The term really tickled me. According to Wikipedia “Free range is a method of farming husbandry where the animals are permitted to roam freely instead of being contained in any manner. The principle is to allow the animals as much freedom as possible, to live out their instinctual behaviors in a reasonably natural way…” I don’t know how you apply that to vines. We never had to cage them up in our vineyard because they weren’t ever trying to get away.

But as we talked about it, we thought what a great term it was for believers who are no longer a committed part of Sunday morning institutions. We haven’t left Christ. We’ve not lost our passion for the body, but many of us have found it far easier to grow and help others grow without all the overhead, machinery and rituals of organized religion. To some of us it was a cage that did not promote healthy spiritual growth, but actually stifled it by all the personal expectations and political necessities of an institution. Now, I know not everyone feels that way and many continue to find great life and growth in such places. If it is helping you know God better and live more deeply in him, good on you! But it is also fabulous that others are finding more opportunities for growth in the freedom from some of the restrictive realities of many of those institutions.

‘Free-range believers’ is a good way to say it. Now don’t worry. I’m not coining a term to identify a new movement or exploit a new market. I just think it’s a wonderful way to express what many of us are finding to be true—maybe we all don’t have to grow up in the same environment. What may be a joy for some can become a prison for others. And yet we are all believers still in this marvelous journey. Free-ranger believer. That has all the overlays of freedom and not growing being hyped up through artificial nutrition. As many write me, it certainly is not an easier way to live, but for many it is more real and more life-transforming.

Now I’m on my way to Canada again. There are so many wonderful people up there on an incredible journey and I’ve got a slew of people on this trip that I’ll be meeting for the first time. I love it up there. Not only are the people awesome, but so is the chicken at Swiss Chalet and the chocolate dessert at Kelsey’s. (I know, it’s not the best for me, especially after my check-up at the docs last week. It’s time to get serious about a few dietary essentials. Bummer!

One last thing. If you want a bit more of The Shack, check out Willies blog from this weekend. It’s an awesome story in the same vain, and with the same poignant wisdom! You will thank me!

I leave for 10-day trip to upstate New York and Pennsylvania tonight. It’s one of those all-nighters! A read-eye is definitely what it is for me, since I don’t sleep well on airplanes. But I am looking forward to joining the folks in Lowville, NY for a second time, and then head down for a school board convention in Pennsylvania for my BridgeBuilders work, before spending the weekend with old friends in the Harrisburg/Hershey area of PA!

Also I was contacted yesterday by someone needing help for a research project:

My name is Barb Orlowski. I am on the Doctor of Ministry program at A.C.T.S. Seminaries in Langley, B.C., Canada. In order to conduct the research necessary to complete my dissertation, I could use your help. I am conducting a survey among Christians who have experienced emotional and spiritual distress under authoritarian and controlling church leaders and have recovered from this experience. And, I am looking for pastors who have endeavored to provide spiritual guidance and help for people who have experienced emotional and spiritual distress under authoritarian and controlling church leaders and who have ceased to be associated with those congregations.

If you fit either of these two groups of people and would consider helping her on her research, please email her here for more information.

Finally, I wanted to leave you with another response to my recent article, Friends and Friends of Friends in the newest edition of BodyLife. This is an interesting way to approach the subject as well. If Jesus wanted us to organize his church into institutions, why did he not leave us a detailed plan for doing so? His Father did that in the Old Testament. This is what my friend Kevin posed:

You know God was able to give Moses some very specific instructions on how to build the tabernacle. If He had wanted to, He could have done the same quite easily in defining what were the important sacraments, what day of the week we should meet, and what were the 17 key points to have in our statement of faith. Instead “He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

With all that there were arguments and schisms in the NT church too. I guess many of Paul’s letters (those that survived and those that didn’t) addressed that.

So do you think we have been doing it all wrong for 1700 or so years now since Constantine?

I suppose the problem is that you can’t really define what is beyond definition in some sense. People want an ecclesiology that they can see, understand, control, or at least that is definitive, ordered, and structured in some sense. They see a pattern or system to everything in the created world and expect the same in the church. What you’re describing is far too dynamic. People want to see and know what their role is in all of this. After all these years, we still want a king of our own flesh, just like Israel and a defined kingdom. We want a simpler order, hierarchy, methodology, or system. The order within a fractal is too complex!

Anyway…just some thoughts. In some sense its very simple to grasp. In another, it’s way over our heads, and not wanted because it’s not within our control, nor does it have the appearance of order in a simple way.

