Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity
By Jen Hatmaker
NavPress Publishing July 2014
288 pages
Received from the author/publisher for review
Jen Hatmaker thought she had the Christian life under control. She grew up going to church, she was involved in practically every program, and she was even married to a pastor. Yet she felt like something wasn't right. Her eyes were opened to the realities of the world around her - the pain and the poverty that people were suffering with every day. The church she knew didn't seem to be doing much to alleviate those things. When Jen and her husband Brandon left their comfortable life behind, the consequences were more difficult and much more rewarding than they ever could have imagined.
Some of you may know that I have quite a bit in common with Jen. Grew up going to church? Check. Married to a pastor? Check. Live in Texas? Well, that might be the end of the similarities. In this book, Jen works through so many of the issues that my husband and I have been wrestling with. In fact, it seemed in places that Jen had been spying on us. So um Jen, if you have been lurking outside listening to our conversations, please come in. I don't promise the house is clean, but you can sit on the sofa and have some coffee.
Jen turns her life (and quite possibly yours too) topsy turvy. Her schedule was packed with church events, but she and her husband went home feeling exhausted instead of inspired. When they started their own church, they focused on doing - helping the poor, reaching out to the people in their town, and creating community. While they were just as busy as they had been before, there was a sense of peace that they hadn't previously experienced. They key, as it turns out, was twofold. First, they had to stop keeping community within the four walls of the church. It's easy for us to be so caught up with Bible studies and church meetings and potlucks that soon our entire network of people is within the church. Jen, Brandon, and their church began going out into the community and getting to know people where they were, working together with community organizations, and helping the poor and the sick. All of a sudden, that part in the Bible where Jesus talked about "feeding his sheep" seemed like a pretty important command.
Second, they rejected the American ideal of upward mobility. We are so conditioned to want more and to do more, but at the end of the day it leaves us unfulfilled. So she stopped worrying about what other people thought of her and whether she was checking off all of the goals of having enough. And at the bottom, she found freedom and lots of broken people with beautiful stories to tell.
Jen turns her life (and quite possibly yours too) topsy turvy. Her schedule was packed with church events, but she and her husband went home feeling exhausted instead of inspired. When they started their own church, they focused on doing - helping the poor, reaching out to the people in their town, and creating community. While they were just as busy as they had been before, there was a sense of peace that they hadn't previously experienced. They key, as it turns out, was twofold. First, they had to stop keeping community within the four walls of the church. It's easy for us to be so caught up with Bible studies and church meetings and potlucks that soon our entire network of people is within the church. Jen, Brandon, and their church began going out into the community and getting to know people where they were, working together with community organizations, and helping the poor and the sick. All of a sudden, that part in the Bible where Jesus talked about "feeding his sheep" seemed like a pretty important command.
Second, they rejected the American ideal of upward mobility. We are so conditioned to want more and to do more, but at the end of the day it leaves us unfulfilled. So she stopped worrying about what other people thought of her and whether she was checking off all of the goals of having enough. And at the bottom, she found freedom and lots of broken people with beautiful stories to tell.
As someone married to a pastor, the health of the church directly impacts our family. So I took it to heart when Jen reminds us that people don't automatically decide to go to church one day. She proposes that we work from the outside in. Instead of waiting for people to come to our fancy worship services, we start right where we are. If we start loving the people in our neighborhoods, our work places, and schools, we build relationships. And everyone knows that once you build relationships, you care about the things that your friends care about. Inviting a friend to come to church with you is a world of difference from covering your neighbor's doors in flyers about your "awesome church!"
I'm pretty sure I could just write about this book until I have laid it out for you chapter by chapter. But that would rob you of the experience of discovering Jen as a writer. She is laugh out loud funny, but humble enough to admit that she is no expert about any of this. If you care about the Kingdom of God, Jen Hatmaker has given us a true gift in the form of this book. Interrupted is a book I will be talking and thinking about for a long time.
No comments:
Post a Comment