Well, okay, that was a bit of an overstatement. I can say that over a period of a couple of months I was in eight states, flew over countless others, had a last minute trip to New York City where my very good and dedicated friend, Matt Rogers drove with me about twenty hours (round trip) in about thirty-eight hours. Thanks also to Todd Hiestand who was a guide who delivered us to the Fox studios with plenty of time to spare. I was on Celebration with Marcus and Joni Lamb, which is filmed just outside of Dallas TX, LIVE and has a regular viewership of over 200 million people! Here are some pics from my makeup process, 
which yes, did include my bald dome. Also they had a KICKING green room!
It is the first one that I have been in that was actually green too. So, bonus there. The last pic is of my wonderful publicist, Jodi Phillip. 
I know it is a terrible one, alas, I was distracted. A highlight of the Dallas trip was getting to meet her and the team at A Larry Ross Communications in person. So, let’s count that a double bonus. I was able to interviewed on the Strategy Room with Lauren Green at FoxNews.com. I literally locked in the decision to DRIVE up to NYC the day before! Matt Rogers graciously agreed to hop in my car and off we went. The 60 minute interview ended up being a panel discussion about a number of topics and it was abundantly clear that I was the only one who didn’t know what those topics were! 
I literally realized with about a minute before the show went live what was happening. So, if you saw the interview and at first I looked a bit surprised, my wheels were spinning! But at least we got to discuss low-key issues like the Catholic pedophillia scandals, what God really is and isn’t and issues of homosexuality. So, you know, fluffy stuff. 
I only managed to take one pic in the studio as we were about to go live. But, I got to become MUCH cooler to my 13 year old son, Noah. Toby Mac, a very popular Christian rapper/singer was in the studio and I got a pic with he and my intrepid NYC guide Todd Hiestand. By the way, Todd is more than a guide, he is a pastor and a kicking web designer. Look him up! A particular high point of this trip was my ability to meet in person for the first time Michelle Rapkin. Michelle was the person who kicked this whole book thing off when she saw me interviewed on CNN just after the shootings while she was in an airport in Sicily. Michelle, it was a true joy to 
meet you face to face, and the fact
that you took Matt, Todd and I out to lunch at the cafe looking out onto the ice rink at 30 Rockefeller Plaza… icing on the cake. I have been privileged to speak in two large churches in Minneapolis (below is a pic of the banner one made) and be interviewed in every city that my plane landed in. While in Chicago to record the audio version of the book I was able to meet my agent for the first time in person as well. I even was able to take an interview with a regional early morning news program called Mornin‘. That pic is on the right.
Things are still going strong. I have potentially three book signings 
that are in the works, with the next one being in Richmond VA on Wednesday night.
More details to come, on the blog as well as Facebook. I feel so blessed to have been able to experience everything that I have been able to experience. I have been able to write a book, get it published, and go all over the place to promote it. It has been a completely new world and as much chaos as it has caused, I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.
I have broken one major rule of blogging.
And I am about to break another.
The first rule of blogging is that if you want your blog readership to grow, then post consistently. Obviously you want to post high quality content, but you need to do that regularly. Over the past couple of weeks I have just been too busy to post much at all.
The second is that it is best to stay in your own lane. What that essentially means is you are most helpful to the blogospere if you select a couple of subjects that you care about and have some experience in, and stick with those. Unless your blog is intended to be about everything, then scaling it back to a few things can be good.
I say all this because I am about to step into a new blogging area. Don’t know if I will be regularly swimming in this particular pool or if this is just a brief dip. Either way, here goes…
I have been under a fair bit of pressure lately. Not exorbitant, but not light either. I am the husband of a wife that I dearly love and truly enjoy spending time with, and the father of three kids. Noah is thirteen, Seth is eleven and Emma will be ten this summer. Between math, sentence diagramming (thanks Jenna for guiding us through that one,) puberty, soccer, basketball, piano, girls saying mean things about you… It gets busy fast.
Then there is my ministry with [nlcf]. As we enter a different season as a church, several of the things that we will be doing are things that I will be heavily involved in. I love working with this church! I truly do, but one of the hardest things I do each week is figure out what I won’t do that week so that I can live a life of balance.
