Search Results for: Friends and friends of friends

Got this email today and it brightened my heart. I hope it brightens yours too:

July 4, 2010 was a monumental day in our lives. On that day, we both found out: THAT GOD LOVES US! How about that!? It was during our normal devotional time that “we got it” at almost 71 and 72 years old. We got it!

How about all those years in the professional clergy? Oh, yes, we could all ways quote John 3:16, and other related verses, but when God comes in, you can not fail “to get it” and say, “Oh my goodness” it has been there all the time!”

Oh, one other thing, I forwarded the article on Friends and Friends of Friends to a brother whom we have know for years, who is about 80 years old, and was also a Baptist pastor, and he exclaimed: “I have read few articles that blessed and touched me as that one did”, He went on to say, he felt you were really “on to something”.

Is that sound I hear the echo of angel songs in the heavens? Nothing brings greater joy to my heart than hearing news that someone else has discovered just how loved they are by the Creator of all!

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!

This was in my inbox this morning, and I wanted to share it with all of you. Of course, my name got attached to all of this, but they all know it is coming from my ‘team’, which are simply friends and friends of friends who want to help those who are in deep need today.

I would like to introduce myself, I am Bramuel. I would like to send my greetings to you personally and your partners team and I have come to know you through Michael Wafula, IGEM Director. I have seen many preachers but I cannot compare the love this man has. This man of God since this election violence started immediate after voting, the calamity came, our fellow brothers lost their lives and the family and many people houses were burnt, so we didn’t know where to go but we ran out walking without knowing where the family is. But since IGEM is having more churches, people decided to run where there is a church building to be helped but this man of God took immediately this burden and sacrificed his life to make sure that we are helped. Actually, we had not had hope but right now we have the hope through the love this man has shown us. We have never lacked anything , every week, we get the share and I was also among the people who received enough so that I may start a life and he told us openly that there is a brother whom we have never seen with eyes and God convicted him and released a big support and he said that his name is Wayne, so I would like to say we have never seen you but the love you have given to us, it is already recorded in the Kingdom of God.

Many people they ran with nothing but we have seen hundreds of blankets, mats, food being distributed through IGEM ministry and Michael always announces to these brothers and sisters that this support has come through the love of brother Wayne and his team so we say on behalf of others, I say may God bless you and I encourage you that there are people who ran who still need help, please continue blessing them.

Lastly, I received a message with wonderful books called one anothering and I have read this material. The material has changed many people and people are forgiving one another. Also pray for us, two days ago, the place called Salama, many people have died and many people have camped in the places and some they are sleeping naked, nothing to eat and with no clothes or utensils. Pastor Michael visited them yesterday but he had nothing to say but only to encourage them to trust in God for their provision. They are around 230 families. Pray for them that God may provide for their needs.

First of all let me thank those of you who have sent in finances to help with the growing need in Kenya, due to the tribal conflicts that have resurged in the aftermath of a disputed presidential election. We were able to get some money in yesterday to ensure that the procedure would work. We’ll be sending more in today.

The crisis continues to worsen. This was in the New York Times today:

Over the past few days, tens of thousands of Kikuyus, the tribe of Kenya’s president, have packed into heavily guarded buses to flee the western part of the country because of ethnic violence. On Sunday, endless convoys of buses — some with their windshields smashed by rocks — crawled across a landscape of scorched homes and empty farms.

It is nothing short of a mass exodus. The tribe that has dominated business and politics in Kenya since independence in 1963 is now being chased off its land by machete-wielding mobs made up of members of other tribes furious about the Dec. 27 election, which Kenya’s president, Mwai Kibaki, won under dubious circumstances. In some places, Kikuyus have been hunted down with bows and arrows.

The hospital in Nakuru, a town in the Rift Valley, is full of Kikuyu men with deep ax wounds, fingers cut off and slash marks across their faces. “We hate these people.”
said Robert Tutuny a farmer and member of Kenya’s Kalenjin tribe, on the violence that is forcing the exodus of the Kikuyus…

Father, heal this broken planet and the devastation of sin that destroys human life in the name of greed and power. Reveal yourself in the midst of this horrible situation and demonstrate your love and compassion to those who live in fear and pain today!

