Life’s a Beach
Mike Yaconelli
Messy Spirituality: Christianity for the rest of us
Hodder & Stoughton £6.99 (0-340-75635-7)
Here are 50 or more anecdotes loosely making the point that there are no slick formulae for guaranteed spiritual growth. “Spirituality is complex, complicated and perplexing - the disorderly, sloppy, chaotic look of authentic faith in the real world.” Mike Yaconelli is a popular speaker on the ‘postevangelical’ circuit and at UK events such as Greenbelt. He is an ageing, hippyish youth worker who pastors a little church in California which seems to attract the socially challenged like a gate with ‘Vicarage’ on it.
All these anecdotes are seasoned with biblical illustrations and in a very non-theological and accessible way he explores the spiritual concepts of openness, closure, rejection, via negativa, deficient discipleship and accidie - without mentioning any of them. With the great unchurched in his mind (and perhaps overchurched American evangelicals) he eschews both theological jargon and all the great historical spiritual writers. There are quotes and stories however from many of the gurus looked to by late 20th century ‘broad’ evangelicalism: Robert Capon, Jacques Ellul, Eugene Peterson, Henri Nouwen.
Yaconelli’s love of God and of people who feel rejected by more formal church structures is evident. “Spirituality is not about competency, it is about intimacy” he asserts. He has no time for those who mistake conformity to evangelical culture for the pursuit of God, and whatever your church style, he leaves you feeling slightly uncomfortable and wondering how inclusive many of our congregations really are.
This is a good book for those who have started well in the faith, but who are beginning to lose the plot and feel disheartened. I read it one morning on the beach in Gran Canaria and it made me feel better about having forgotten to take my Divine Office Book with me.
Church Times
