Customer Reviews

Messy Spirituality (Hodder Christian Books)

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If you're a perfect, upstanding, respectable, fully mature Christian, you may not identify with very much in this book. If you're like the other 99.9% of us, this book is a capital-G Godsend. It may be a revelation to some that a person can sincerely love Jesus and be a seeker of God yet continue to display weaknesses, areas of non-discipline, and, let's just say it, sins that would seem incongruous with "true" Christianity. There are many out there that feel like second-class Christians because they feel they don't pray enough, or may occasionally use salty language, or smoke cigarettes, or...fill in the blanks. This is a book not only for those people, but for those who are tempted to sit in judgment over those people.

Mike Yaconelli is former editor of "The Door", probably the only Christian humor magazine around, and is presently a lay pastor of a small church. He sees below the surface mess of people's lives and invites the reader out of a world of self-condemnation and into a land of freedom. Some may be concerned that this book gives people a license to sin. Well, most people sin quite well without a license! When we are honest before God and give up pretending that our lives are neat and tidy, that's when God can take the messes of our lives and redeem them into something beautiful. This is a little book, but it packs a big punch. Highly recommended.

In one of the chapters of the book, Yaconelli says, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd."

I have always felt like I was odd, a poor fit for the church. I've had unconventional views of Jesus, discipleship and ways to approach life that have made some people uncomfortable and left me wondering whether I was a nut, apostate or both.

Central to my philosophy of discipleship is the idea that Jesus died not to make us clean or obedient, but to form us to be passionate about knowing him in the midst of our profound uncleanness and disobedience. To have made it to age 35 with 15 years as an intentional disciple without getting smoked by God because of my sin leads me to believe that God's interest is in something more than my mere behavior.

Yet, I have felt alone in this view. Mostly because it cuts against the vast grain that is so deeply entwined in church culture. You can't earn your salvation, but buddy, once you get it, you better work your bootocks off! But I have come to the point where I realize I can keep scrubbing but the dirt and mess is always there. And frankly, sometimes, I just get weary from the scrubbing.

Yaconelli has written a book that celebrates the messy Christian. He authenticates the lonely disciple who refuses to believe that following Christ is about being well-behaved, "balanced," clean, and uniformly consistent with the church's list of What-To-Do/What-Not-To-Do.

This book has caused me to weep with soulful tears because of its recognition of who I am: a man with a deep love for God and a deep love for himself and a deep love for sin. Yaconelli doesn't try to resolve the tension. He just lets you step into the wonder of loving a God who gladly accepts -- and maybe even CALLS us into -- messy, eliptical pursuits of him. To have someone recognize me in such a deep way is enough, but to have someone say that this type of Christianity is actually pleasing to God is liberating. I kid you not.

Run three ways to get this book: hard, fast & immediately.

Sometimes it is difficult to write an appropriate review for a book, such is the case here. It would be impossible in a brief review to convey the depth of understanding and clear vision of God and spirituality that this book conveys. If you are a Christian and in your Mary Poppins world think yourself to be practically perfect in every way, then this is not the book for you. For everyone else, including those who need to deal with perfect Christians, this is one of the best books that I have ever read on the subject of Christianity and spirituality. The focus of the text is to challenge one of the most insidious practices of the church, the expectation of perfection among its members, rituals and procedures. Through personal examples Michael Yaconelli illustrates the true grace of God and how it should show through in all the ways we interact with others. If you have been taught to berate yourself because you are less than a perfect Christian, this book is a breath of fresh air that truly frees you from those chains of what you "should" be. I have read many books on Christianity, theology, Bible Studies, etc. and many of them have been excellent, but if there were one book that I would recommend above all others this is the one that should be in every Christian's hands.

Anyone who has been a believer for more than a few years has felt pressure to conform to false ideals of spirituality from time to time. This book speaks to those of us who've tried and failed to be what we thought was spiritual only to discover that our dysfunctions were simply agreeing with others people's dysfunctions. I borrowed "Messy Spirituality" from a coworker a month ago after hearing "interesting" things about Yac. As I read the first chapter I smiled, laughed and shed some tears.

I had to chuckle as one reviewer opined that this book could be "dangerous" in the wrong hands. Wasn't that the charge made against the apostle Paul? "He's telling them to go sin because God's grace makes everything okay!" Paul spent a lot of energy trying to debunk that mischaracterization with little success. It's a tough pill to swallow. I am free in Christ, even to be bad. But if I am compelled by love, why would I do wrong? That's the million-dollar question, and explains why an authentic walk with God is a truly messy affair. We wander, get lost, then find that he's right there in the middle of the remotest trail getting in our way again. Amazing grace.

Read "dangerous" Messy Spirituality for yourself. :) Hopefully you'll feel more liberated to be yourself on your journey instead of trying to follow someone else's ideal.

I give thanks to God for this book.

Mike Yaconelli has written a wonderful exploration into the practicalities of grace. It is an easy read, filled with vivid stories and written for the laity. There are so many books on spiritual formation including a plethora written in the last couple of decades. Sadly, the most popular ones pay lip service to God's grace while subtly seducing the reader into a righteousness based upon works. Our calling in life, these books suggest, is to make God happy. Yaconelli reminds us that God's happiness is thankfully not dependent on my pathetic works.