We are still offering to be a conduit for those who would like to help in this crisis. I am so grateful God gave me a contact there before this all started. This man did not contact me for money. I instead wrote him and asked how things were for him and he honestly wrote back the things in my previous email.

Having never met the man, however, I could only hope he is who he presented himself to be. But that isn’t always enough when we’re sending him significant funds in hopes that he will be helping others. I love the way Father sorts these things out. I was raised on a farm with a strong Puritan Work Ethic as they say, and am always concerned about people abusing compassion to take advantage of genuine hearts. As God would have it, a few months ago I got an email from an Australian woman who frequently travels to Kenya to be part of what Father is doing there. A few months ago I gave her the contact information for my friend there and she had the opportunity to visit. I wrote her to see if the need were legitimate and if she thought he was a capable broker of getting funds to the right place. It turns out she’s there right now. Here was her response:

The situation here is desperate! Michael is a good man and I would not hesitate in recommending him to you as an honest man who would use money wisely and is a man who is at the heart of things there in Kitale. The information he has given you is correct. I am working alongside (another brother) here in Homa Bay who is also a man I can recommend to handle the finances for this region. The situation here is very unpredictable and will take quite a long time for things to be anywhere near normal. Please continue to pray for peace here in Kenya and that the man that God has chosen to be in leadership here.

If we have enough money we will also send some along to this brother as well. Friends and friends of friends is an incredible way for Father to work.

I also heard from Michael this morning after the first money transfer had arrived. I asked him to give me some feel for how much money the could use there, realizing that others need help as well. Here’s his response to me:

Dear Brother Wayne,

Greetings in holy name of our Lord and Savior. I say thank you and I say again thank you. Yesterday we were meditating in the fellowship with the entire team for your book, HE LOVES ME. Actually this book it is so encouraging and when we compare with other books including AUTHENTIC RELATIONSHIPS, we came to realize that surely the Lord has called you to care for people, And not only for what you wrote but what we see by your actions.

The family has increased with other children actually , I got the money you sent through Western Union safely. And first thing , I need to work urgent needs as food, drugs and other necessary things for this first step. I have used almost what I have to make sure that I support these dear families. May be urgent need for now if you can send (US $1290.OO). I have tried to discuss with them at least if they can use for their personal needs. This is to mean if we can support every family for a while as we believe God for more provision.

Right now we are going to consult with other people from another center to encourage them and to tell them about the love of God especially those who have lost their loved ones. May the Lord bless you as we stay in touch.

I will be sending more today, thanks to those of you who wanted to partner with us in this. The need is great and we also would consider helping other groups in Kenya if we have enough funds to do so. If you’d like to join with us, 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.

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

To date we have received almost $1,000.00 from individual contributions and have added $1,000.00 to that from Lifestream itself. We pray God will multiply this many times over to help brothers and sisters in a time of great need!

We just heard from the doctor, and our second granddaughter will be born most likely in the next 24 hours. Having just returned from what is most likely my last trip of the year, we’re quite excited. Lindsay Grace will soon join our family and we’ll let you know here how all that sorts out.

On the way back from Central California yesterday I stopped at the plant that prints all of our Lifestream books as well as THE SHACK—Delta Printing Solutions. What a plant! They print 60 million books per year and we were a bit awed by the size of their presses and their whole production lay-out. We are also blessed to work with some extraordinary people who share our passion for God’s life in the world. It was a joy to meet people face-to-face with whom we’ve talked on the phone extensively.

And now we have entered the Tickle-Me-Elmo phase of THE SHACK. Do you remember the first Christmas Tickle-Me-Elmo became the must-get gift for children? Stores sold out and people waited weeks to get one. Unfortunately th grow curve for THE SHACK has outrun our best hopes and planning. As of today Windblown will run out of books for the second printing, which we did in August. We sold 11,000 books in the first four months and the next 22,000 in the last two and a half months. We never saw it coming. We had already ordered a new printing, when sales took a giant leap. Last week THE SHACK was #17 in sales through the largest distributor in North America. Interest has soared, as have those who are ordering cases of THE SHACK to give away to family and friends. So, we’re going to have a few days overlap where books will have to be back-ordered. We do, however, still have a few copies here at Lifestream if you need some right away.