Then there is Should We Fire God?. I will be honest with you, doing what needs to be done and what I would like to do for the book could easily be a full time job all by itself.
I manage Seth’s soccer team, try to exercise, get enough sleep, have some growing friendships and have a meaningful and growing relationship with my Messiah.
It is a lot to do. Please hear this, I am not complaining and I am not saying any of his so that anyone reading this will feel sorry for me. Everything that makes my life intense during this season is borne out of a blessing I am enjoying. So… let’s be clear with that.
All this run up really just leads me to the reason I am blogging tonight instead of sleeping (or watching Glee.) The speed and pressure of life can sometimes make it easy to pass over moments where I have the opportunity to connect with someone. Tonight I almost missed one with Seth.
Tracy mentioned to me that he seemed more upset than usual and so I stopped what I was doing and went up and talked with him about it. After we dealt with the issue that had made him frustrated, he just kept going and I was privileged to be along for the ride. I got to hear his frustration with a kid in his class, his fears about talking to his coach regarding some things he doesn’t understand, the new type of clothes he likes (Aeropostale), how he is as long as the mattress when we extends his arms, how nervous he is about starting middle school next fall, and why he never gets in trouble doing his morning work.
We didn’t talk about much in great depth, but we talked about him. I loved it, probably that twenty or thirty minute conversation was a highpoint of my day. And I almost missed the chance – had he not been in such a bad mood and had Tracy not been paying attention I probably would have.
The scriptures tell us that children are a blessing from the Lord. Yes, they are a responsibility and yes that responsibility is very heavy at times. Tonight, I just sat in my sons’ room and enjoyed the blessing. I was blessed to hear about his emerging life and I was blessed to be reminded that I can be two feet away from someone and completely miss what is going on in their world.
Here’s to hoping it doesn’t take an abnormally bad mood for us all to have those moments in the future, eh?
Peace,
Jim
If I am honest, I could list off a couple of people that I know that seem to be in ministry, not in response to any calling that they sensed Jesus make on their life, or out of any sense of love for him. Gratefully only a couple. But this article from Baptist Press shocked me a bit. Again, not that people with atheistic beliefs are in some of those postions, but rather the lengths to which some will go to remain in them.
Ministry is hard. The hours, the strain of so many broken people around you and you add to that your own brokenness. I know that personally I have, at times, made the success of [nlcf] more about me than about the Kingdom of God. At times I have not trusted in Jesus like I would want to; have taken things into my own hands. So, it isn’t that I don’t get how you can allow the strains of ministry life to take you down paths you didn’t intend to go.
The difference is that when we realize we are heading down them; we need to have the reflected discipline to stop, consider why things are going as they are, and then let others around us know what has happened. In my 14 years of ministry experience, the best advice I could offer anyone walking through a ministry life is to simply walk closely and openly with Jesus, walk closely and openly with those around you and never be unwilling to be honest with where your life actually is.
No clergy on a pedestal thinking ever brings a more honest relationship with Christ. In the beattitudes, Jesus let the disciples in on a little truth. The truth was that the way we see the world work isn’t the whole story.
We honor wealth over poverty. Jesus never said wealth was intrinsically wrong, he just warned against the unexpected problems it can bring with it.
We honor vengence over peace. Jesus told his disciples that he wanted them to have the types of hearts that would respond to evil, not with more of the same, but with love.
Jesus was showing the disciples, and us through them, that our worldview isn’t completely wrong, just painfully small. That there is an expanded view of life and our place in it that includes an active and loving God who is calling us, not to sit quietly and allow our world to set our frame of reference, but to follow Jesus and allow him to set it. There is so much beyond the experience of this life and what we can experience with our physical senses. In that fuller experience, Jesus’ odd challenges, make perfect sense.
I wonder what those that are “play acting” would say about what they have been up to when they see that what they were faking was real was actually true, and what they were honestly believing was actually false?
