Randy Frazee - Making Room for Life: Trading Chaotic Lifestyles for Connected Relationships

I read Making Room for Life sandwiched in the middle seat of a crowded airplane. By the time I finished part 2 (The Solution: Restructuring Our Relationships and Time), I noticed that my breathing patterns had become deeper and more relaxed. Making Room for Life is the Mirror of Erised for life and community. For all those Harried Potters out theretake heed.

J OSEPH R. M YERS ,
author of The Search to Belong: Rethinking Intimacy, Community, and Small Groups

Randy Frazees Making Room for Life is the right book at the right time for a frazzled, frantic, and unfulfilled populace. It is a book of sound practical advice from a wise pastor who knows peoples needs. The author urges readers to join a small group of fellow seekers, in which lives can be shared at a deep level and the life-transforming discovery made that God is nearer and dearer to us than we can possibly imagine.

G EORGE G ALLUP J R .,
chairman, The George H. Gallup International Institute

Im so excited you picked up this book. In a time when our hectic daily schedules often squeeze the living out of life, Making Room for Life is a godsend. Connection and community are essential to healthy livingnot just for us, but for our kids as well. Randy Frazee offers a vision of a life rich in relationships and meaning. Best of all, he provides clear steps for making this vision a reality. Life is a precious gift, so make room for it!

K EN B LANCHARD ,
coauthor of The One Minute Manager and Servant Leader

I want to simplify my life, but simplifying is way too complicated! If thats how you feel, you need to read Making Room for Life. If you feel our modern Western pace of living is inhospitable to human life, if youre fed up with what Randy Frazee calls the severe fragmentation and discontinuity of the American lifestyle, if you have a sneaking suspicion that modern conveniences are giving you more time to enjoy life less, then cancel an appointment immediately and let Randy help you discover life without breathlessness.

B RIAN M C L AREN ,
pastor (crcc.org), author, fellow in emergent (emergentvillage.com)

This practical book is a timely word for a complex culture. Randys concept of reorganizing our time in a way that flows with creation is powerful and challenging. I highly recommend that you read this work, if you have the time! Thats the point!

D AVID A. A NDERSON , D.Phil.,
pastor, Bridgeway Community Church

Imagine if we actually did what Randy suggests. [Sigh] Its doubtful we willbut it would be revolutionary!

M ARK O ESTREICHER ,
president, Youth Specialties; publisher, emergentYS resources for emerging church leaders

Randy Frazee has made a significant contribution to one of the most important conversations among thoughtful Christians today: How do we live lives in harmony with God in the context of our world?

D OUG P AGITT ,
pastor, Solomons Porch

Making Room for Life

EPub Reader Format

Copyright 2003 by Randy Frazee

This title is also available as a Zondervan audio product.

Visit www.zondervan.com/audiopages for more information.

Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

ISBN-13: 978-0-310-56590-1

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Cover design by Holli Leegwater

Cover photo by Martin Barraud/Stone

Interior design by Beth Shagene

To Rozanne,

my wife and best friend:

my personal journey to make room
for life has been driven by a passion
to spend more time with you

Contents

M aking Room for Life has been a great joy to write. But it has been more than a writing project. It has become a way of life for my family and me. The principal result of this vision is connected relationshipswith God and with others. So I want to thank my God for connecting with me through Jesus Christ thirty years ago. I also want to thank God for the many significant people he has brought into my life to encourage me and stand by me.

To my wife, Rozanne, I dedicate this book. To my four childrenJennifer, David, Stephen, and AustinI thank God daily that he has put you in the room with me. We have experienced such a rich life together. I pray for many more years together. I cant forget my connection with my wifes parents, Al and Joan Bitonti, and my mother and father, Ruth Ann and Ralph Frazee, as well as with our siblings and their familiesDon, Teresa, Jo Ann, Mike, Suzanne, and Joi.

So much of what I have learned about making room for life has been learned with the precious families who live in my neighborhood and a little ways down the streetthe Ballows, Huffmans, Wellses, Hortons, Lawrences, Sanderses, McNultys, Sparkses, Zangs, Hollandsworths, Vossens, and Wades. May our tribe increase and our relationships deepen even more.

To the current elders of Pantego Bible ChurchJerry McCullough, Ryall Tune, Ed Frazier, Wayne Bailey, George Lynch, Gregg Williams, Mike Phifer, Steve Newby, and Larry Iveyyou have stood up for me and believed in this vision. Thank you. To the entire staff at Pantego Bible Churchyou are the ones who carry the vision to so many others; your tenacity, vision, and work ethic inspire me. To my senior leadership teamKevin Walker, Pam Forbes, Ira Orr, Scott Burks, and Tom Bulickthank you for sharing this exciting vision with me, along with helping to carry the burden of making it happen in the lives of the people God has given us to shepherd. And, of course, to the congregation of Pantego Bible Churchyour innovative spirit has made our journey possible.

There are certain people who have supported me over the years that I must mention every time Im able to accomplish something like this. Without them, I just would not have the strengththe Reillys, the Veigels, the Guions, the Joneses, the Hilliards, the Ashtons, and the Wrights. To my mentors and heroesBob Buford, Howard Hendricks, George Gallup Jr., Dallas Willard, Larry Crabb, George BarnaIve learned so much from all of you.

Making Room for Life is a book that has enlisted many people to help make it a reality. Rozanne, my wife, was my faithful reader and editor before the manuscript went to Zondervan. The best thoughts in the book are hers. I just take credit for them. This is book number three that Rita Ballow has typed and cared for like a mother hen. I deeply appreciate your faithfulness to help me over the last fifteen years, Rita. To Maria Nutt, my personal assistant: may God continue to give you grace, mercy, wisdom, and strength as you try to manage my life and ministry. It is an impossible job, but somehow you manage to pull it off.