2009-6-29

So just a day and a half until I start at Calvary. I've finished the notebook for Paul (the new pastor for Jefferson/Doubs), and all that is left to do now is drop it off tomorrow with my last set of church keys. Honestly, it still hasn't entirely sunk in...probably won't till Wednesday...or Sunday...but I'm sure it will!

I've logged into my Calvary e-mail to make sure it works (I'd had the log in stuff for over a month, but didn't want to get ahead of myself...). I've knocked off some books I wanted to read. I (just) got scheduled the Lay Speaker refresher course I'm teaching in the fall--just a day and an evening thing. I've got a plan for moving into my office (Chris, my amazing husband, actually VOLUNTEERED to help me move in and unpack on Wednesday), e-mail our office admin about how I get business cards made...on and on.

As I was just on the phone with the head of our district lay speakers, who had asked me to teach, when he heard I was starting at a new church, he asked if I was able to teach, saying he understood if I was overwhelmed. I said no, I'd asked my senior pastor, and he seemed fine with it, and so I didn't think there would be a problem. Then as we were looking at the schedule, I pointed out the date of charge conferences at our church (we're a host this year), and he offered to schedule way around that since pastor are usually very busy with that. I said I thought that was different for associate pastors, and at any rate, as long as it wasn't the same day, I thought it would be fine. What a thing to not panic that charge conference is coming!

In other news, I read The Shack yesterday. I've heard lots of talking about it, so I figured it would be good to be up on it. Chris says he hasn't heard anything about it...but he's in the middle of summer camp, so, you know, I think it's impressive he can even keep up with CNN (sometimes I have to help) :-)

My Facebook status regarding The Shack sparked a little discussion online, that basically concluded that us Duke grads are a bit jaded. I think that's the harsh way to look at it though. See, some of the main (and perhaps most valuable) points of the book, involving its understanding of God, are pretty inline with what we learned at Duke. I learned about God in the sense of relationship, and that's how I was taught about the Trinity. And the theology of The Shack seems quite Methodist (with perhaps gentle Lutheran tones).

So though I did find The Shack cliche, it wasn't because I didn't agree with it, just that to me, it wasn't very novel. Beyond that, though, I'm not sure a novel that seeks to illustrate the Trinity is really all that interesting.

Most of all though, my criticism of the book is that I can't really imagine it appealing to anyone outside the Christian establishment. It's too complicated, too ripe with theology, to draw people, it seems to me, into relationship with God. Would it draw some people closer, open their understanding? Sure. But I was disappointed reading it. I thought it was some great spiritual breakthrough, that a writer had found away to make God approachable for people outside the church. I think it's mostly a modern theological treatise for Christians. And that's not a bad thing. It just doesn't seem terribly remarkable to me. And at that, could have been done better, I thought.

So, that's my cynical opinion of that. And that's all it is. My opnion, not some profound judgment. After all, the book has obviously touched countless lives, and that's a really cool thing. I just wish it had been a bit more approachable, a bit more interesting, slightly less like What Dreams May Come (which was a great movie at any rate) and slightly less cliche. But then again, I tend to be fairly critical of most Christian fiction. You know, CS Lewis excepted, of course.