Book 25: Gracias! A Latin American Journal by Henri J. M. Nouwen

Title: Gracias! A Latin American Journal by Henri J. M. Nouwen

Pages: 188.

How it was obtained: I picked up Gracias from Half.com.

Time spent on the "to read" shelf: 9 months.

Days spent reading it: 3 days.

Why I read it: There are multiple steps in why I read Gracias! First, I love Henri Nouwen's writings. Second, I read a few excerpts from Gracias! in a Henri Nouwen collection and found some of his reflections interesting. Third, our youth group went on a short term missions trip to Peru, and Gracias! is about Nouwen's time in Lima, Peru. So it seemed like a great fit for me.

Brief review: Gracias! was a little harder to read than I was anticipating. It's one thing to read a coherent book on a particular topic, it's quite another to read the journal writings of a person as they are developing some of those thoughts.

Henri Nouwen is a Roman Catholic priest who was a successful professor at Yale and Notre Dame. He gave up the academic life and started searching for a different type of ministry. So he went to South America for about 6 months. 3 months in Bolivia for language study, 3 months in Lima, Peru as an exploratory trip to see if he would like to serve there for a longer period of time. Nouwen's insight into human behavior, including his own, is invaluable. He is very open and vulnerable in his writings, which is what draws me to him. However, these journal entries are not a systematic thought about anything in particular. So there are occasional glimpses of great insight. But its in the midst of the mundane of everyday life.

Was it thought provoking? Yes. Was it sometimes boring? Yes. Did it have interesting insights about life and how we live it? Definitely. Am I glad I read it? Mostly. Would I recommend it to others? Not unless they were die-hard Nouwen fans. Check out his other works first, and if you really want to fill in other parts of his life, then pick this journal up to read about his time in South America.

I had one interesting thought after reading this journal. Nouwen ministered in Latin America when Liberation Theology was flourishing. It was getting huge. And Nouwen listened to some lectures by Gustavo Gutierrez, a founding theologian of Liberation Theology. What struck me was this, Liberation Theology has some similar elements to the current Emergent Movement. I am not saying they are synonymous, but simply that they have some similar elements. I also don't think these things are necessarily bad, perhaps the Emergent Movement is taking some of the good from Liberation.

So what are those elements you ask? 1. Extreme concern for the poor. 2. Reframing salvation in terms of freedom from oppression (closely linked to concern for the poor and oppressed). 3. Ortho-praxis (right action) is emphasized, sometimes over orthodoxy (right doctrine). 4. I don't know if this is simply the Catholic Church, Liberation Theology, Latin American culture, or Nouwen's own observation, but Nouwen was well aware of the fact that ministry must be done in small community and outside of the church walls back in the early 80s. This theme is a huge part of the Emergent movement. Do ministry with the people in their environment, live missionally. It seems that Nouwen was doing this well before it became a buzz word like it is today, almost 30 years later.

Now this is not a hard and fast rule. Both movements have many different strands. And this is clearly not a research paper (although, now that I think about it, it could make a very interesting one), just some observations that I had while reading this book. Do with them what you will. If you do not know what Liberation theology was (is?) or what the Emergent movement is, don't worry about it. This is just one of my quirky interests.

Favorite quote: "What moves me most in reflecting on these opportunities is that they lead us to the heart of ministry and mission. The more I think about the meaning of living and acting in the name of Christ, the more I realize that what I have to offer to others is not my intelligence, skill, power, influence, or connections, but my own human brokenness through which the love of God can manifest itself."

Stars: 3 out of 5.

Final Word: De nada?

The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch

Title: The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church by Alan Hirsch.

Pages: 295.

How it was obtained: I purchased at the ETS conference in Rhode Island (for half price I might add!).

Time spent on the "to read" shelf: None.

Days spent reading it: 4 months.

Why I read it: My previous District Superintendent suggested reading it when I asked what books he was reading that he would recommend. I'll take Gordon's word on a book any day. So I decided to read it.

Brief review: This book hurt my head. It was one of the most challenging, thought provoking, and important books I believe that I have read about ministry in many years. The Forgotten Ways is a book that focuses on how we can activate the church to become missional again. The typical current model is attractional (bringing people to us). Missional is one of those trendy terms that is flying all over the place lately, but in essence it boils down to how can we get people in the church to reach out to people outside of the church. "Missional" typically also means that as we reach people outside of the church, we do it on their turf. We don't bring them to an evangelistic meeting at our church building. We don't drag them to another prayer meeting. Instead, we find them where they are at: in pubs, parks, sporting events, work places, etc. and we minister to them there. In other words we go out on mission to people. Hirsch (and other missional thinkers) are simply using our pattern for "Missions" and applying it to our pattern for church growth.

I cannot even begin to give you a breakdown of Hirsch's book. I underlined so much of this book as I attempted to digest the huge concepts that he talks about. The book was very readable. Hirsch does throw out some technical language, but always explains it in a simple and clear fashion. He has great charts and pictures that help you to see exactly what he is talking about at every point.

The focus of this book is how we can recapture what Hirsch calls the Apostolic Genius of the first century. This genius has shown up in other movements in Christian history, including the current movement in China where the underground church has exploded and multiplied since missionaries were pushed out almost a century ago.

There is a ton of information in this book. Its not a quick read, but it is an important read. I know some will absolutely reject his message. It will make them uncomfortable. It makes me uncomfortable. But it also stirred my heart and my mind in how we can revitalize the church in today's culture.

I would highly recommend this to anyone currently in ministry. Whether you are planting, maintaining, or developing a church and its ministries, this book will stretch you and challenge you in a good way.

Favorite quote: The implications of following the Torah faithfully will be to connect all things in life directly to Yahweh, whether it be the mildew or the temple worship and everything in between. Therefore, everything--one's work, one's domestic life, one's health, one's worship--has significance to God. He is concerned with every aspect of the believer's life, not just the so-called spiritual dimensions....To say this more explicitly there is no such thing as sacred and secular in biblical worldview.

Stars: 5 out of 5.

Final Word: Thoughtful.