Blogger’s Book Better Late Than Never

Flipping through listings of future publications in the “Religion” category, I was surprised to find a spring listing for a book from Christian blogger Jamie Wright. Though there’s nothing showing on her blog since August of last year, being The Very Worst Blogger would be an appropriate addition to her collection of “worsts.” I wondered if people would remember her after all these years.

Like the blog, the book is titled The Very Worst Missionary and is being distributed by no less than Penguin Random House. With an April 3rd release date — just after Easter — the book will appear under PRH’s Converge Books imprint, a parking place for anything Christian that’s edgy. Yeah, they got that right. Totally candid, brutally honest, and wonderfully transparent.

Earlier today I browsed this blog’s archives for references to Jamie Wright only to find too many indexed to follow up on all of them. But this should give you an idea; a 2013 piece on being the parent of three teenage boys, simply titled Sex.  [Warning: Explicit language.]

…I believed that sex was the best thing I had to offer the world. It was the only thing about me worth loving. And I learned, too young, that I could leverage sex to get what I wanted. My female parts had become my greatest asset.

Then I found my way into the Church, 19 with a baby on my hip, and while I lingered on the outskirts of the Christian bubble, guess what I learned… I learned I was right! Apparently, even God was super concerned with my vagina, and where it had been, and what it had touched. Apparently, my genitals were like a portal that led straight to my soul. I had been muddied – and everybody knows that once you muck up clean water, you can’t unmuck it.

It took me a lot of years and a lot of conversations with God (and with people who know more about God than me) to understand that everything I believed about my own sexuality was built on two huge lies.The first comes from our culture, and it tells us that sex outside of marriage isn’t a big deal.

The second is from the Church, and it tells us that sex outside of marriage is the biggest deal of all the deals ever.

One allowed me to give it away freely, convinced I would carry no burden. The other forced me to carry a spirit crushing load.

Both are complete crap.

Now that we’ve shocked a few of you, for me the real gold to be mined in Jamie’s blog are some pieces she wrote on short-term missions, as seen through the eyes of full-time career missionaries in Costa Rica; like this 2012 piece, Hugs for Jesus:

…We ended up shooting an impromptu interview with this group of college aged youth, who’d come from all over North America and Europe. We asked them simple questions like who they were, what they were doing, and what they hoped to accomplish by giving out hugs on the streets of Costa Rica. I can say they were at least able to tell us their own names with confidence – beyond that, it was obvious that none of them was really sure why they were here or what they were doing. One girl even admitted that she wasn’t even a Christian when she arrived in the field, and that her Mom had signed her up (As a missionary! On a missions trip!!) without her knowledge.

We asked them, “If someone accepted a hug and was so moved by said hug (and subsequently knowing that Jesus loved them) and they wanted more information, what would you do?”

And they weren’t really sure.

So we helped them out with a suggestion, “Would you, y’know, maybe refer them to a local church?”

“Oh, yes! Yes. For sure. We would refer them to a church.”

Cool. Which church?

“Oh. Costa Rica has tons of great churches.”

OK. Do you know what any of them are called? Or where they are?

“Well… No. But, they’re everywhere around here.”

Oookaaay… Do you go to a church here? Like, a church that you could invite people to attend?

“Um…yeah. Hey, you guys? What’s that church we go to? Like, on Sundays. What’s it called again?”

So you don’t even know where YOU go to church?

And then, a leader came up and tapped her watch and said, “Sorry to interrupt, but we’ve got to go do… a…thing…” And then they split.

Jamie Wright

A little later that year, after quoting Luke 10 where Jesus sends out his version of a missions team, Healthy Short Term Missions? Do it Like Jesus, she noted:

Where Jesus appointed, we take volunteers.

Where Jesus sent pairs, we send herds.

Where Jesus admonished for danger and quiet humility along the road, we opt for vacation destinations and loud self-congratulations.

Where Jesus asks to be bringers of peace, we often bring chaos.

Where Jesus designed an opportunity for a disciple to lean into a new family, learn a new culture, and serve under the head of a household (who best knows his own need), we march in with a plan and the resources to git’er’done – completely missing out on the gift of being “a worker worth his wages”.