When I was in high school, K-92, a popular radio station in the area, ran a contest. The winner of the contest would get a concert at their school by the Jets. For those of you that don’t have a sufficient background in 80’s awesomeness to know who they are… take a look. Oh… I miss you synth key-tar!
Our school lost. But that isn’t important. What is important is that the concert consisted of the Jets lip-syncing two songs and then leaving! My point? That is how the Westboro demonstration felt.
Please understand, I am grateful that we only had five or six protestors show up. I am also grateful that the counter-protests at the site stayed very calm and were mostly light-hearted. Take a look at some of the pics I have stolen from my good friend Franklin…
So, even though the Westboro turnout was low (unfortunately because several protesters shifted plans and were headed to West Virginia to protest at the site of the mine collapse), it was still upsetting. One of the most upsetting parts was seeing the kids from Westboro holding such terrible protest signs. Please join me in praying for the children that were a part of the Westboro protest group. I cannot even imagine what expereinces like they are having must be shaping them. Always having people yell back and ridicule you must only further serve to drive them deeper into the false theology and world of Westboro Baptist Church. I am truly afraid for them.
If you are interested and able, I did a short interview with WDBJ-7 (our regional CBS affiliate). Should be on tonight at six or 6:30. If I can get a copy of the story I will post it here. I primarily spoke about how they are misrepresenting the bible for their own purposes. How they are simply now a protest organization and should be seen as such. That I believe they no longer (if ever) deeply seek the Lord, willing to do whatever he wants them to do. I think they find a tragedy, make a sign and then hit the road.
And so, a tough start to what for many will be a tough week begins. Please pray for all those affected by the shootings, both here in the New River Valley and beyond. This week, more than most, we need God’s hand to give us peace.
Jim
So, yes, in case you didn’t hear, Blacksburg has the distinct “honor” of hosting a group of protesters from Westboro Baptist Church. If you aren’t familiar with the name of the church itself, they are the “godhatesfags” people. Let me give them the chance to tell you why they are coming. The following is an excerpt from their website.
Virginia Tech N. Main St. & E. Roanoke St. (SW Corner) WBC to picket Virginia Tech to connect the dots. God sent the killer because of your proud sin! You raise your kids to believe they can disobey God with impunity, and that His commandments are all on the table to be disposed of whenever you please. That’s why they think fornication, adultery, and sodomy are all just in good fun (instead of the filthy practices they are), and that’s why the wrath of God is on them. God is cursing you by killing those same children that you have lied to all their lives. VA Tech was just GodSmacked — another of your students murdered — and you still refuse to heed and obey the standards of God. Woe unto you! “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness…!” Isa. 5:20. You’re going to Hell, and you’re taking your kids with you.
Ahh… if it wasn’t so offensive and if it didn’t deal with such painful memories, it would almost be funny.
As the fact that they were coming has settled in, I, and many other leaders in NLCF and other local churches and ministries, have been asked what our response is going to be to the protest. The suggestions have ranged from completely ignoring the whole deal to some things that verge on the illegal. The question, are they accurate in their perspective of why these horrible events seem to keep happening here? is easily answered with a very loud NO. Understanding how to respond in a Christlike way to them is a bit more difficult. We need to reflect carefully to come up with a response that blends the purity of God with the love of God. Obviously, the best blending of qualities that we can look to is Jesus.
Three different possible responses to their protest have received the most attention, so here are my thoughts on each.
On the issue of aligning with a plan that will raise money for groups that are not specifically Christian groups.
The most widely accepted plan for responding to the Westboro protestors is to put up a table near each of their protest locations, then raise money for the groups they are protesting. Personally I love this idea. It takes the opportunity they are creating to produce something good. Love it, love it, love it.
