Chapter 8 & 9

Good thoughts on the last Chapters. If you did not read all the comments be sure to check them out. On to the next chapter. I think we are slowly gaining momentum again. I really like the last few chapters in the book. So don’t stop reading if you have not read these yet.

Chapters 6 & 7

Alright folks it appears we have come to a stand still on reading the book. I am assuming that people are reading and that everyone is too busy to post comments. Not sure whether to extent Chap 6 & 7 one more week or not. Anyway couple thoughts on the chapters.

Before reading this book I had never thought about how isolated I am from those in need. Shane really does a good job of showing how we have developed a middle man type system where we don’t have to interact with those in need. He mentions that when we actually come in contact with those in need and they come in contact with us is when community happens and we are all changed. Very good thoughts. We support a child through compassion international and we correspond once a while but I have often felt like it is just so disconnected. Shane mentions that in some ways this type of giving, while good in some ways, allows us to clear our conscience concerning the poor. We can just check off that part of the list and move on. Any ideas on how we can actually connect?

Chapter 7 is very relevant for this week. Shane talks about what happened on 9/11 and his trip to Iraq. Really opened my eyes. When Christ talks about loving our enemies and praying for those that persecute us it has always seemed distant or not very relevant in my life.  But wow, what an opportunity right now to demonstrate radical love.  We are to be peacemakers, people that realize that every single person on earth is loved by God, those right here and those that live in Iraq.  Let us pray for those that are Iraq.

Chapters 4 & 5

Moving on……to Chapters 4 & 5. I have not had time to read them yet (again at least) but I wanted to get a post up for these chapters. We look forward to more contributions from Michael now that he is settled (and I expect a little bit more out of him now that he is an academic, ha).

Chapters 2 & 3

Lots of good thoughts on Chapter 1. We could write our own book with the content from our comments. Some thoughts on Chapter 2. Two main ideas that caught my attention. First Shane mentions what it was like to take the risk to move in with the homeless people. The result is that he saw God work in amazing ways. Help came from unexpected places. He mentions that because of the experience he “Became a believer in miracles.” Do we insulate ourselves from anything risky and in doing so eliminate the opportunity for God to work miracles in our lives? When was the last time you took a risk which would allow God to show up?

Second thought. Shane mentions what it was like to discover church. Church as the body of Christ rather than a building. “The body of Christ was literal, living, hungry, thirsty, bleeding.” Powerful because it is so easy to think of church as a place. A place where you put on a smile, clean up real nice and act like everything is great. I think that is exactly what satan wants. When we live in true community, open and honest, we become the church and everyone is changed.

Intro and Chapter 1

Have not had time to put down any thoughts yet, traveling between home, Wilmington and Beth’s.  I will post some thoughts tomorrow but if anyone wants to start out with some thoughts, feel free.  You can just add comments to this post.

Reading Schedule

Alright here we go. I am suggesting that we read two chapters a week. But we can modify the schedule if we are going to slow/fast. It will probably work best if you read the chapter early in the week so that you can comment during the week but whenever you get to it works. I will post some thoughts on the Chapter 1 soon so that everyone can comment.

August 6-12 Intro, Chapter 1

August 13-19 Chapter 2 and 3

August 20-26 Chapter 4 and 5

August 27-Sept 2 Chapter 6 and 7

Sept 3-9 Chapter 8 and 9

Sept 10-16 Chapter 10 and 11

Sept 17-23 Chapter 12 and 13

Sept 24-30 So what are we going to do with what we have learned?

A Discussion

This is an invitation for everyone to participate in an open discussion as we read through The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne

The plan is to start reading once everyone who wants to participate has the book. We will read one chapter a week with open dicussion as we go along. The comments and posts should be both positive and negative. Negative posts being things that we don’t agree with in the book. It is really easy to post a comment (that is a response to a new post). You just need to click on the title of the post (in this case it would be “A Discussion”) and a comment box will appear, you put in your name and email, enter your comments in the box and hit submit comment.