What if the original picture of “short-term teams” was meant to show us this valuable step in the process of discipleship, where we can learn dependence on God, love for others, and how to serve

And what if we’ve taken that picture and turned it into a billion dollar industry, creating dependence among the poor – not on God – but on the ourselves, damaging Christ’s image in the world, and missing the point entirely?

That’s the type of thing I’m looking forward to see reach a wider audience this spring. Whether or not I’ll get to review the book here, I don’t know; I have no contacts at Converge Books.

But I’m also looking forward to the first type of writing we quoted first. That’s what Jamie is all about. And that’s why I think she’s the very best missionary.  

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Publisher marketing:

…As a quirky Jewish kid and promiscuous punkass teen, Jamie Wright never imagines becoming a Christian, let alone a Christian missionary. She is barely an adult when the trials of motherhood and marriage put her on an unexpected collision course with Jesus. After finding her faith at a suburban megachurch, Jamie trades in the easy life on the cul-de-sac for the green fields of Costa Rica. There, along with her family, she earnestly hopes to serve God and change lives. But faced with a yawning culture gap and persistent shortcomings in herself and her fellow workers, she soon loses confidence in the missionary enterprise and falls into a funk of cynicism and despair.

Nearly paralyzed by depression, yet still wanting to make a difference, she decides to tell the whole, disenchanted truth: Missionaries suck and our work makes no sense at all! From her sofa in Central America, she launches a renegade blog, Jamie the Very Worst Missionary, and against all odds wins a large and passionate following. Which leads her to see that maybe a “bad” missionary–awkward, doubtful, and vocal—is exactly what the world and the throngs of American do-gooders need.

The Very Worst Missionary is a disarming, ultimately inspiring spiritual memoir for well-intentioned contrarians everywhere…

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Sharing the Sriracha bottle left to right: Nadia Bolz-Weber, Sarah Bessey and Jamie Wright at a Meatball Bar (whatever that is) in early 2014. I thought the only progressive Christian female writer (at the time) missing was Rachel Held Evans. (It’s amazing what you find in your photo file.)

 

Wednesday Link List

This isn’t related to anything that follows, it’s just here… because.

Featured Links

Passivity, Submission, Bullying and Christian Womanhood – “As I grew up, I watched my Christian mother take a lot of emotional and verbal abuse…from my father and my older siblings, from people at church, her own siblings (my aunts and uncles), and neighbors. My mother rarely stood up for herself when she was treated poorly… I was also being taught to bottle up all my anger and never speak up on my own behalf, if mistreated. I was taught that the bully’s feelings were more important than my own… After many decades of living like this, when I got to adulthood I had no clue how to deal with conflict…Sometimes it took weeks, months, or years before I even recognized that I was being used or being treated poorly by someone because my mother (and Christian literature, sermons, Christian books, magazine articles, etc) had taught me to never think about myself, my feelings, or my needs, but to be intently ‘outward-focused,’ always striving to meet other people’ s needs because to do anything less was supposedly ‘selfish.’…I also had no skills or practice at how to handle conflict. I was taught that conflict was to be avoided, Christian women ought not to debate or argue with anyone nor to be assertive for any reason. This left me vulnerable to being picked on in adulthood with adult predators, as well as being mistreated as a kid by other kids …Many well-meaning Christians and churches unfortunately encourage girls and women to be this way, to think it is pleasing to God, or that God commands all women to be this way…”

Crafting the Best Sermons – Two links here; first an experienced pastor explains his decision to go back to writing full manuscripts: “I’ve found that if I don’t manuscript, I’m not capable of producing the kind of sermon that will live up to the kind of church that we want to see planted.” And then, the practical: “In the old days, before church planting, I’d devote four mornings a week to sermon preparation. On Monday and Tuesday I’d work on exegesis; on Wednesday and Thursday I’d begin to craft a sermon from the exegesis. I now do the same thing, except on one day: Thursday.”

