Dan Kimball - Adventures in Churchland: Finding Jesus in the Mess of Organized Religion
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Adventures in Churchland: Finding Jesus in the Mess of Organized Religion: summary, description and annotation
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Would Jesus Attend Church Today?
Among the top ten trends that are changing American life, Time magazine recently listed a rising dissatisfaction with organized religion. Though many people today like Jesus, they are growing tired of traditional religious institutions. Even those who follow Jesus arent so sure they always like what Christianity and the church represent.
For many years, Dan Kimball would have agreed, until an encounter with a small group of Jesus followers started him on a journey that challenged him to rethink everything he had ever assumed about the church. In Adventures in Churchland, Dan invites you to join him as he uncovers what the Bible really says about the church and reminds us that its more than just buildings and institutions, its a beautiful mess of broken people learning to follow Jesus together. As you journey with Dan, youll begin to see the church as Jesus intended it to be: a community of forgiven misfits coming together to serve the world around them with passion, creativity, innovation, and grace.
If you dont like the church, or if youre thinking about leaving, please read this book first. Dans stories will make you laugh, make you think, and make you appreciate the church like never before. Mark Batterson, author of The Circle Maker
As a non-Christian, I was inspired and moved, and have been enthusiastically recommending it to my friends. This is a book for everybody. Mark Frauenfelder, editor-in-chief of MAKE, founder of boingboing.net
Dan encourages us to break through the tension and messiness that church communities inevitably encounter to experience the beauty of being in community and sharing Gods infinite love with others. Zach Lind, drummer, Jimmy Eat World
I am so glad that my friend Dan has written this book, because there is a lot of confusion out there about Jesus and the church. Wanda Jackson, Queen of Rockabilly and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Dan Kimball: author's other books
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IN
CHURCHLAND
MESS OF ORGANIZED RELIGION
Stuart Allen and Phil Comer, two pastors who helped me see that not all Christians and churches are uncool, unintelligent, and mildly to majorly crazy, and who believed in me enough to spend time with me, put up with my hundreds of questions, and bring me into the mission of Jesus.
The Altar Boys, the Christian band that saved me from evangelical music weirdness.
Becky, Katie, and Claire. The book is finally done.
I AM SO GLAD THAT MY FRIEND DAN has written this book, because there is a lot of confusion out there about Jesus and the church that needs to be cleared up. As Dan discovered in the adventures that he writes about, you might be surprised by what you find when you check out who Jesus is. There may be a whole lot more to walking with Jesus and living for him than you have realized or have been told. Despite all the great things I had happening in my life, for many years I was missing Jesus. I have toured with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Adele, and so many other amazing musicians, but nothing compares to knowing Jesus.
I have learned that you can never really have the abundant and happy life you want until you know Jesus personally. But unlike what you might think, you dont have to give up a thing or change who you are to come to Jesus. You can come to him with all your hang-ups, confusion, and questions. And then, if there are changes that need to be made in your life, he will help you to make them. He will give you the strength you need to make the change. You dont have to do it before you come to him, and you dont have to do it alone.
My life was changed forever when I gave my heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ. So wherever I go now, I cant help but want to tell other people about this. At every concert I perform, I take a few minutes to share about the wonderful difference Jesus has made in my life. As soon as I became a Christian, church was where I wanted to be. Thats where I learned what it means to follow Jesus. I learned to pray and how to study the Bible. I also learned that churches are made up of people, so they will never be perfect. Yet as Dan writes in this book, Jesus loves the church, even when it is messy and imperfect.
I hope you will consider checking out who Jesus is and even being part of a church. I know that there are all sorts of stereotypes out there about the church and Christianity, and you may want nothing to do with that. I cant promise that your experience with the church and with other Christians will be perfect. But not all churches and Christians are like the ones that you may have heard about or experienced. My life has been changed by Jesus, and as you will read in this book, my friend Dans life has been changed as well. And thats what I can promise you: that when you know Jesus personally and decide to follow him, your life will never be the same.
Wanda Jackson, Queen of Rockabilly,
and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee
(www.wandajackson.com)
I LOVE THE CHURCH, DESPITE THE MESS
I LOVE THE CHURCH . If you knew the story of my life, you would never guess that Id say that. Youd think it unlikely that I would be where I am today, dedicating my life to serving the local church and working with church leaders all around the world. Growing up outside of the Christian church, I always thought that the church was comprised of rather odd people. I believed that Christians didnt think for themselves but had their thinking dictated to them by their leaders, who held to a totally literal and inflexible interpretation of the Bible. I thought that most Christians were harmless, sincere, nice people, but were fairly naive to believe the things they believed, though I also had some experiences with Christians who werent as nice Christians who were judgmental, acted superior to others, and were often chauvinistic.
For the most part, I avoided the church and any interaction with Christians.
Occasionally, I had brief encounters with Christians, glimpses into the strange world of the evangelical Christian church, a place I refer to in this book as Churchland. In the chapters ahead, I will share some of my adventures in this world, stories of what it was like for me as an outsider looking in and the experiences that shaped my understanding of the Christian faith and of who Jesus is.
n. The evangelical Christian
subculture and all that goes with
it, including music, language,
codes of approval, and values.
Though today I am a Christian and belong to a church, that didnt happen overnight. I was quite resistant to Christianity. When I finally got to the point in my life where I was interested in exploring what the Bible and Christianity are all about, I experienced a strong sense of tension. The Christian church did not appeal to me. But I was intrigued by Jesus who he claimed to be and what he said and did. The more I read about Jesus, the more I was fascinated by him, drawn to his teaching, even wanting to be like him. The more I learned about how Jesus loved people, how he cared for the poor, how he pointed out the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of his day, the more I grew interested in everything the Bible had to say about him.
It was quite eye-opening for me to study the Bible for the first time, because before I actually read it, I had only a vague idea that Jesus had something to do with the Easter holiday, that he had come back to life somehow, but I had no understanding of the full story of the Bible leading up to his birth and why it was necessary for him to die on a Roman cross.
Thats when my dilemma started. I was drawn to Jesus, but the Christians I had met and the churches I had experienced didnt seem too much like him. Therefore I didnt have much interest in associating with Christians, much less in becoming part of a church. But the more I learned about Jesus, the more I realized that Jesus himself seemed to suggest that the church, made up of his followers, is really important.
Beautiful?
The church I knew and experienced didnt seem all that beautiful. I saw the church mainly as a mess of judgmentalism, dogma, contradiction, and hypocrisy. I thought about the Christian Crusades in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, when Christians used violence to force people to convert to their beliefs. And at least once a year, I saw a scandal in the news yet another Christian leader getting caught doing the very thing he preached against. Then there were other Christians predicting the end of the world and then coming up with excuses when it didnt happen as predicted.
The church didnt seem too lovable to me.
I tried to stay away from the church because I didnt want to get involved in the messiness of it. After all, the church has done (and still does) some weird, embarrassing, and hurtful things. But I just couldnt escape the truth that the Jesus I saw in the Scriptures loves the church, despite the mess. And the reason is simple. Jesus loves the church because the church is made up of people. And Jesus loves people.
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