My Book Review: The Barbarian's Way
So I'm reading this new book by Erwin McManus titled "The Barbaian way". His main focus is on John and Baptist and Jesus' relationship and how John was a "barbarian" which is exactly what God asked him to be but as he (Erwin) looks around in "christian" circles today he sees very few barbarians and a lot of watered down soft believers. I was afraid this would be a typical "rah rah go save the world or die trying" type book with lots of brow beating about how we need to witness more and be more conservative but that's not the case. Like all his books it's a great read. Here is an exert from a part I read last night:
"I was listening to an expert in church leadership speak at a conference I was attending. The leader instructed, "Don't be an innovator; be an early adopter". Hearing that created a crisis for me since I place an extremly high value on innovation. At Mosaic, the community where I serve as lead pastor in Los Angeles, we don't describe ourselves as a modern church or a post modern church, a contempoary church or an emerging church. The only description I use is that we're an experimental church. We volunteered to be God's R&D Department. Anything He wants to do that other churches do not want to do or are unwilling to do, we'd like to take it on. Part of our ethos is a value for risk, sacrifice, and creativity. The speaker went on to explain that the innovator is the guy who eats the poisonous mushroom and dies. The early adapter is the guy right next to him, who doesn't eat it. He can learn from the innovator's misfortune....... I went on to thank him for a new metaphor in my life. I am a mushroom eater. I understand the risk. But without risking the poisonous musroom, we never would have discovered the joys of the portobellos.The barbarian call is simple: we are called to be mushroom eaters."
"I was listening to an expert in church leadership speak at a conference I was attending. The leader instructed, "Don't be an innovator; be an early adopter". Hearing that created a crisis for me since I place an extremly high value on innovation. At Mosaic, the community where I serve as lead pastor in Los Angeles, we don't describe ourselves as a modern church or a post modern church, a contempoary church or an emerging church. The only description I use is that we're an experimental church. We volunteered to be God's R&D Department. Anything He wants to do that other churches do not want to do or are unwilling to do, we'd like to take it on. Part of our ethos is a value for risk, sacrifice, and creativity. The speaker went on to explain that the innovator is the guy who eats the poisonous mushroom and dies. The early adapter is the guy right next to him, who doesn't eat it. He can learn from the innovator's misfortune....... I went on to thank him for a new metaphor in my life. I am a mushroom eater. I understand the risk. But without risking the poisonous musroom, we never would have discovered the joys of the portobellos.The barbarian call is simple: we are called to be mushroom eaters."
Comments