At first read of this book a few years ago I came away saying...cool...but not cool. I was significantly impressed with this guys' pursuit of being a genuine follower of Jesus. Yet he leaves everything that called itself Christian as though it was disingenuous. He backpedals a bit in the book about this but I wish he'd have spoken with the same candidness with his Christian friends as he did with his worldly friends.
Maybe he was so numb in the traditional setting that he couldn't articulate it. I had a similar experience after graduating from Liberty and then a ch leader, George Massingale, asked me... "What would you do differently?" By the time he asked me this (1 year into it - programs and 4 walls), I had begun to succumb to what he wanted to do...the traditional paradigm. By the time he asked me that question I had grown numb too. I had no response for him cuz I was so deep into his paradigm. I wasn't in that paradigm when I arrived in Wyoming but I simply let myself slide into what was expected.
I remember back in highschool, journaling that the worst thing man did to Jesus was make him into a religion (extra-Biblical rules & traditions).
I think all of us ought to go through some similar kind of journey as Don - realizing that there's a difference between religion (rules, traditions, non-Biblical expectations) and true discipleship and true communities of disciples - not settling for a facade of spirituality and community but really being it. I think this is one of the greatest appeals of Don's writing... realness.
His experience and writing draws you in, even making you feel ashamed of what tradition and religion has made of the Biblical Jesus, and rightly so! But at some level, I feel there's something about Don that's fringe ... seemingly making mundane out of the holy - as he rambles on about dating, girls, sex, drinking, drugs, etc., while in the same breath talking about righteousness and pursuit of true holy community in Christ. On one hand it is refreshing for blunt honesty, yet on the other I don't see a clear line of holy pursuit. He skirts the issue too much for me.
Around pg 114 he talks about not defending this big word "Christianity" with all the definitions (false and true) of what it is as if we are simply in sales and marketing .... but rather to relate to others this awesome person, Jesus, the Son of God. This is a sincere appraisal of our traditional way v. true proclamation of the Good News and I agree with Don.
Another awesome quote comes from pg 185
"If we are not willing to wake up in the morning and die to ourselves, perhaps we should ask our selves whether or not we are really followers of Jesus." Ouch...too true.
He writes some very provocative things in his blog as well (follow the link above) that should get us thinking and maybe even being differently. I don't agree with all of what Don writes but I'm sure glad he writes. Thanks Don.
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