Amazing Book...

So I was referred a book recently by a good friend, who said that it was a "paradigm shifter". I'm always up for a good stretch so I dove in. An absolutely hope-giving, heart-opening book. One of the best books I've ever read. Here goes "So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore" by Jake Colson is the name. It's a conversation with a frustrated associate pastor and a spiritual sojourner. Nothing I can say can adequtely describe how good it's done my heart to read this. I'll give a few quotes.

*"But why can't we see how this game is so destructive? Others are being lied to!"

"They don't want to see it Jake. Religious systems prey on people's insecurity. They haven't learned how to live in Father's love, to follow his voice and depend on him. Consequently they can't do anything that might upset their place in the game, or they'll feel lost. We wire people to their approval needs at a very young age and try to exploit it their whole life long."

"And part of that training includes marginalizing those that don't go along." I let out a deep sign. "I've certainly done that to others. I had no idea how it felt from this side."

"Institutionalism breeds task-based friendships. As long as you're on the same task together, you can be friends. When you're not, people tend to treat you like damaged goods. Now you know what that's like from the other side and one of the big things Jesus is doing in you now is to free you from the game, so that you can live deeply in him rather than worrying about what everyone else thinks about you."

"I've been tortured by that my whole life, John."

*"You're the one who helped me see through organized religion."

"It's one things to see through things and quite another to be against them. That's the game--and I'm not playing."

"Any human system will eventually dehumanize the very people it seeks to serve and those it dehumanizes the most are those who think they lead it."

"I don't care about all that, John. I just want Jim's failure exposed to the world." I could feel my face flush with anger and my hands ball up into angry fists.

"Why are you do angry, Jake?"

*"I never thought of it that way. But I hate it that people think he's so righteous."

"But they only think he is. It's an illusion and while illusions can be powerful, they are still illusions."

"But most people live by those illusions."

"Only because they want to, Jake. I don't want you to. You appear to be the bad guy when you know it isn't true. You appear to be on the verge of financial ruin, but you're not. Never let mere appearances become you're reality."

"But I want others to know the truth, John. Why should they get to live in their illusions?"

"Believing a lie isn't something someone gets to do. It's something they are trapped in."

Another book in the docket to read is called "The Shack". The same friend recommended it. Also, reading "Everything Must Change" by Brian McLaren. Good stuff is afoot!