Some that I have spoken with are concerned because the groups we will be raising money for are not Christian groups. When reflecting on an issue like this one, I think that we look to how Jesus interacted with non-Jewish people or those who weren’t following the Jewish code in his day. Clearly those people were doing things that God didn’t want them to do, just like any of us. But Jesus went straight for them. Now we don’t know what jokes he laughed at when he was at the parties that earned him the label of friend of drunks, and which ones he would have turned away from, but we know that the people at those parties liked him. They sensed an acceptance from him. To me, that is important. I feel compelled by this to be as involved with as many groups as we can possibly be. There are many groups that are pursuing aspects of the reality God is calling us to be a part of, they just aren’t doing it out of devotion to him. I believe we should look to see where we can link up in cases like this, certainly there would be reasons that would make that desire impossible, but I haven’t seen anything in what we are raising money for that rises to that level in any way.
Also, the shootings were a very communally felt moment for us all. I feel that to come together in responding to this protest is the right thing for us to do.
On the issue of concern about sending a thank-you note to Westboro Baptist Church.
An additional component of the raising money plan was to potentially send WBC a thank you note. The note would thank them for giving us the opportunity to raise money for those groups and give them the amounts we were able to raise. Obviously, there is a bit of sarcasm in there, and personally, I like the idea. But I have been hearing very good points that it is an unnecessary slam on them. That it seems cruel.
All I can say on that one is that the arguments against sending the thank you note are very solid. Because we are cooperating with what the university’s student government is doing, we at NLCF don’t control whether or not it is sent anyway. Ultimately I am cool either way. In a great book, The Humor of Jesus, many of Jesus’ puns and one liners are brought more to light. I think Jesus took little shots here and there to make his point. He never did it passive aggressively, he was always moving towards an overt point and the zingers were used to make the point another way. So, I can get behind the letter as that zinger, and I can respect the opposing viewpoint. I am cool either way.
On the issue of showing love to the protestors.
Some have suggested that if we really want to show counter-cultural love to WBC, we should seek to serve them in some way. Give them water, food… all Ex-Lax free. :) Personally I love the question of how do we love them, as we are called to love our enemies, but I disagree with this way of doing it.
The more I reflect on it, the more I sense the Westboro protestors should be seen as modern-day Pharisees. They are sporting a very false righteousness and in the process, they are almost completely missing what God is doing. Jesus told the actual Pharisees that they picked up on some parts of truth and missed others entirely. Very much what the WBC people are doing. So, if we look at Jesus’ response to them, he tended to express grace towards them in other ways. As I have reflected on the gospels, I tend to notice that he goes after them in response to their accusations, their attempts at entrapment. It doesn’t seem like he seeks these moments out so much as he responds what they are trying to do to him. So I don’t think we should plan to go after them verbally or otherwise.
While I like the concept of handing out water to them, and LOVE the fact that the question of how do we love our enemies in this context is being asked, I would suggest we not do that. One reason is that Jesus’ strongest words seemed to be reserved for those who were misrepresenting the truth about God. People that should know better. He said it would be better to tie a stone around your neck and drown yourself than intentionally mislead people about the faith. He called the Pharisees one of the most unclean things they would have known in their day. He referred to them as nicely painted tombs, places where bodies were decaying. His point was that they way they were calling others to be clean rendered them unclean. They were focusing on an outward show and missing the centrality of inward humility and faith. Strong stuff.
One thing we need to understand is, that was grace. Jesus was showing them grace by speaking very directly to what was warring against their souls. Hatred and arrogance like the Pharisees and the WBC folks demonstrate is not neutral to your heart, it tears them apart. Exposing that for what it is, is love. I think the other way Jesus showed grace was by allowing anyone (for example Nicodemus,) to come and be helped. He didn’t say, “You are one of them, get out of here!” He would allow ANYONE to come to him if they came with a heart of humility. That is why you see him talking to prostitutes, alcoholics, blue collar workers, white collar workers, people from the lowest strata in society to the very highest, and also to Pharisees.
But, if you challenged him in arrogance, whatever you were: a rich young ruler, a scribe, or one of his own brothers, you got the challenge right back.
Jesus also had very challenging words for those who used the power they had been given wrongly. He truly cares about how we use the power that is available to us. I don’t believe that the Westboro protesters seek God in faith and humility before they decide to protest every site they travel to. And I don’t think they would be willing to speak to those they have hurt with any sense of godly love.