Engaging the Culture: An Open Letter to Hozier, composer of Take Me To Church – “I had to find out more about you to understand why someone would write such lyrics. According to interviews you seem to have animus toward the Catholic Church and definitely an issue with Russia’s laws against homosexuals. Still to indict all of Christianity seems quite harsh. It is worth noting you wrote this song when you were only 22-years-old. Your fellow Irish rocker Bono has arrived at a very different view of the Church and Christianity with a few more years of life experience. Maybe given some time and a few more interactions with Christ followers you might have a change of heart.”

The Weather Impacts Church Revenues – “‘You have this perfect storm of people not being able to go to worship and so not bringing in offerings, combined with much higher than usual costs,’ Cindy Kohlmann, who works with Presbyterian churches in Greater Boston and northern New England, told the Associated Press. She told the news service that the financial toll might force some of the 60 Presbyterian churches in the region to close. Other denominations and religions told the AP of similar predicaments.”

Dawkins: Your Devotional Time with the Kids is Child Abuse  – “Richard Dawkins has said that children need to be protected from ‘religious indoctrination’ by their parents. The prominent atheist claimed that being brought up in a religious household prevents young people from being ‘properly educated’. Professor Dawkins, a well known evolutionary biologist, has previously caused outrage by remarking that teaching a child orthodox Christian beliefs about life after death is tantamount to ‘child abuse’.”

And Now for Something Completely Different – You don’t have to know exactly what Biblical Philology is to appreciate the self-congratulatory nature of this academic’s knowledge of the original sacred texts.

Don’t Fund-Raise Your Missions Trip on Social Media Alone – “It won’t be enough to just promote your mission trip through social media platforms. Fundraising will cost you time, work, money, and personal comfort. Be careful not to go the path of least resistance. Social media is the easiest way to get the word out to lots of people at once, but easy doesn’t always mean effective. Don’t shy away from the hard work of communicating with individuals, organizing events, doing extra jobs, and all kinds of other creative ways people have come up with missionary support.”

Museum of the Bible – “When it opens in late 2017, just about every aspect of the planned Museum of the Bible – the building materials, doorways and common areas – is intended to bring to mind the Holy Land or stories from the Bible itself. Hobby Lobby president Steven Green, in search of a home for his museum, purchased the building for $50 million… in Washington, D.C., located a few blocks from the Capitol and the National Mall.”

A Crisis in Cosmology – A new film, The Principle is now showing in selected markets and available for presentation in your city. “Dark Energy as we call it is the greatest mystery in all of creation.” “Science has said you must stay over in this category here, you’re not to go over into the God category, because that’s going to destroy our science.” “You can go on websites…NASA has started to take down stuff that might hint to a geocentric universe.” “We find ourselves in a part of the universe that is perfectly tuned to life.”

Quest Church Purchases the former Mars Hill Ballard – Eugene Cho writes, “No one could have imagined the situation at Mars Hill turning out the way that it turned out. When we first heard that the building would be available on the market, we met with their team and they expressed their desire to sell to a church if possible. They received a total of 10 offers – 9 from developers with tenants in tow and one from Quest. We weren’t the highest offer but we offered flexible conditions. They were true to their word for which we are grateful.”

The Worst Book Ever Written About Jesus –  Sadly, books like this are far too common, and often appear shelved at Barnes & Noble next to works more worthy of respect. Customers lacking discernment don’t know the difference. “For example, the authors argue that a celibate man in first-century Galilee would have been shocking, so Jesus must have been married. While overstated, we can follow their intended logic. But they also maintain throughout the book that Jesus’ marriage was so scandalous that it had to be covered up. So which was it? Was Jesus’ sexuality scandalous to his first followers or not?”

Frank Viola, The Songwriter – Who knew? And the song is good, though the tune is borrowed.