Windblown will have more paperbacks on November 26, and a new hardback edition available on December 5. The hardback version will include an article written by the author of THE SHACK telling the story behind the story—why he wrote the book and how this unique project came to fruition. It’s a great story.

Daily we continue to receive endorsements from people, as well as gut-wrenching stories of how this book has helped people out of great brokenness to re-engage God as their Father. It has been awesome. And yesterday the author received this from a noted author and theologian:

I am a Franciscan priest living in New Mexico, also a writer and teacher. I just want to thank you, of course, for The Shack, but especially for taking the mystery of the Trinity and making it so real, concrete, relational, and loving. I have done several conferences on the Trinity, here and in Canada, (“The Divine Dance” and “The Shape of God”) and am always saddened that this unique vision of God that we Christians have, has had so little actual influence. Your courage and insight can only have come about by personal experience of the Mystery and a very real life of faith. You take the Trinity from the textbooks and the theologians to real life. Wonderful!!

Thank you so much, and know that if anybody questions you, your theology is excellent and a much needed orthodoxy (and orthopraxy too!). I wish I could write even a bit as well as you do, but I am so happy that you are doing it in a way that is already healing for thousands of God’s children.

Peace and every good,

Fr. Richard Rohr, O.F.M.

Can you imagine? After unsuccessfully trying to pass this book off to a publisher, we concluded that three of us as friends would find a way to make this book available to the world. We couldn’t be more excited at how this book has found its way into the hearts and homes of people all over the world. We’ve not spent one dime in publicity. We’ve done no advertising nor major media appearances, and yet this gift keeps finding its way to an audience simply through friends and friends of friends. Someone in the publishing industry ran an article last week on THE SHACK, charting it’s growth curve at Amazon, as a best-seller from an unknown author. It was funny how they tried to explain in human terms, what clearly from my perspective is a work of Father’s.

Last week, Paul, the author, visited a bookstore in Canada that has sold over 600 copies of this book. He did some presentations there for librarians, Christian schools and the public. He also spent some time visiting some people nearby whom I had visited last month. When her mom told her that Paul was coming, the conversation went like this:

Aniela: So who’s this Paul coming? Is it Paul Sue??
Mom: No, Aniela.

Aniela: Is it The-Church-Has-Left-The-Building Paul?

Mom: No, Aniela.

Aniela: Is it The-Shack Paul??

Mom: Yes Aniela!

Aniela: First, The-God-Journey Wayne visits us, then The-Shack Paul. Who’s next the Queen???

You have to remember, she’s Canadian, but it’s nice to know we rank up there with the Queen! Hilarious!

I’ve had a great 10 days traveling through a bit of British Columbia. I’ve met a lot of people over that time at various stages of sorting out what it means to live free in Jesus. We’ve talked tons about our life in him and learning how we live in the simplicity of his working, instead of the frustration and ineffectiveness of our own. It’s been wonderful.

I fly home tomorrow and probably won’t have to board another airplane this year. I’m going to stick pretty close to home for a while. I do have one car trip in November plan for a BridgeBuilders presentation to the Association of California Administrators and then a weekend in the Oakhurst/Fresno area with some fellow-travelers. Other than that it is time to take some rest and get some stuff done around the office and home. This ends a pretty extensive travel season for me, where I have had multiple trips, back-to-back, that have kept me on the road for 11 to 12 days. It’s all been good, but it’s time to hang around the house so Sara won’t forget who I am.

One of the things we focused on this weekend is that the best expressions of church life do not form in models imposed on people by others who think they know what is best for them. The best expressions of church life rise out of friends and friends of friends that Jesus connects together. In other words the church is not something we build by our efforts, but rises naturally out of people learning to live in his love and sharing that love with others around them. It is hard for some folks to see that, since we have the idea that if we can just embrace the most Godly system we’ll see the church rise in glory. The fact is the church isn’t a system at all, but an extension of the relationships we have with other believers and seeing how Father directs those in that which he might ask us to do and discover together…

I have also not had a ‘send mail’ connection over the last couple of days, so I have a huge backlog of answered emails that won’t go out until tomorrow. So if you’re waiting for a response from me, just wait a day or two longer.

