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Gifts of an Uncommon Life: The Practice of Contemplative Activism

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Neal Q. Herrick, Boydton, VA

Gifts of an Uncommon Life is a remarkable book. It will make you laugh and it will also make you cry. At one level, it is about how to help a church's members "grow" their church. At another level, it is about how a woman or a man might "grow" her- or him-self. It is a striking book in that its author, Rev. Howard Friend, is both a devout Christian and an admirer of Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and the other doctrinal explanations for our existence. Fortunately, Rev. Friend makes his points by telling stories. Some of the stories he uses are from the Bible and others are from his own first- or second-hand experience. He is a master story-teller and the points he makes are useful and important - especially the points about how we might "grow" ourselves. He would be giving us all a substantial gift if he would, sometime in the future, write a book that makes its points through an equal and impartial use of stories from the Qur'an, the Upanishads and the Cannons of Buddhism. We are at a point in our history where, not only Christian denominations, but all religions, need to recognize their common values, principles and goals.

Review of
"Gifts of an Uncommon Life: The Practice of Contemplative Activism"
by Howard Friend (Virginia: Alban Institute, 2008)

Howard Friend is a self-confessed maverick, literally hard to brand. He believes in the Trinitarian God, loves Jesus and draws life from scripture, but is comfortable with people of differing faith and allows large space to any definition of the term "the people of God". He is orthodox without the sometimes-sharp edges of orthodoxy. Psychology and meditation techniques are imbedded in his thinking but they usually come out, not as jargon but as he peers into a passage of scripture. The Old or New Testaments invite his forays. He is comfortable (and highly successful) in the pulpit as a preacher, with a long track record as pastor (23 years in one church). He is equally comfortable leading a weekend retreat for church leaders, drawing out and helping shape their mission statement. He can propound theory, as expert speaking to novice, much as a college professor (which he often is). Yet, he prefers to prod and enter a process of discernment - `doing with' rather than `doing for'. As with his first book, "Recovering the Sacred Center", his secret strength is leading the way to God within, who is the source of words, vision, healing, and reality. He tips his hand by having Richard Rohr write the preface - Rohr being the Franciscan leader of the Center for Action and Meditation in Albuquerque. Yet, the proof of such centering is finding the passion of God, - enough to protest as an Old Testament prophet; enough to hope as a New Testament Evangelist. Howard can't be branded, and we the readers are beneficiaries of his wide-ranging, out-of-the-box thinking.

The Rev. Dr. Robert D. Young
3/8/09

This is a gem of insight, reflection, and guidance. Howard Friend's honesty inspires my own. I've already adopted some of his suggestions including how to take control of my precious time on this earth. Written from a non-dogmatic religious perspective and in large part to the church community, I am finding this reading quite useful in my personal and secular worlds.

What a gift Howard Friend's book is. As a pastor who is trying to create a viable vision for the Church in a day when this practice struggles to find ground between Biblical inerrancy and new creeds written by the Emerging Church Movement, I found Friend's book to be a light to my feet. He includes, from his long experience, a number of stories of churches which have worked around their own obstacles. He combines a strong sense of activism with an inspiring prayer life and in so doing combines a number of different traditions into a workable and productive model. Further, Friend writes in an engaging way and a very personal way taking from his own journey and with disarming candidness to inspire any one navigating the turbulent waters of doing Church in this day and age.