Sacrificial love & a double book review November 27, 2007
Posted by Elizabeth in Missouri , trackbackI just finished reading two books that Zack and I were asked to review: Acts 29: Fifty Days of Prayer to Invite the Holy Spirit by Dr. Terry Teykl (Prayer Point Press, 1999) and Justice in the Burbs: Being the hands of Jesus wherever you live by Will and Lisa Samson (Baker Books, 2007). I could say a lot about both of these books that echo many of the topics Zack’s talked about on this blog: the return to early Christianity, a focus on issues of social justice, the desire to live out a “covenantal” theology. But I’m going to limit my thoughts today to the concept of “sacrificial love” which is a central concept in both of these books—as it is for the revolutionary Christian movement as a whole.
The premise of Acts 29 is that Christians should focus on bringing about redemption (defined in the book as including “radical giving”, “healing”, “astounding community life” and “compassion” for those who are “hurting, confused and unloveable”) to a city. How can a single church implement such a radical agenda? Through sacrificial love. Christians can and should learn to lay “aside personal agendas” in order to “see how the Kingdom can be advanced.” More specifically, this book outlines a 50-day prayer cycle that calls on churches to bring together groups of people to pray for practically everything in the city: local parks, schools, government officials, church leaders, streets, industrial areas, etc. The idea is that Christians should learn from the first Christian communities (described in the Book of Acts), where the disciples prayed continually so that they could have the power to heal the sick and live in radical community where everyone shared all that they had.
The focus on prayer in Acts 29 is complemented by Justice in the Burbs’ focus on action—”being the hands of Jesus wherever you live,” as the subtitle says. This book, written by an award-winning Christian novelist and her husband, who’s working on his PhD in sociology, is half fiction and half non-fiction. The fictional part of the book describes a story of a husband and wife who live in the suburbs and start feeling the need to be more connected to issues of justice. The non-fictional part follows this story line with facts and examples as to how and why the Christian couple were Biblically sound in their endeavors—and how they (and others reading the book) could do more to promote justice where they live. Here again the focus is on sacrificial love: the non-fictional characters learn about the poverty around them and start to give up a lot of what they have and wanted in life in order to care for others.
Although neither of the books talks a lot about how the concept of sacrificial love is related to Jesus, the relationships are clear. His sacrifice (death on the cross) is the guiding light for those who choose to follow Him. Christians feel that we have a duty to recreate that type of love in our lives. And “revolutionary Christians” or “covenantal Christians,” as Zack has called them here, feel that call even more deeply—and are hearing it in the pulpits and are living it out in radical ways, as these books describe.
The idea of sacrificial love is one of the main things that drew me to this movement years ago. I went on a missions trip because the marketing materials said it would give me a “radical” commitment to God. I wanted that; I wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself—something that, even though I don’t always understand it, has meaning and gives hope to our lives and our world, something that started 2000 years ago. I think it’s an innate desire in humans to want this. But whether or not you agree with me, I think that’s a lot of what this movement is about—knowing that if we can love the world enough, we can be a part of a long and beautiful history that has the ability to redeem the world.
Comments»
Elizabeth, thank you for your transparency, that is something hard to do but is most definitely asked of us and is needed.
Two great books, thanks for your input on them! I will be adding them to my amazon wish list shortly!
I would like to add without getting into a flame war on denominations, but within the Restoration movement, this is part of what they are striving to do, get back to church in Acts and rely on the bible as our authority, instead of a church hierarchy. They dont successfully blend the social justice aspect of the early church with the movement as much as they should but I know of a few local churches who are “catching on”
Thanks again for your contribution, it was very insightful, and would love to hear more on your point of view into what Zach has been expounding on within this blog! Not that Zach should retire! Im just saying you have a good perspective. Thanks Elizabeth!
Acts = praxis in Greek for practices. One thing the early Christians practiced besides the radical communal community concept of sharing all things equally was speaking in tongues. There are five specific records in the Book of acts on Speaking in tongues. Was that mentioned?
Eric - Thanks for your comment. On this point:
“I would like to add without getting into a flame war on denominations, but within the Restoration movement, this is part of what they are striving to do, get back to church in Acts and rely on the bible as our authority, instead of a church hierarchy. They dont successfully blend the social justice aspect of the early church with the movement as much as they should but I know of a few local churches who are “catching on””
I agree. We’ve seen a lot of churches and communities coming out of this Restoration movement that seem to be really getting into the social justice issues (although we’ve also seen some pushback). And that’s one of the things I liked about this book - that it talked about those issues, although they weren’t the main point of the book.
Tad - On your question about speaking in tongues:
“There are five specific records in the Book of acts on Speaking in tongues. Was that mentioned?”
I can’t specifically say that I remember the author mentioning this. I’m sure it probably was somewhere, but it definitely wasn’t a big part of what he was talking about.
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