I believe they have become what they claim to be against. I believe they have become a protest organization that claims it speaks on behalf of God, whether he would have them speak or not. They are not open to being in community with other churches and they are not willing to submit to the broader body of Christ. I believe they protest simply because that is what they do. I feel that they have become a protest organization.
The way I think this works out is like this… We don’t come with water or any other affirming gesture, or with aggressive posturing. If any of the WBC people show a desire to speak or come to us in humility and honesty, we should be prepared to respond with love. If anyone else in the crowd begins to attack them, if the police aren’t there, we defend the Westboro people. We pray for them in faith that God is capable of showing them the error in what they are doing.
It would also do us well to make sure that we aren’t the same type of person that they are. Are we willing to allow others to speak to the deep parts of our lives? Are we willing to allow others to show us how our lives could more reflect the love and life of Christ?
God, please be with us as we go through this.
Jim
As I write this post, I sit in 435,709th place in overall sales on barnesandnoble.com. I know what you are probably thinking… Jim, that means that there are only 435,708 books that are sold through barnesandnoble.com that have sold more than Should We Fire God?! That only puts you 78,949 places behind Stu Campbell’s Mulch It! A Practical Guide to Using Mulch in the Garden and Landscape! 
And you would be right. But I want Stu’s spot.
Here is how we take that coveted 356,760th spot. Yes, his book came out in 2000 and yes, mine technically isn’t officially released. But come on, Stu has been too comfortable for too long.
First of all, I am beyond grateful to everyone who has asked me how they can help the book out. So many of you have been encouraging and willing to do whatever you can. That is really great. For those who are interested… Here is the plan…
For the next 3 – 4 weeks, anyone that can get the book at an actual store, that would be a big help. Nothing encourages them ordering more books than selling those they have, eh? If you are near the Blacksburg VA area and want to show me some HUGE love, I will be having a book signing at Books-a-Million on April 27 at 7pm. The ideal thing would be to buy the book that night. But even if you don’t get it then, please bring the one you already have! Many of you have asked me about a signing and I said I didn’t want to do one. The reason I changed my mind was that this is more of a way to speak bookstores’ language. If I have this signing and get a few hundred people to come, it will make a big impact on the store, they will report back to other BAM’s…
If you aren’t in the area, then any bookstore that carries it will help me out.
Now, if the cash is running tight right now. You can save a few bucks if you get it online. Even with shipping, you can save a few dollas that way. You can feel free to hit up any online bookseller (they should all be carrying it). You can also get it as an audio book, ebook or for the Kindle on amazon.com.
Here are some ideas that are TOTALLY FREE!
Pray. I have been praying that God would guide 50,000 people to get the book and that many more would be impacted by it. I don’t have the space on this post to share my theology of that number. Suffice it to say that before I knew that a publisher would even buy it, it has been the number I have been praying for. And it is NOT a number that will make me rich,so it isn’t for that. Care to join me? My goal is to try to let as many people as possible know about the book, and then they can decide for themselves whether they will buy it. I am just trying to get the word out.
Join the Facebook fan page for the book. The more people that are on that page, the better, should people stop by it to check the book out. In the true sense of quid pro quo, if you send me a fan page you want me to join… I will return the love!
Mention the book in a couple of Facebook posts, tweets, blog posts, or decorative wall hangings. I am also willing to advertise in mulch at your house if I can do so without pushing Stu even further up the charts.
Suggest others you know take a look at the trailer for the book. Take a look at it yourself. Robbie Poff shot it, and he personally guarantees it will change everything you don’t like about your life. He promises.
Once you have read it, post a review on one or more of the internet bookseller sites. You can also click that the review was helpful. Easy peasy.
Again, thank you so much for doing whatever you can. If you write a book… quid pro quo…count on me doing anything I can for you. And really, who can ever have enough quid pro quo?
Peace.