I do think it is our need to control that causes us to gravitate toward human systems to somehow define or contain the body of Christ in a way we think we can manage. Such exhausting work! And I don’t think it took Constantine to do it for us. We have a track record in the early church in places like Galatia, Corinth and Colosse where the early believers went astray of the purity and simplicity of the gospel in their own need to achieve by human effort. It is a perilous road, no matter what the motivation!

I appreciate the way the Internet allows people to interact with things I write. Others add some great observations to this process. I’ve received some emails since the release of the new BodyLife and its lead article about Friends and Friends of Friends. It’s interesting that these both focused on fear and control as the reason we won’t trust Jesus to connect us the way he always desired to do.

This came from a long-time friend that has continued to look in a number of places to find some form of effective church life in a number of institutions:

I don’t know where to begin….was so impressed by what you had to say in the new newsletter. I have struggled with this issue for years and like you it was in front of us the whole time. Can’t tell you what a release I felt (and my wife as well). It is so hard to move away from the institution and the hold it can have on you. I recently watched a documentary on the Catholic Church in its attempts to deal with the sexuality of both male and female clergy, and the conclusion was simply that it was all done and justified on the basis of control, no matter what and that it will never change. It almost appears that the institution will do anything to keep people from fellowship with Jesus and with one another because of its fear of losing control even though lives will be destroyed. I can’t thank you enough for taking such a courageous stand.

And this came from a newer friend who has only recently left the institutional he served in for years. He was recently invited back to attend a ‘Defending the Faith’ class so he would know better how to “evangelize” young believers.

Why can’t we love people well enough that we just share our life with them in relationship instead of treating them as a project for coercion? You know why? It is because of fear. We are afraid we won’t know what to say. We are afraid that our not having an answer to their question will render them to eternal damnation. We are afraid we will say something wrong which make them walk away from Christ and they won’t ever pass that way again. We are afraid that a lot of their salvation is based on what I do.

But perfect love cast out all fear. If it really was about loving the people that Father puts in front of us each day, there is no fear of what to say, or what the results will be. I feel for those coercion projects that will soon be the victims of a new group of graduates from the “Defending the Faith” class. But then Father can make good of that too.

it’s amazing what Father uses. It really is! I’m grateful for how many times he’s used my immature ramblings to touch someone’s life and draw them closer to him. But like many of you, I’d much prefer Jesus flow out of my life because of how I’m responding to him, not in spite of it.

I flew back home today from six wonderful days all over the southern part of Alberta. I met some wonderful people and some incredible conversations and have returned home to a pile of backlogged emails and a full schedule for tomorrow. Bummer. Many people continue to be deeply touched by The Shack.

The team that helped put this together gets some incredible email every day at what God is doing in people’s hearts as they work through this little book. Of course, this is his doing, not the book’s, but it is fun to see how he’s using it as a catalyst to help people see a bit more clearly and live more freely in him…

This one from a friend in the U.S.:

Oh Wayne! I just finished reading The Shack! I am so emotional right now, and am using you to release some of them.

I cried, I saw…it is SO amazing! That which is in this book CONFIRMED so many things, I had thought I was the only one to believe them! But now I know. I KNOW! What He has been showing me all along this season is truth, and I had been a bit wondering if I dared to believe! But here it is, where someone else put those same things in writing!!!

What a relief! What a release! Wayne, I am so greatful to have had this….experience with all Three Persons of our God while the reading of this book, for truly He was with me, speaking, prodding, encouraging, pumping in and thus out of me His Life and Love.

Oh, and forgiveness. That, too, has happened to me, and I can’t even remember some of what I went through, it was deep. I feel like I was Mack! So much has happened to me…I believe I went on a journey with Him while reading this.!

The confirmation of it all…. I don’t even know what else to say.

This one from a sister in Australia:

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, for thinking outside the box, for not taking no for an answer, for bulldozing through the barriers of publishers so ordinary folk like us could read The Shack.

I have read it twice and as I pass it on to people I warn them it is like nothing they have ever read. Some people speak Spanish, some people speak English; Willie speaks the language of the soul, not unlike George McDonald!!!

What is it about it that brings so much healing and corrects the perspective of who my loving Father is? I have been thinking that it will make an impact in the life of our Father’s church around the world. Imagine all the people that are being freed and released from guilt. Imagine life changing choices being affected by love for Papa and not duty to a distant God. Windblown indeed!

Anything that helps people see God’s working in their own lives more clearly is a wonderful gift. I was with some people last night outside Edmonton and one woman talked about her reading of The Shack. She said that she had no idea that God could be such a God of grace and that it has sent her on a search to know God as he is and not how she has come to think of him only as a stern judge.

