The Vision and The Vow

I finished reading book #5 of 2005 yesterday in the hammock. It's by Pete Greig, entitled "The Vision and The Vow: Re-Discovering Life and Grace." Pretty bold subtitle so I was intrigued.

I can honestly say that this book lived up to the subtitle. It's profound and provocative (which, naturally, you'll disagree with some of the author's conclusions/applications--which I liked, but not sure the application is for "all" Christians but he covered that, too) so you'll have to have your thinking cap on when you're in your hammock reading in the nice Texas weather.

Just a few quotes to get you thinking today:

"Sometimes it is when we stop trying to be relevant that we actually become relevant to a watching world. Our "irrelevance" may well be the very message the world is looking for at this time. Sometimes we will be called to defy the culture--nevery to deify it--by living biblically and modeling a different way of being a student, a musician, a teacher, or whatever world we've been sent to inhabit."

He then quotes Os Guinness: "Never have Christians pursued relevance more strenuously and yet never have Christians been more irrelevant." Later he quotes Guinness when he said that the evangelical community has tranferred authority from "Sola Scriptura" to "Sola Cultura." Wow.

"While my vision--the Christian's vision--is Christ, His vision is...me! His vision is not just some cosmic master plan for benevolent domination, nor is itfilled with those legions of angels about His throne. God's vision is filled with His children, and His greatest delight--His highest joy--is to see us fully alive."

On grace: "Too often we are reduced to trivial debates about how far we can go sexually or how much we should give financially--all the shades of gray in the ethics of obedience. And I suppose if we're adherents to a religious code, then such negotiations are fine and necessary. But if we are caught up in an infatuation of the holy, if this is a religion of living relationship and burning passion, then the impulse will not be to get the best deal, but rather, to give with joyful extravagance."

From the author's work of art he calls The Vision, which inspired the book, on the nature of his Christian community:

"What the vision? The vision is holiness that hurst the eyes.
It makes children laugh and adults angry.
It gave up the game of minimum integrity
long ago to reach for the stars.
It scorns the good and strains for the best.
It is dangerously pure...

...Whatever it takes they will give;
breaking the rules,
shaking mediocrity from it's cozy little hide
laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs
laughing at labels
fasting essentials.
The advertisers cannot mold them.
Hollywood cannot hold them.
Peer-pressure is powerless
to shake their resolve
at late night parties
before the cockerel cries

They are incredibly cool
dangerously attractive (on the inside)
On the outside? They hardly care!
They wear clothes like costumes:
to communicate and celebrate
but never to hide."

You can get more information on Pete Greig's ministry here. May his tribe increase.