Short Takes

• Gordon College will sell 10% of its rare Bible collection at auction in order to get funding to properly house and preserve the other 90%.
• Saeed Abendi, American pastor imprisoned in Iran for more than two years, was shaken last week when six of his fellow prisoners were taken out to be hanged.
• One of the earliest gay wedding lawsuit stories, nine years later.
• Greying leadership at the LDS: The Mormon church has never had such elderly leaders.
• Hillsong United movie, Let Hope Rise, is now scheduled for May 29 release.
• Why we’re not naked: An in-depth Biblical theology of clothing.
• The band Mercy Me has been playing “I Can Only Imagine” in every concert they’ve done for 15 years.
• When Jesus spoke in Matthew 25 of “the least of these,” who exactly did He have in mind?
• Shana “books are my oxygen” Niequist on 20 recently-completed books she’s been reading. 
• Jamie the Very Worst Pray-er. Then again, maybe she gets it better than others.
  
• Two identical twins, two different faith journeys.
• The difference between astrology and astronomy. Four minute video with Joe Amaral.  
• Justin and Trisha Davis are leaving Crosspoint Church in Nashville to start a new church on the north side of Indianapolis.
  
• Actress Octavia Spencer (The Help) is in final negotiations to play God in the movie version of The Shack.

Chris Rice once asked, “What if cartoons got saved?” Now Dan Pegoda asks, “What if cartoons were pastors?” Click the image to see all five.

 

 

Wednesday Link List

If your work week runs Monday to Friday, by noon on Wednesday you’re ‘over the hump,’ but the Baptist in me still blushes when someone says, “Happy Hump Day!”  With that, I think we’d better quickly move on to the links which you’ll find at Out of Ur.

• You can’t walk the hallways of the Christian internet without running into Calvinists, but Lutherans are stronger numerically. So why don’t Lutherans have greater influence?
• Atheists may not believe, but they want to belong. More accurately, they want to help serve.
• With the Duck Dynasty people entering into a licensing deal with a winemaker, it’s no surprise that Free Will Baptist Family Ministries cancelled an upcoming appearance by Willie Robertson to raise funds for a Christian school building project.
• Quote of the Week: John Piper — “…we really need to keep in mind that every charismatic abuse has its mirror image in non-charismatic abuses. Nothing I am going to say is unique to charismatics. In some of these cases, the non-charismatic church is more guilty than the charismatic.” Read more.
• While Pope Francis has changed the style of the papacy, it is creating ripple effects that are changing the style of American bishops.
• So who exactly set the guest list and invited “the Tea Party Power Players” to Billy Graham’s birthday bash?
• In light of decreased attendance and giving, James MacDonald has taken a 20% pay cut. One writer says that this seems noble, but looks at the Harvest Bible Chapel founder’s larger financial situation.
• A world away, Filipinos worship in churches ravaged by wind and rain.
• “The Mormon church was already one of Florida’s largest landowners. For more than 60 years, the church has owned … a 290,000 cattle, and citrus operation straddling three counties south of Orlando.” Now they’re going into the forestry business.
• Raising kids while serving on a foreign mission field is full of challenges, and singing, “This world is not my home, I’m just passin’ through;” is probably not very helpful.
• With the current interest in Christian feminism, is there room for complementarians?  A serious discussion followed.
• Author Rachel Held Evans doesn’t want to be divisive. Nor does she want to be silent.
• A Canadian priest is facing 76 sexual abuse charges involving dozens of victims dating back to the 1970s in Canada’s far north.
• The Church of England, says a former Archbishop of Canterbury, is one generation away from extinction.
• You’re not that busy, or you wouldn’t be reading this. So it’s time to play Bible Jeopardy. (What is, “Don’t tell my senior pastor my score?”)
• If this is true I’m in trouble: What your sleep patterns say about your personal theology.
• Essay of the Week: At Aljazeera America (of all places) an exhaustive article on how sexual assaults are handled at Bob Jones University.
• Same sex attraction: Vimeo removed this pro-change 32 minute video, then it was put on YouTube. Let’s see if it’s still there by the time you read this…
• …Meanwhile a Methodist pastor in Pennsylvania faces defrocking after presiding over his son’s same-sex marriage.
• With nearly 200 comments, you’d expect some of the answers to the oft-asked question, “What is the gospel?” But maybe different answers when it’s Marcus Borg doing the asking.
• With the anniversary of C. S. Lewis’ death just days away, some still-applicable quotations.
• Nadia Bolz-Weber’s sermon — in her church a 10-12 minute homily — for All Saints Sunday included a “saint” from her own local congregation. (Click the link to listen as you read.)
• Add another Bible narrative to the scrap heap of stories that never happened, as this blogger categorically dismisses the story of Jonah.
• Break out the Petra and Daniel Amos albums; it’s a campaign to bring back the print edition of CCM Magazine…
• …and here’s one Christian artist’s best kept secret. What if there had been a girl in The Beach Boys?
• Finally, in our Christian music link trilogy, a story you can’t live without: Singer Mandisa is launching Simply Mandisa, a line of clothing and accessories, ’cause that’s what you do next, right?
• The Creation and Earth Museum in San Diego has been denied a place on the local museum council.
• Was a bus driver at Rutgers University fired for not properly securing a wheelchair, or does it have more to do with his praying for a passenger in a wheelchair?
• While I wouldn’t want to be able to put a check-mark next to #5 on my first visit, here’s one writer’s seven things to look for in a church.
• Your teaser title for this week: Eldering and Economics.
• Regular viewing of R-rated movies can have a negative impact on faith; at the same time as some church-produced films are being rated R.
• Question of the Week: How many gamers will skip church to spend more time on their new Play Station 4?
• Here’s what happens when a PhD in Theology takes seriously the idea of a Mark Driscoll Scholarship for Women Pastors.
• Jamie The Very Worst Hugger admits that when it comes to wrapping your arms around someone, she does not have that particular spiritual gift.
• A UK Church blog offers you the opportunity to calculate your social media influence rating.
• Well, we could keep going all day here, but I see by the clock on the clubhouse wall that it’s time to go. If Christmas is leaving you without ideas, here’s a can’t miss suggestion for that special person in your life, also pictured below.