Is this book dangerous? Absolutely. The book is dangerous only in that it witnesses to the good news of Jesus Christ. That good news turns the world upset down offering God's undeserved love. The weirdoes, the losers, and the undesirables have a place in the kingdom of God. The self-righteous should beware.

As a pastor, I would recommend this book to all of my parishioners. As we struggle with the faith, Yaconelli words will provide comfort and challenge. To those interested in spirituality, it is the proper beginning point on your journey.

Messy Spirituality makes sense, sort of, but mostly it doesn't ring true to the new testament description of saving faith and the new testament description of following jesus because it leaves out the power of God to bring about real change in a person, initially and long term. For example, in one place, the author claims that after jesus speaks to the woman at the well in samaria, and she is so spiritually impacted that she runs and tells her whole village about jesus, according to the author, this woman was still living in sin with her boyfriend and there was no immediate change in her lifestyle of sin in this respect. now the new testament doesn't say she remained in her sinful lifestyle; it doesn't say she left her life of sexual immorality either, but to say that she remained in her sinfulness is a guess, the author's guess, in order to prove his "messy spirituality" thesis. but this doesn't ring true to what we see in other places in the new testament. can we say like the author that the woman doesn't change right away in respect to her sexual immorality? her short conversation with jesus changed her life there can be no doubt because she all of a sudden became an evangelist in her own town, and literally brought many people to jesus. now since we know the brief meeting with jesus changed her life, it probably also changed her attitudes and actions toward her own personal sins, those probably changed too. no, we don't have a passage that says she stopped living with her boyfriend, but based on her spiritual awakening we can assume she responded in a similar way to the woman caught in adultery, where jesus told her, "go and sin no more." maybe jesus did tell the woman at the well something similar, but even if he didn't, she probably responded as if he had said, "go and sin no more" to her. her life was changed profoundly, there is no reason to think her moral life wasn't change by the same spiritual influence. this is just one instance where the author argues from silence, and in a direction that doesn't ring true to the rest of the new testament. of course, the author is partially right, growing in faith is messy because it isn't steady, there are lots of falling down and getting up again, sinning, confessing, repenting, rededicating, etc. but to make excuses for sin and failure, to treat it casually, is an insult to the Holy Spirit who empowers believers to overcome our natural rebellion against God. there are a lot of interesting and important questions raised in the book, and the topic needs to be discussed by everyone in church leadeship, but unfortunately i can't buy into the author's main thesis because it doesn't seem to take the Holy Spirit's power seriously at conversion and through on-going discipleship, in addition to neglecting true repentance and the power that it produces in person's life.

I don't confess to be much of a book reader. But my pastor used it as a reference one sunday and it intrigued me so much that I went and bought it. It was sooooo good that I couldn't put it down and read it straight thru in 4 hours!

I confess to only have 3 favorite life changing books: the Bible, Messy Spirituality, and Lover of My Soul. Those 3 books have radically changed my personal walk with Christ in a way nothing else has. It has challenged me to be real in the way that Christ was....focusing on relationships over religion, and relieving the pressure of the goal of perfection. (you must read this book understanding the author is not excusing sin, but seeing ourselves, others, and christianity in a compassionate and gracious way - the way Christ sees us)

I have bought at least 20 copies of this, can't seem to keep enough of them to give away!

Does God really love us unconditionally? Can it be that He sees all of my faults, my sins, and my lousy attempts to be Christlike and still He loves me? More than just love me from afar, God puruses me, calls to me, tells me, "You can make it!" and picks me up when I fall. As Michael Yaconelli puts it, this is "God's Annoying Love for Imperfect People." In his book Yaconelli tells us stories that sear your heart and awaken you to true spirituallity. Spirituality is messy, at least mine is. I don't know very many Christians who have it all together, though some of us may look like we have it all together. Yaconelli's book challenges me to give up false spirituallity for true messy Christianity. A messy church will be more like a barnyard than a cathedral. It will be a menagerie of rescued souls at all levels of spiritual life. We need to rescue those who don't know how to "behave" in church. To reach out to those who have not cleaned up their act yet, and may take a while to so. This is what Jesus did. He was a "winebibber" (whatever that is) and a "friend of sinners". O' Lord, let me be accused of the same!

If you are looking for a how to book, you won't find it here. If you are looking for a deep analysis of the spiritual life, look else where. If you are looking for encouragement for your journey that doesn't give simplistic christianeze answers but paints a picture of what a compelling Christisn life really looks like, well you found it.

So frequently Christian books tell you what to do and how to be a better Christian. Not so with Messy Spirituality! This book tells it how it is, how Christians suffer and have stress and pain and life happens to us just like everyone else. However, Mike Yaconelli pulls it around to a place of awe and wonder by making it all worthwhile and meaningful in God's context. The language and stories he used filled me with wonder in our awesome, amazing, beyond understanding God.