The Barbarian Way

I just finished a very interesting book written by a young family man from El Salvador named Edwin Raphael McManus named The Barbarian Way. It is published by Thomas Nelson. This is pretty radical reading so I don't suggest this book be read by those who are set in their ways. This book is for those of us who feel like Barbarians in the western Christian church.

"Many in the Church would have you believe you have just bought into a group plan, and of course the package is always the premium plan ... Get rich, get comfortable, get secure, get safe, get well when you get God..."

"Somewhere along the way the movement of Jesus Christ became civilized as Christianity. We created a religion using the name of Jesus Christ and convinced ourselves that God's optimal desire for our lives was to insulate us in a spiritual bubble where we risk nothing, sacrifice nothing, lose nothing, worry about nothing. I wonder how many of us have lost our barbarian way and have become embittered with God, confused in our faith because God doesn't come through the way we think He should."

"Jesus is being lost in the religion bearing His name. People are being lost because they cannot reconcile Jesus' association wih Christianity. Christianity has become docile, domesticated, civilized. We have forgotten that there is a kingdom of darkness stealing the hopes and dreams and souls of a humanity without God..."

These are just a few quotes from the book that will give you an idea of where the author is going with his approach. It is an exciting read for those who have had it with "proper" religion in America. McManus has set the course for straight ahead, passionate, risk-filled Christianity that looks once again like the barbarian early church in the book of Acts before it became Romanized. A church that lives from its heart and not solely from the intellect. A church that challenges the status quo wherever it goes.

McManus is the lead pastor for an experimental church in Los Angeles called Mosaic. He is also a lecturer and futurist that is associated with Bethel University and Seminary right here in Minnesota. He inspires this 60 year old ex-hippie to remember my roots and return to the "fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants" Christianity that lead my wife and family to move to Minnesota in 1981 and establish a "radical" church at the University. Yes!