The Wednesday Link List is written by Paul Wilkinson who blogs the rest of the week at Thinking Out Loud and Christianity 201.  Professional stunt blogger. Do not attempt at home. Offer not valid in Wisconsin or Hawaii.

Weekend Link List

What you’re looking at is the actual default font size for this blog’s text.

I chose “Silver is the New Grey” as the theme for this blog because of the wide column but noticed immediately that the font size was too small for some readers. So… for the past 4 1/2 years, I’ve been taking 10-15 seconds before posting to manually insert the HTML tag <big> in front of each paragraph. It has given this blog it’s distinctive look and style.

However, a problem has arisen this week, and the HTML tag for enlarging the typeface won’t ‘stick.’  I’ve investigated some different themes, but because the entire history here is encoded for larger type, the end results end up looking HUGE.  Since this blog has operated for nearly five years on a capital outlay of $0.00, I’m reluctant to get a custom theme, but I am also reluctant to walk away from all the existing content.  So suggestions are welcomed.

• On Sunday, Cross Point Church (Pete Wilson) hosted Bob Goff, the author of Love Does.  For the few minutes I watched it was absolutely amazing; a killer sermon. Here’s a link for it [wrong message is currently playing], and also a ten minute Q&A that was filmed for the Cross Point internet campus.  [Cross Point has a history of ‘losing’ sermon videos when they have guest speakers; they lost the Jon Acuff week entirely. So if they get it working we’ll add the link.]
• No blogger — not one — does a consistent job of narration like author Karen Spears Zacharias, as seen in this story.
• Chaplain Mike at Internet Monk proposes some rather interesting parallels between worship and sex.
• More than one in twenty atheists and agnostics pray every day. 
• In a world of online addiction where sexual ethics have been shattered, some resources to help face the problem.
  
• An outraged pastor suggests that sending out or posting your ultrasound pictures is completely inappropriate.
• The Very Worst Missionary is now back in the U.S. operating as The Very Worst Pastor’s Wife. (Catch her  as a guest today on Drew Marshall — see link under radio at right.)
  
• Here’s another short film from Moving Works a Film-making ministry: Father of the Fatherless.
• Well, here’s hoping you can read this in one font size or another…