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Shack has a flippant view
of God
I read The Shack, by William P. Young, prompted by your glowing endorsement
(‘The Shack phenomenon,’
March).
I do not agree with your take on the book. Rather, I
feel it reflects many of the negatives characterizing what we often call
the ‘emerging church’ of our day.
I found little or no reference to repentance in the
man/God relationship of the main character. He demonstrates a very casual,
almost careless attitude toward God.
What happened to the awe and respect the Bible says is
critical to any relationship with God?
Young gives no real place to the Holy Spirit as
convictor, guide or teacher.
He paints an unreal, ethereal picture that is hard to
define.
I saw no reference to Satan in the book. As the source
of evil, would he not present himself at some place during a spiritual
trial such as Young describes?
The book strikes me as flippant, casual and perhaps
irreverent in its approach to God.
To compare it with a classic such as Pilgrim’s Progress is a big
stretch of the imagination.
Ross McGeachy,
Westbank
Another ‘reality check’ is needed
In response to ‘A Reality Check on
Homelessness’ (Readers Forum, April):
The lesson of Matthew 25: 31-46 is that God will judge
us in accordance with our reaction to human need.
The Lord’s judgment does not depend on the
knowledge we have gained, or the fame we have acquired, or the fortune we
have gained – but on the help we have given.
The ‘reality check’ letter was insensitive,
cruel and judgmental, in my eyes.
The writer knew nothing about the people in the
restaurant; he didn’t know whether they had received money from
someone in order to eat.
Instead, he only saw lazy drug addicts. Where was the
love and compassion?
The true reality check is this: When the writer was
riding his bike through the Downtown Eastside, working up an appetite, he
was passing hurting and dying people. People that were lying on the ground,
cold and hungry, and without food.
Did it occur to him to stop and offer encouragement, or
a prayer, or to purchase someone a meal?
Those who helped others, as described in Matthew 25:
45-46 did not think that they were helping Christ, and thus piling up
eternal merit.
They helped because they could not stop themselves from
helping. It was the natural, instinctive, quite uncalculating reaction of
the loving heart.
On the other hand, the whole attitude of those who
failed to help was “If we had known it was You, we would have gladly
helped.
“We thought it was only some uncommon man
(homeless person, mentally ill person, drug addict, drunkard, sloth) who
was not worth helping at all.”
Jesus confronts us with this wonderful truth: that all
such help which is given, is given to himself; and all such help that is
withheld, is withheld from himself.
When we learn that the generosity which, without
calculation, helps men in the simplest things, then we too will know the
joy of helping Jesus Christ himself.
Frank Dragon,
Coquitlam
Starfield concert critic got it wrong
I am writing in response to ‘Concert disaster a
wake-up call’ (Readers Forum, June).
The writer stated: “If they build a better mosh
pit, the world will come running.” With this comment, he showed that
he was totally unaware of what God was doing in this circumstance.
He should, therefore, not have opened his mouth with
criticism.
Here’s the true interpretation of the events.
God, through the new sound and song, is demolishing the
current foundations of the church – thus the hole in the floor, and
the youth (the new leaders) falling down to the true foundation, Jesus
Christ.
Ryan Ellis,
Awakening Fire Ministries,
Abbotsford
‘Father of B.C.’ Douglas no saint
I read ‘Father of B.C. Douglas was strengthened
by scripture’ (June) with ambivalence.
While I was enrolled in an ethno-sociology course, our
class made a trek to the archives in Victoria to research early industry in
B.C.
The facts we uncovered painted quite a different
picture of James Douglas.
Books like Ed Hird’s The Battle for the Soul of Canada, which exalt such men as saintly, should also show their
human weaknesses.
Pat Christopherson,
Burnaby
Kudos for BCCN’s pro-life section
Though we find BC Christian
News interesting every time, we especially wish
to congratulate you on your May issue.
We were blown away by the pages and pages of pro-life
features.
So many people, even committed Christians, are unaware
or undecided about pro-life issues, and need to have the truth shown to
them.
Thank you – and well done.
Terry and Grace Shaw,
Port Alberni
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No call to convert native culture
Re: ‘The gospel’s ‘second
coming’ – through First Nations believers’ (June):
The ‘new gatherings’ we sponsor among
native communities often take the form of a talking circle, but it varies
widely by the culture. And we go only to those who do not attend any kind
of church.
