Wide Open Spaces: Beyond Paint-by-Number Christianity (Paperback)

by Jim Palmer (Author)
Key Phrases: spiritual living, nonspiritual self, freedom filter, Wide Open Spaces, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
With Divine Nobodies, emerging church leader Palmer touched a nerve with readers who gravitate toward cutting-edge evangelical writers like Brian McLaren and Donald Miller. Similarly, this book employs a personal, homespun style to dissent from Christianity-as-usual. Palmer examines such spiritual disciplines as honing one's belief system in accordance with biblical principles; advancing the gospel outside of church walls; dismantling ineffective church practices; and discovering purpose in unexpected places. He might raise the hackles of some evangelicals with a confessional narrative of putting aside the Bible for a season, recognizing that it was at the center of ...a religion that had left [him] empty, exhausted, and disillusioned. Palmer shed this conventional religion as he purposefully tuned out preachers and others quoting or referring to it, and writes that the result was that God spoke to him through nature, people, art, film and music. Palmer might be termed a renegade, but most young evangelicals will see him as a rebel with a cause and a message worth considering. (Dec. 4)
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Product Description

Jim Palmer's critically acclaimed Divine Nobodies was only half the story - the deconstruction and shedding of a religious mentality that hindered his knowing God. In his next book, Jim takes the reader along into the wide open spaces of exploring and experiencing God beyond religion. Jim writes, "It is no secret that God can be lost beneath the waving banner of religion. Divine Nobodies is my story of how this happened to me. Sometimes you have to disentangle God from religion, even Christ from Christianity, to find the truth. With the help of some unsuspecting nobodies, I uncovered a new starting line with God. As I've put one foot in front of another, I've experienced God in ways that are deeply transforming."

Each chapter revolves around a central question related to knowing God on fresh terms: Is God a belief system? Is the Bible a landing strip or launching pad? Can what we're feeling inside be God? Are we too religiously minded to be any earthly good?

Brian McLaren wrote, "I am tempted to say that Jim Palmer could well be the next Don Miller, but what they have in common, along with an honest spirituality and extraordinary skill as storytellers, is a unique voice."

The Library Reviews said of him, "Jim Palmer's casual, yet compelling writing style cuts through the religious rhetoric and gets to the real issues…readers will love this author! His sense of humor is alternately mixed with shocking sentences and poignant moments. Laced throughout is a refreshing honesty that ties his ideas together with a ribbon of reality…each turn of the page strips away a little more of the contrived mystery of Christianity until the simplicity and sincerity of it stands in realistic splendor."

More and more people seek a deeper spirituality beyond status-quo religion. Others are left empty and weary from a shallow and narrow pop-Christianity. Palmer says that God's kingdom of love, peace, and freedom can be a present reality in any person's life. He proclaims that God is indeed in the process of birthing something deep and wide among unlikely people in unconventional ways, which is changing the world...one "nobody" at a time.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (December 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0849913993
• ISBN-13: 978-0849913990
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #25,007 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wide Open Heart, November 28, 2007

By	Lance Ford (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Wide Open Spaces is not Divine Nobodies II. It stands on its on, but if you liked Jim's first book you will love this one. Chasing the rogue theological thoughts many of us have had but buried in the forbidden bins of our heart, Jim writes from a solid theological head but a supple heart. This book is meant for anyone...period. But for long time Christians and leaders who have a sack full of questions about church, their faith, and the world around them, Wide Open Spaces is a great fireside chat type of book. Get it, read it, give some away.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jargon-free Spiritual Exploration, December 28, 2007

By	Larry Shallenberger (Erie, Pa USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Jim accomplishes what might be one of the most difficult tasks in spiritual writing: Exploring faith and spirituality without resorting to impersonal tradition-based jargon. In Wide Open Spaces, Jim explores his struggle to make the Apostle Paul's teaching Christ being the center of all of our relationships.

As he did in Divine Nobodies, Jim writes unguardedly. He is honest, self-depreciating and humorous.

My own exploration of the issues has led me to, perhaps, some different conclusions than Jim. But Jim nails what matters most-- love.

Just two books into his career, and Jim should again be grouped with the likes of Lamott and Donald Miller.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of My Top 3 for 2007-2008, December 20, 2007

By	William Dahl "On Porpoise" (Redmond, OR) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As I read Wide Open Spaces, I found myself recalling my childhood experience of wading into the ocean, progressively further from shore. At a certain point, the breakers begin to wash over me --- it's uniquely, experientially refreshing. Yet, there are several seconds before the next set of waves is upon me. This respite gives one the opportunity to ponder and absorb the invigoration and wonder of it all. Today, as an adult, this experience still has the ability to transform me into experiencing childlike wonder --- one who cannot fathom the thought of ever getting out of the water --- of producing all sorts of questions, curiosities, thanks and hopes. It's magical. My prayer (and my hope) is that this book will have the same effect on you --- producing a childlike wonder for experiencing God in new ways --- that will endure for a lifetime. Soak in this book. Thank you Jim!