What a joy!

It is a quiet morning in Alberta Canada on a lovely early-fall day. I had some quiet moments to catch up on some email this morning. I found one that was titled ‘Quick Question’. I know that many others are asking the same question he is, so I thought I’d let you peek over my shoulder at this exchange:

A question I wanted to ask you when you visited here but forgot.

How do I get more of Jesus (and there are a raft of questions behind this – which are ‘solved’ if I knew my Saviour better). I feel I am walking around this mountain so many times the groove I’ve walked is soooo deep I can see over the edge – I’m desperate to stop.

Here’s what I wrote back: The question you ask may be quick in the asking, but it is not so quick to answer. Regretfully, I don’t think I have enough context to answer with any specificity for you and your situation. The reasons for feeling like you’re walking around the mountain in a deep groove could be many, and I have no idea which is yours.

But the simplest thing to say would be to get out of the rut. Whatever it is that you’re doing isn’t working, so perhaps it is time to stop doing at all.

Remember when the rich young ruler asked Jesus what must he DO? He got an interesting answer. In short, it is my conviction Jesus was trying to tell him that it is not in his doing at all. “what is impossible with man, is possible with God.” This is God’s doing not ours.

So perhaps you just wake up every morning and ask Father to make himself known to you. Whatever inkling he puts on your heart, follow! Make sure it is his inkling and not the religious performance voices of the past. If you hear nothing, don’t worry about it. Just keep asking. He may be needing to unwire some things in you as his person becomes clearer to you. This is a dance with him in the lead. Your part is to be flexible and follow as he takes you in hand and dances you through life. Yes, I realize that may sound frustratingly impractical, but I can assure you it is not. It is the way Father works. He wants us to know throughout that it is not our effort that earns his presence, but our simple willingness to simply be his child in the earth. If it takes months, even a year or more, do not despair. He is working in you at a deeper level than you see. You will in time feast on the fruits of it.

Dear Brother, ask him to do this work in you. Learn to relax in the reality that his love wants this for you more than you want it for yourself. He just told us to keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking and that would be enough for him to tear down all in us that resists him—our fears, doubts, shame, ego-needs and performance demands—and he will open the door of his heart and home very wide to receive us.

Whenever I’m feeling a bit distant from his reality, I follow this same advice, and find that somehow, somewhere, I’ve gotten more focused on my efforts than his grace and love. And in the simplicity of rest and surrender, I come alive again in his presence.

I truly hope that helps. Of course, you may need a brother to help you individually process the specifics of what is going on in you relative to his working. But if that is needed at this stage, he will provide that as well.

I hope that is helpful to him and many others of you. It is in

I’m off to Canada, Alberta this time, and have finally completed a new issue of BodyLife. We haven’t had a new one since February, because I’ve been way too busy with podcasts and book publishing.

The lead article is titled Friends and Friends of Friends and provided a chance for me to flesh out some of thoughts from this summer about how we understand the church that Jesus is building if it is based on relationships not institutions. This is Part 11 of our continuing series on “Life In the Relational Church”. There’s also some wonderful letters there from many of our readers who are also on some amazing journeys, as well as some new information on new things going on around Lifestream.

We hope this issue encourages you to keep to the journey God has put before you and draw you into his life and grace.

The new books are in, and I’m really pleased at how the new design and lay-out. As I’ve often said, this is the most significant book I think I’ll ever write and I’m glad now it is in a package that can help us connect to the folks who will be. I also added a new introduction and a new last chapter to help give some counsel to those who are seeing the concept, but haven’t yet embrace a connection with his presence for themselves.

After the books shipped today, I got an email from our account representative at the company who printed the new books. He wrote: “I just received my copy of He Loves Me. I see a lot of books as you can imagine but this is absolutely the best cover I have seen in years. Absolutely fantastic job. Congratulations!!!” My Rhode Island friend, Dave Aldrich of Aldrich Design did the cover. The photo here really doesn’t do it justice because the title is done in shiny, gold foil that can’t be seen here.

But what I love most is seeing people encounter God’s love through the book. When I was talking to the project manager at the plant that printed these books last week, she began to tell me how this book crossed her desk at a providential time. She had been going through a rough patch and when she saw the cover, she decided to thumb through the book. She was so overcome that the phone went silent for a while as she gathered herself. “I am so glad you’re my customer,” she said at the end. So cool! I love the way Father sneaks up on people and makes himself known, even in the middle of a print run. She’s taken a copy to read all the way through.