We don’t want to convince Catholic Mikmaqs or
Anglican Lakota that our way is more authentic. We simply create gatherings
which welcome natives to participate in ways that are more culturally
familiar.
We are not trying to reach ‘churched
Indians’ and bring them ‘into our camp.’ We don’t
have a cultural mission to try to make ‘churched’ Indians more
traditional. Often, we are not welcomed by natives in Western church
settings – who see our more cultural approach as
‘backwards’ or ‘syncretistic.’
We are planting the gospel seed into the culture just
the way it is, without having to convert people to European Christianity
first before they can become followers of Jesus.
So many churches spend inordinate amounts of time
‘protecting’ their churches against culture – which is
like trying to help a fish by keeping it out of the water. We were
never called to convert people from one culture to another.
The gospel is strong enough to change any culture, and
it doesn’t need our interference by making it more European or more
Protestant or more Catholic. In the end, it’s all about the Word
becoming flesh.
Ray Levesque,
Society for New Gatherings, Surrey
Vancouver ‘snapshot’ not complete
I have just read your ‘snapshot’ of
‘The church in Vancouver – downtown’ (June).
I was disappointed that most of what you covered were
old, long-established churches. Completely missing were the young, vibrant
churches growing in the downtown core.
I especially would have liked to see something on Urban
Community Baptist Church (UCBC), which has been meeting for two years at
the Rosedale on Robson Suite Hotel. As a young church, they are not
able to afford to advertise much; something in BCCN would help them let people know
they exist.
Recently, UCBC held a Creation / Prophecy conference;
and with help from supporting churches, they mailed 10,000 copies of John
& Romans to homes in the West End. You can find more info at
urbancommunity.ca.
Dan Morgan,
Vancouver
You ran a great article on the downtown Vancouver
church scene.
I’d like to bring to your attention the
remarkable church planting movement happening in our city.
Vancouver is widely regarded as the least-churched /
least Christian city in North America; it is a church planter’s
graveyard.
However, each month, some 30 – 40 pastors and
church planters gather at Westside Church. This group crosses
denominational lines – including MBs, Pentecostals, Baptists,
Alliance/CMA and independent churches.
They are from across B.C., but most are planting in
Metro Vancouver. All are in various stages of launching. I recommend
you talk with some of the leaders.
Kristian Martens,
Reality Vancouver
Respect the freedom of the poor
Thank you for your reports regarding our campaign to
end Vancouver’s imposition of a social service use permit on
churches.
I thank God for raising up a dozen or so faith leaders
who volunteered their time to dialogue with the public. I also thank those
who sent letters of support; the 2,623 who signed our petition to the mayor
and council; and the city staff who worked hard with us to arrive at the
final breakthrough.
However as indicated in the case of the Abbotsford
pastor whose program of feeding the poor was opposed by business leaders,
Vancouver is not the last city attempting to limit our freedom to serve the
least among us.
For the sake of the church, I would like to share some
candid lessons we’ve learned.
During the process, I was made more aware of the
post-Christian church – where most saints appear reluctant to take up
God’s mandate to share a redemptive dominion over creation, and have
instead retreated to the safety of church sanctuaries.
Unfortunately, that dovetails well with the secular
city, which has defined churches as ‘places of worship’ only.
In the absence of a daily exercise to manifest God’s sovereignty in
all things, most Christians follow earthly sovereignties with few
exceptions, resulting in normalizing a secularized public life and a
shrivelled kingdom of God.
A few Christian elites are tempted by power
– and slip into the role of intermediaries between the church and the
Caesars of today. However, when they cannot uphold what belongs to God and
to Caesar publicly, Caesar does not take them too seriously.
The church needs to humble itself and searches for the
viruses within. To regain its public credibility, the church must embody
the liberating of the captives as the manifestation of its good news.
It needs to realize the campaign like the one we did is
not just about our freedom to serve the poor, but about the freedom of the
poor to a compassionate and just government. It needs to recognize
alienation and demonization of one’s poorer neighbours is what feeds
the homeless crisis, and must act to provide the much needed enlightenment
in the public darkness.
Bill Chu, Coordinator,
Faith Communities Called to
Solidarity with the Poor
July 2008
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