It is a rare achievement for any artist to follow their first work - one that remains as highly acclaimed as Divine Nobodies, with a follow-on work that is unequivocally better than the first. Jim Palmer has done it with Wide Open Spaces.

The reading of Wide Open Spaces is not optional. It's mandatory if you are one who desires to know God and be love in our world today. This book is an epic contribution to the way ahead. It is an indelible blessing.

The implications of Wide Open Spaces are clear for the spiritual sojourner and the possibilities for a way of life for those who deeply desire something more in how they experience God on a day-to-day basis:

a. Many feel trapped and confined within the belief systems that they have inadvertently adopted as knowing God. As Jim points out, this is an unfortunate reality that can and must be overcome. This book will speak freedom to those who are currently living within the confines of this deception.

b. Safe harbors become stagnant waters for marine life. The results of a relationship with Christ based solely upon a dependence upon right beliefs is a relationship with belief systems, not God, according to Palmer. The resultant stagnation for the human species is the same as it is for marine life, confined to similar environs.

c. Today, followers of Jesus require voices, like Jim Palmer's, to lead us beyond the man-made breakwaters to the blessing of living in the Wide Open Spaces, exploring the endless possibilities for sustenance and transformation on the open seas of faith.

d. Perhaps, it is here, in these waters, where mankind may come to know God and be love.

This book will definitely facilitate "dialogue" --- my sense it that it will be most intense from the pulpits of the "people of the steeple" (my term, not Jim's). Palmer challenges us to rethink the implications of our penchant with possessing "right beliefs about God," and the obvious Us vs. them, win-lose behavior this creates. Maybe "God wants love to be our belief system?"(p.7). Maybe that's what God really is anyway.

I adored some of the following excerpts penned by Jim:

As Jim states (p. xi), "I am writing for the person who desires to know God as a person, not a program."

"But what if God is bigger than a belief system? What if God is bigger than self, than family, bigger than tribe, bigger than nation, and even bigger than any set of doctrines we try to wrap around him. Whereas religion sometimes brings out the worst in people, could the vision of a bigger God cause us to place higher value on expanding our circles of care and working toward a more peaceful world?" ( p. 2).

"There isn't a lockbox at the center of the universe containing a divine computer program with doctrinal code." (p. 3)

"God is not a belief system of truth propositions; he is a living spiritual reality within us. Two thousand years later, this is still the secret to knowing God." (p. 11).

"We want to figure God out in our head, while God wants us to feel him in our heart." (p. 20. ).

"God provides plenty of opportunity to be the church in the midst of doing ordinary life together with others." (p. 33).

"The more I've been digging around in church history, the more I've seen that the true history of the church often takes its course through the generations of those who were despised by organized Christendom." (p. 38).

"Too often religion becomes so preoccupied with self preservation that its adherents lose touch with their spiritual identity as the hands and feet of God in the world." (p. 94).

"The value of a person to God is not determined by what percentage of his or her theology is correct." (p. 98).

"Religion normally assumes their answers are the right and doesn't take too kindly to people opening topics for further investigation." (p.164).

"If you're willing to be curious about God like a child, you'll find that he is much bigger than what a grownup mind is capable of conceiving. I've learned not to limit God to "the box" of my current set of beliefs because there always seems to be something new and more just outside the lines of my present understanding. If you're open to the wonder of God, you won't be disappointed." (p. 175).

"Have people heard the "gospel" repeatedly and become weary of it --- you know, weary of unconditional love and peace? Or has the gospel been replaced by a Christianity devoid of true love, joy and peace, and now focused on preserving outworn structures, traditions and the status-quo?" (p. 187).

"Virtually every significant thing God has ever done to birth his kingdom has been contrary to human logic and has come through the least likely people." (p.188).

"Be love." (p. 195).

Jim Palmer is a master story teller and evidences the depth and breadth of his skills in this book. Reading a work by Palmer is like listening to a friend seated next to you. An extraordinary, breakwater busting achievement for Mr. Palmer. May the waves of His blessings wash over us through this work. The #3 best book I have read in 2007.

Respectfully Submitted,

Bill Dahl