I also had some people send me some of their comments about this book that we’ve included in this new edition. I’m blessed at how this book has helped people embrace the reality of Father’s affection and discover how to live in his freedom:

When I read this book something in the deepest part of me calls out, “This is the Truth.” It is as if I’ve always known it, yet could never have given expression to such things, nor experienced them. What is written here fuels deep desire and makes living in Father’s love not just possible but absolutely essential. If I could, I would give a copy to everyone I know!

Nina Rice • Home maker, Dublin, Ireland

Understanding God’s love requires not a classroom lecture but a long bath. In He Loves Me, Wayne Jacobsen fills the tub and invites us to soak in real life, the inner life of the Trinity. “What Really Happened on the Cross?” is worth reading five or six times, then sinking quietly and deeply into its life-giving water.

Dr. Larry Crabb • Author of The Papa Prayer and SoulTalk

“For those of us who are longing to ‘live loved’, I cannot recommend a better follow-up to The Shack than this book. It is an exploration and adventure into the heart of the God we hoped was truly there, and who loves each of us in particular with an everlasting love.”

William Young • Author of The Shack

He Loves Me is one of those rare books in life that frees you to walk with the Father like never before. Its lessons become a part of your journey and stay with you for life like a good friend.

Bobby Downes • Christiancinema.com

This book is a refreshing alternative to all the religious stuff available! A heart warming read that sets you free to receive Jesus’ wonderful grace and love.

John Langford • Hislife.co.uk (Bournemouth, England)

This is my number one book recommendation for anyone struggling with guilt, shame, or the burden of religion. Besides the Scriptures themselves, I have seen this book touch more lives (including my own) than any other book in print.

Arnie Boedecker • Cornerstone Books

After reading the chapter, ‘The Most Powerful Force in the Universe,’ I said to my wife, “This chapter alone is worth twice the price of the book!” My wife and I have distributed this book throughout New England and the feedback from both old and new believers has been terrific.

Jack Gerry • Crossroads

You can order the book here.

I don’t know how much this affects other people, but since I’ve gotten a couple of questions on it, I thought there might be others interested in an answer. I got this question in an email the other day:

Do you have a brief opinion about whether or not Christ followers should be evaluating people they meet as either “safe,” or “unsafe” to hang out with? I was recently surprised at the number of Christians who subscribe to this thinking. Wouldn’t that be considered “shunning?”

Don’t you hate it when people turn something into another excuse to judge people and draw lines between those who are like them and judge those who are not?

The reason there is so much talk of this is because of an excellent book written a few of years ago by Cloud and Townsend called Safe People. There is a valuable reality, especially for young believers and people who have suffered abuse, to have a sense of who in their lives are ‘safe’ people with whom they can freely share their lives and know they won’t be manipulated, shamed or exploited. That can be very helpful in knowing who to open up their lives to and who to keep at arm’s length.

Is that the same as shunning? It depends on what we’re doing with the information. If I have a sense of safe or unsafe people around me that can be helpful, to the degree I’m right about them. If I’m wrong, I could be cutting myself off from people who in fact love me, perhaps just not in the way I want to be loved. But discussing my conclusions with others and communally identifying some people as ‘unsafe’ would be problematic from a number of perspectives. It would be gossip. It could lead to a groupthink about someone they do not deserve making it incredibly divisive and hurtful.

And wouldn’t it be true that the freer Jesus makes us, the less we’d need to be concerned about ‘unsafe people’. If I’m easily manipulated by people putting shame on me, it would be best to give that a wide berth for a season. However, as Jesus wins me to who he is and how he views me, I’d become far less affected by people’s attempts to shame me and then I wouldn’t have any problem being around them and look for ways to love them that would free them from their shame as well. So even our sense of safe or unsafe is contextualized by a number of factors our own make-up being key there.

Honestly I don’t hear a lot of people talking in these terms, except those who have been hurt in the past by abusive personalities. And for them, I think it an especially helpful tool in finding people who can help them heal in Christ instead of being wounded over and over again by abusive and manipulative personalities.

A friend sent me this link today and it is an eye-opening view of the statistics of health, mortality, income, and family size throughout the entire world. With humor and animated graphics Hans Rosling, of Gapminder.org provides statistics as you’ve never seen them presented before.

There’s no spiritual take-away here from the presenter, but for those concerned about the health and welfare of the world, there is much here to think, pray and ruminate on in days to come. The entire presentation takes about 20 minutes.

See presentation here.

Even if you find statistics incredibly boring, you will be transfixed on this presentation and you’ll come away more aware of the economic and cultural disparity in our world.