Be Hope To Her 2010
I wanted to let you know about something that a good friend of mine has been working with for several years. The organization is called Nuru International. Nuru is the Kiswhahili word for “light,” and Kiswahili is the language of the Kuria people of Kenya. My friend, Billy Williams, has devoted himself to this very interesting and innovative organization that is committed to pioneering holistic and sustainable solutions to end extreme poverty in partnership with the poor. As the national grassroots director, he has the opportunity to see the hope of Nuru spread. This year, Virginia Tech is hosting a “Be hope to her” fundraiser. I guarantee it isn’t like any you have been to before, so if you are in the area, please consider coming out and very much becoming a hope to her. Billy, take it away!
Last year, Nuru International hosted its first nationwide extreme poverty awareness event and campaign. It was an experiential event designed to raise awareness and empathy for the daily routine of hundreds of women and girls in the developing world. We called it “Be Hope To Her.” The event had nearly 1000 people participate on 11 college campuses, and raised over $36,000 that led to the drilling of four deep water wells in Kuria, Kenya and thousands of changed lives.
This year, we are pleased to announce that there are twenty four colleges who are participating in the event (including one in Florence, Italy). We also have three city-wide events happening in SoCal, Seattle, and Pittsburgh.
So what is it all about? In essence, it’s an event about being hope. Over 2.4 billion people go daily without nearby access to safe, clean, drinking water. Women and girls in these communities are usually charged with the task of gathering the water for their families as a daily practice. Imagine spending three hours of your day gathering water so you and your family can have it to drink, to bathe, to do laundry, to wash dishes. Imagine if that water were contaminated and needed boiled before anyone could drink it. Imagine not being able to attend school because you had been charged with this task for the sake of your family’s survival. It doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, you can be part of the generation that stands up and says enough is enough, and chooses to make a difference.
Recently, I was reading a blog from our water and sanitation program manager, Nicole Scott, that talked about how life
has changed in Kuria since the drilling of wells in the community. One of the stories told was about kids at one of the schools where the wells were drilled. The teachers said that the kids are playing now instead of running into the bush to try to find water during recess. This statement really hit me personally. I started thinking back to elementary school and recess. I can remember running, playing football, tag, and kickball, and just all around having a good time with friends. I remember running myself into a frenzy knowing that at the end of recess, everyone in my class would line up at a water fountain (I think the fountain was in my classroom too), and get a drink of water before settling back into class. What would it have been like if there were no drinking fountains in my school. What if my recess was spent looking for ANY water source near the school? What would my concentration level have been like in the classroom? It seems utterly unthinkable that anyone in the modern era would have to deal with this on a daily basis. (more…)
Like most that live around Virginia Tech, the anniversary of the shootings can seem to hang over my head. But now there is something else.
Westboro Baptist Church is coming into town. The delightful gang that started the godhatesfags website and has recently been picketting funerals of everyone from soldiers who have been killed in action, to those of children that have been killed by cars. At all of them the theme is the same, “God hates you and what you are doing. You (or someone else) caused this.”
Seems their schedule is flexible enough to fit us in. Wonderful. Here is their itenerary while they are in the area.
So now, those of us in leadership of just about any group are asking ourselves the question, what do we do to respond to what they do? I have heard great ideas that range from simply being somewhere else and not giving them any audience, to some that are suggesting we aggressively protest them.
The question I have is, what is a thoughtful Christ-like response to thoughtless rantings? At [nlcf], we are kicking around a number of ideas right now. In the next few days we will list out what we are suggesting. I am sure we will also want to be as involved as possible in the local and university’s response to all this is going to be.
So, what do you think we should do? What would you suggest? Why would you suggest it?
~~ I have just removed the hotlink to the WBC site at the suggestion of a web-savvy-internet-guru friend named Liz! She felt it was best to not make it easier/enticing for people to go to the site and essentially help their numbers stay high.
Christopher Hitchens and I don’t agree on a great deal. He has written a number of books, God is not Great, Why Orwell Matters, and The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice, among many others. I like his writing style but I disagree with almost every position he takes. But I saw an article he wrote on Slate, and have to say that I agree with an awful lot of it. He is dealing with the repeated reports of covering up child sex abuse by priests in the Catholic Church. If you haven’t read Hitchens before, you will notice his characteristic overstatements, but, his argument is a very fair one. Let me know what you think. Is he being fair or not?
