|
The purpose driven lifeThe book I knew I had to read some time THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE By the summer of 2004 this book had been on my radar for a year or so. The purpose driven church was its forerunner and now the personal version had appeared. Some friends had read it and my wife had started studying it in a small group. Perhaps I ought to find out more. The final barrier was my pride in preferring to be in on something at the beginning rather than jumping on a bandwagon. But, for the good of research and not wanting to miss out on a blessing, I jumped in. The book suggested tackling it a chapter a day - so that was my summer project and something I knew I could easily tackle. It's not about you...... and those are the first words of the book. The first chapter is a healthy antidote to idea that life is about us, that we are the centre of the universe and that, if God does exist, his role is humbly to come up to us every so often like an obsequious waiter asking us if everything is all right. That is not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is the centre of the universe, not us. But he does call us to participate in his purposes - and in his service we find perfect freedom. You only live twiceThe early chapters of the book remind us of the falsehood of those cliches such as 'you only live once' and 'this life is not a rehearsal'. These phrases pass through our worlds so often - on films, in books, in interviews with high achievers - that we start to believe them and live our lives accordingly. But they are not true. This life is not all there is. There is a life to come and it will be forever. We would be foolish to focus on this life. For this world is passing away - and the love of it. I am reminded of something I once heard at Spring Harvest: 'It's no great disaster if you never get any further than Skegness for your holidays'. Indeed. Many wordsBut very early on I started to feel uneasy about the way the book used different translations. Rick Warren - the author - said that he was deliberately using many translations so that God's truth would strike us afresh: '...I have deliberately used paraphrases in order to help [readers] see God's truth in new fresh ways'. That sounds good, but that didn't seem to be always the case. In the very first chapter Mr. Warren says that the book is not a self-help book and backs this up by quoting: 'The Bible says self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self'. I looked up this intriguing reference (Matthew 16.25) - and, well, I shall let you experience the double frustration of having to look it up yourself (the book has references in an appendix at the back rather than at the foot of the page where they appear) and then realising that the verse does not really mean that. That got me annoyed and I soon gave up checking all the references. The book's handling of God's Word was different from mine. Of course, like many similar uses of the Bible, what Mr. Warren is saying is not wrong - in fact it is right just about all the time (and who am I to contradict him - I am not financially free to study the Bible for a large part of my day). The trouble is that the Bible passages Mr. Warren uses cannot always support the weight he puts on them and less Bible-literate Christians might go away misunderstanding God's word. I do wonder if Mr. Warren often looked for the paraphrase that supported his point the best and used that. 57 varieties - and moreThe middle of the book very helpfully talks about our uniqueness and how God can use that. Mr. Warren uses the acronym SHAPE to make us consider our Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality and Experience. Our SHAPE, Mr. Warren contends, can help us understand what God wants us specifically to do - that perhaps no one else can. This can help us see why other Christians do not get energised by the same issues we do and why we sometimes fail to catch other people's enthusiasm. One Christian might focus on abortion, another on church planting in Spanish-speaking countries. And that's fine. Who are we to pass judgement on the servant of another? Perhaps our SHAPE is simply how God has made us and indicates how he wants to use us as part of his overall church. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? Role models?The great disappointment for me was the close of chapter 36. Near the end of 'Made for a mission' (and what a great reminder that is) Mr. Warren tells us about his father and his passion for souls ('One more for Jesus'). Mr. Warren says: 'I intend for that to be the theme of the rest of my life. I invite you to consider that to be a focus for your life too'. But how? Unfortunately Mr. Warren has little practical advice for us. The two people he invites us to emulate - himself and his father - are both pastors, a role very few readers of the book will play. And this, I suspect, is at the core of so many problems the church has in the West. What would someone look like whose focus was on winning souls and yet who was not a professional Christian? Mr. Warren does not tell us. Perhaps he doesn't know many people like that. I certainly don't. Now that would be an interesting topic. The purpose-driven reviewWhy am I writing this review? Sometimes when I dig into what drives me, what is really in my heart, I do not like what I find. But as I dig even deeper, past all the sin, the pride, the jealousy, the insecurity, the questions, the doubts, I find that, at the very deepest part of my soul, I do want to serve God, I do want to give my life to something that will last forever, I do want to serve the purpose of God in my generation, I do want to recognise the times in which we live. Therefore, I want to be helped in doing this and I am frustrated when I am thwarted. This review comes out of that frustration, but also out of the acknowledgement that much of what Mr. Warren writes is good. Warren has written a good book - but perhaps not a great one. May the Lord bless him. Alan Bright © Evangelicals Now - December 2004 |