Mark Galli - Chaos and Grace: Discovering the Liberating Work of the Holy Spirit

2011 by Mark Galli

Published by Baker Books

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.bakerbooks.com

E-book edition created 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

ISBN 978-1-4412-3430-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2007

Scripture quotations labeled CEV are from the Contemporary English Version 1991, 1992, 1995, by American Bible Society. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations labeled KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations labeled NKJV are from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

One of the most encouraging signs of renewed vigor in the church today is the return to the biblical story as the framework of our theology. To my knowledge, Chaos and Grace is the first story-framed study of the wonderful themes of the liberating presence of Gods Spiritfrom Genesis to Revelation we get Spirit, Spirit, Spirit, and where the Spirit is, there is freedom. Be careful. When the Spirit comes we encounter a liberating chaos.

Scot McKnight, Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies, North Park University; author of One.Life: Jesus Calls, We Follow

Mark Galli calls the church to awake to the Spirit of Godthe Spirit who cannot be programmed, coerced, or manipulated. The Spirit who liberates us from such activities and invites us to deeper, more unexpected relationship with God. This book will challenge the way you think about the church in America.

Margaret Feinberg, www.margaretfeinberg.com; author of Scouting the Divine and The Organic God

When he writes or speaks, Mark always makes me think and wrestle with issues generally mine! This book wasnt written for a fast, casual read. You will have to slow down and reflect. Some chapters you will need to go back and reread more than once. Biblical, solid, and honest it will force you not just to think but to examine yourself.

Bob Roberts Jr., senior pastor, NorthWood Church; author of Transformation and Glocalization

Mark Gallis Chaos and Grace reflects his mature views after many years of editing Christianity Today. Using biblical references applied to the present church scene, he shows the crucial value of the Holy Spirits power of disorder as contrasted to the comfortable and easy life of many modern churches. This is a most valuable resource for pastors of all types of churches, from small congregations to megachurches. I highly recommend it.

Vinson Synan, dean emeritus, Regent University School of Divinity

Mark Galli has had it with the idea that life can be controlled or in any way managed. Hes yearning for Jesus to really mean freedom. Galli observes the entry of the Holy Spirit into biblical history as a chaos-creating dismantling of useless supports. He counsels giving up rather than trying harder, an end to projects of transformation in favor of grace and mercy toward what is. We all want liberation from personal repetitions and bad habits. Mark Galli pinpoints this liberation in our shattering moments of giving in to Gods upsetting intrusions. Call this a theology of liberation for evangelicals!

Paul F. M. Zahl, former dean and president, Trinity School for Ministry; author of Grace in Practice: A Theology of Everyday Life

As a human suffering from the control addiction that Mark Galli so saliently describes, I found Chaos and Grace disturbing, upsetting, and disrupting. With unrelenting clarity, Galli points to dozens of biblical and contemporary examples of a liberating God using chaos and disorder to break our bonds of self-direction and plunge us into the disorienting freedom of grace. I finished this book shaken; the more I ponder what Ive read, the more I suspect that the things it left rattled are my chains.

Carolyn Arends, recording artist and author

To David and Ted, colleagues and friends.

I recently participated in a congregational self-study of a church thats in trouble. Once a vital church in the heart of a thriving city, the congregation is now a small group of people fighting for its institutional life amid urban decay and decline, a little island of neo-Gothic sacredness surrounded by the citys chaos.

One of the exercises we engaged in was a SWOT analysis, whereby we were asked to identify congregational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. We sailed through the first three items; this congregation, for all of its difficulties, is blessed with many gifts for ministry. When we got to the last item on the listthreatsone could feel the tension rising in the room. Hesitantly, somberly, we began to list the threats, fearsome dangers that nobody really wanted to talk about: a neighborhood with declining population, shrinking financial resources, an aging building, security concerns. The spiritual energy seeped out of the room; the fear was palpable.

And then someone said, God. Be sure to put God on the list.

What? God? A threat?

She explained, As the church, lets remember that the biggest threat to our stability, our comfort, and our self-confidence is God. We serve a living God who just wont leave us alone, who keeps giving us impossible assignments, and who refuses to let us die a quiet, peaceful death.

Wow. She either had been drinking some theologically laced Kool-Aid or had been reading an advance copy of Mark Gallis Chaos and Grace . Mark knows that of all the challenges faced by Christians today, the greatest challenge is our oldest: to keep up with the wild machinations and ridiculous demands of a true and living God who refuses to leave us alone.

God knows we try. Weve got our self-help pop psychologies, our religious rites and latest denominational programs, our successful megachurches and their good-looking preachers, our insatiable lust for pain-free, boringly bourgeois livesall as our attempts to ward off Gods disruptive determination to save us from ourselves. The good news is that the Holy Spirit is relentless. There is hope for us yet.

With great winsomeness and wit, Mark gives us a fast-paced, hard-hitting narrative that manages to tag most of our Christian sins while reminding us of the core testimonial of our faith. We are saved by grace, not by our righteousness, in order that we might, through grace, be truly righteous. As editor of the prestigious Christianity Today , Mark has a unique vantage point from which to observe our sinful corporate and personal shenanigans. With great grace, he nails us. Then Mark reminds us of the imperishable witness with which we have been entrusted. This makes Chaos and Grace something rare and wonderfula book that manages not only to tell hard Christian truth but also to stir up real Christian hope.