Take it away Christopher…
Some very cool things are happening with the publicity for the book! Interview requests are pouring in, looks like a trip to NYC is in the works to do some network stuff! Very, very cool.
Here is an interview I did with JR Briggs. You may remember that I stole his quote for the blog yesterday. If you shoot over to take a look at his review, you might want to nose around the rest of the site. A very cool thing they are doing outside of Philly. JR, thank you for sharing some bandwidth with me… I am enclosing his interview here as I cannot get the hotlink to work. What can I say? I am a computer guru.
My friend Jim Pace pastors [nlcf] a church in Blacksburg, VA just off the Virginia Tech campus. Jim is a stud. But it takes a lot of grace to love Jim since I grew up in Charlottesville rooting for the University of Virginia (however, since the Cavaliers have been so mediocre in sports the past few years it’s been a very humbling experience being around Tech fans).
[nlcf] is a part of the Ecclesia Network and I have the privilege of serving on the board of directors with him. Jim recently wrote a book called Should We Fire God? (check it out here). I’m so excited for this book to release soon.
Rather than me telling you about the book, I’ll have Jim answer a few questions in his own words.
J.R.: I had the privilege of reading the manuscript a few months ago and was stirred by what you wrote. Tell us a little bit about the book.
Jim: Well, my mom loves it. I mean, she really does. Promises to buy at least two copies.
In all seriousness, it was something I did to try to work through some of the questions that we cannot help but have in our culture of instant, high-definition news. We see the suffering that is swirling around us with a level of clarity that requires we ask certain questions of God. Questions like why are you allowing this level of suffering God? Why don’t you get in the game and take care of some of this, or if this is the kind of god you are, why would I ever have any interest in connecting with you?
It’s quite a provocative title. Tell us a bit about how you landed on the title – and the topic of the book for that matter.
The book is a discussion of the question, Is God doing a good enough job at his end of the bargain to remain on the job? Should we fire God? I actually wanted the title “Firing God” but no one that I shared it with really liked it, so wiser minds suggested posing it as a question, hence, Should we fire God? The idea came from a friend who does not believe in God asking me if I thought God could ever do something bad enough, or allow enough horror to occur, that I would ever just walk away from him.
Publishers talk a lot about ‘target audience’ in thinking about specific books. Describe the type of person to which your book is written.
This one was a bit different because it really didn’t fit to many of the models that are out there. I am sure every author feels their book is “truly different”, right? I have heard from Christian publishers that it is too aggressively written for what they would consider to be a classically Christian audience. And I have heard from a secular publisher that it is a bit to “Jesus-y” (my word) for their audience.
What I suspect is that it will actually appeal to a pretty wide audience. People that are frustrated by answers that seem too pat and easy will hopefully like that I really try to share the wrestling that I and many others go through in these areas. One of the more common responses I have gotten to those who have read it is that they feel like I get their level of frustration. That I get them. But they also seem to like that I don’t get stuck in hopelessness. That someone can question deeply and meaningfully and yet still have hope.
That is high praise.
But I have also found that those who don’t follow Jesus have liked it as a more in-depth explanation of His side of the issue. A couple of those readers have responded back to me that they had never considered a particular angle pertaining to God before. I have heard it has been helpful in their reflection about Christ. It is also an honor to have that said of something that I have written.
Overall, I think people that take issue with how much suffering occurs in our world and are curious about God’s role in all of it, I think they will connect with the book.
During the writing projects I’ve worked on, I have often described the process as giving birth literarily. What was the writing process like for you? Did you enjoy it? Was it difficult?
Writing is more fun and much more difficult than I expected. Since I teach regularly at my church, I am familiar with writing. So I am accustomed to the process, but I learned quickly this was a very different bird. The great fun of this project was the depth that I could explore this topic with. 64,972 words lets you go pretty deep!
So, writing is a lot of fun. Editing sucks. After correcting likely two or three hundred mistakes, with my use of dashes and semi-colons alone, I still would struggle to tell you what the rule is. Grammar is a cruel mistress.