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’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.

I’m sure many of you will recognize these feelings. I received this email over the weekend:

We’re at a point in our lives where we are so tired of “doing church”
My wife and I were “raised in the Church”—in fact, my Dad used to be a pastor. it provided a good “structure” for us and we’re fortunate for that, but I think one eventually gets to a point in life where you ask yourself “what’s it all for”? What is Church about? Who/What is really the “church”? I can’t help but think so much of westernized culture completely misses the point of “gathering of yourselves’ and has turned it into a self-engrandizing , consumerist venture that is fueled largely by ignorance of who and what is “church”.

Why do so many churches have the same formula? Who was the ‘genius’ who one day decided “Oh, if we do church in this format: Greets, songs, message and prayer” that will empower the Saints to do what God has commissioned them to do? God never said “They’ll know you’re Christians by your Church attendance, or how many songs you sing, or how many “great sermons” the same guy preaches. He said “They’ll know you’re Christians by your love for one another”. It’s that love for your fellow-man that seems to be so grossly missing in today’s “church”. The church at large is focused on the “do’s and don’ts” and not focused on loving each other – again, that can largely be chocked up to a culture that perpetuates greed and selfish-ambition.

Sorry to be long-winded and “get on a soap box” – but as you can see, this is a big issue to me and some of our dearest friends. Any advice on how to find a good body of believers?

Here’s how I responded:

The best way I know to find a good body of believers, believe it or not, is to stop looking. I sense your frustration with ‘church’ as we’ve come to know it, but I think as long as our focus is on ‘the church’ we’ll miss who Jesus wants to connect us to and how he wants us to live. Without sounding trite, I think we’re to be focused on HIM—growing in our relationship to him and letting him show us how to love people he as put around us in our neighborhood, at work, and wherever else we live in the world. Out of those growing relationships he’ll connect us to people we can share him with and others with whom we can walk together in the journey of faith.

I know that isn’t very concrete, and it does take a significant time. It is not as easy as looking up a group in the Yellow Pages and joining in, though if that works for you, fine! But more times than not ‘groups’ have other priorities above simply loving Jesus and loving each other and get into some of the same traps you outlined in your letter.

If you have dear friends, just learn how to love each other together and share your spiritual journeys of living in Christ. Don’t force it into the artificial nature of a ‘meeting’ but simply let it thrive in your relationships and how you get together. The church is not something we build, it is simply a way of living alongside each other that makes Jesus known…

As I’m coming to see it, it is simply the incredible connection between friends and friends of friends who are allowing Jesus to have first place in their lives.

I also received this email this weekend:

We agree that “friends and friends of friends” meeting relationally, and not just to have ‘a meeting’—seems so normal and natural, and FUN! As I told you when you were here, whenever any of the out-of-boxers (around here) tried to get together, somebody always had an agenda and it invariably turned WEIRD!!! Although we were initially excited at the prospect of getting together for fellowship, how it turned out sickened us, and we weren’t the only ones. I think the Lord allowed it to be like that to make the distinction clear: everyone at these meetings had made the decision to forsake religion, yet were once again getting entangled in it! Just because we were outside of ‘the building’ didn’t mean that religion wasn’t still running rampant in our hearts.

(I have a friend who) has been endlessly frustrated in that she has tried countless times to get believers organized and into fellowship together, but couldn’t understand why it never seemed to work. She’s beginning to see that to have friends simply meet for fellowship, potluck or to have fun together is an enticing, if somewhat unorthodox concept. I think the Lord takes us through various stages of detoxing us from religious activity.

I love when people discover that fellowship is not rocket science. For people growing in their relationship to Jesus, sharing that together is the most natural thing in the world. When we’re trying to produce the ‘church’ by our own ingenuity and effort we will find our pursuits as exhausting as they are futile.

When we live focused on Jesus, however, and simply loving others as he has loved us, we will find his church taking shape all around us.

It’s about Jesus! Always has been. Always will be!