You spend a lot of time in the book describing the horrific events of the Virginia Tech shootings and how your faith community has – and continues to – struggle with the pain and heartache. Was it at all therapeutic for you to write about the events in such vivid detail?
I think the expected thing is to say yes. I would probably answer that way most of the time. In our rapid fire culture, contemplation is not a natural part of life. So my experience is that anytime I can carefully reflect, my life is richer for that. So that was the good side. But there were other times that it felt very dark. I walked through suffering that happened here and around the globe, presently and in the past. Honestly, there were times when life started to feel quite heavy and hopeless.
So, to answer your question, it was both therapeutic and traumatic at the same time. Where that started and stopped, I don’t honestly know.
Tragedies of that magnitude shape and mark indelibly. How have you personally been shaped the most by the events of that day?
I have always been a nuance guy. The kind that always tries to see the shades of gray in an issue. Where others might see things as a black and white issue, I can tend to notice inflection. This experience has in some ways made that tendency stronger and in other ways, weaker.
I have seen suffering up close and have had to stare at it much longer than I ever would have wanted to. I have talked to people who had to remove the bodies from the classrooms. They spoke about hearing the cell phones in the pockets and book bags of the victims ringing incessantly. People desperately hoping that person would pick up and the Rescue personnel knowing they never would.
But I have also heard story after story about people who were, seemingly out of nowhere, led to pray for Virginia Tech in the days and weeks leading up to the shootings. One guy passed a girl on campus a few days before the shootings and felt a very strong urging to pray for her. He did, not really understanding why she got stuck in his mind like that. A few days after the shootings, he saw her again, but this time it was on the listing of the victims.
People from all around the country talking about how they had been led to pray for Va. Tech. God was doing something in all that.
I remember one morning about a week after the shootings waking up so refreshed and happy, but only for a moment. I had been dreaming about how someone had called me and told me that they were going to step up and lead our church through everything from that point on. I and my co-pastors could step aside and let them do it.
The great feeling drained away as I realized it was only a dream. But in that moment I felt the strongest sense from God saying to me, Yes it is terrible, and it won’t go away quickly. But I am with you, you have enough strength through me for your part. Walk in it.
Those things take a lot of the nuance off of evil, God seems to take it very seriously, and the harm it can cause us even more so. I have seen up close that even though he isn’t stopping it all, he is far from idle. It made things much less theoretical, it made them real.
How are you pastoring your community differently after the tragedy than you were before it?
I am probably more understanding of people when they suffer, I can relate to more of the world’s hurt. And I am more clear than ever that God is calling me to be an agent of change in this world.
Anything else you’d like to share with us about you? the book?
I guess, I was trying to have something that doesn’t back away from answering questions that can be answered. Sometimes the truth needs to be stated. Simply stated.
But I also tried to be fair with the complexity and difficulty of the process. It isn’t an easy one. Too many Christians have tried to answer too many questions with too simple of an answer. I tried to honor the dignity of the question, of the suffering that has caused the question, share some thoughts, and then hopefully get out of the way so that the person asking and the transcendent God of all universes, can take it from there.
I guess time will tell whether or not that is just what I wanted to do, or if that is what I did.
Also, I would want people to know this isn’t a book about a particular tragedy – but about tragedy itself and how we and God deal with it. Likewise, it isn’t just about the suffering we went through at Va. Tech, but about how we deal with suffering in our world today, and God’s part in that. It is much broader than one experience but it is clearly set within that experience.
When does the book come out and where can readers pick up a copy?
It comes out 4.8.2010 but is available for pre order now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble… just about anywhere. Amazon has it available for the Kindle which is awesome, and Oasis is publishing it as an audio book, read by yours truly. Warning with audio version… I tried to convince them to let me read it using my Charlton Heston or Dr. Evil voice, but they wouldn’t let me. So, it’s just me.
“This book oozes honesty about the doubts and anger we often feel when injustice occurs. The book not only made me laugh and brought me to tears, more importantly it caused me to think. SHOULD WE FIRE GOD? will appeal to people wherever they are on their spiritual journeys.”
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