Rating: 
Summary: Bless this mess
Review: If you're a perfect, upstanding, respectable, fully mature Christian, you may not identify with very much in this book. If you're like the other 99.9% of us, this book is a capital-G Godsend. It may be a revelation to some that a person can sincerely love Jesus and be a seeker of God yet continue to display weaknesses, areas of non-discipline, and, let's just say it, sins that would seem incongruous with "true" Christianity. There are many out there that feel like second-class Christians because they feel they don't pray enough, or may occasionally use salty language, or smoke cigarettes, or...fill in the blanks. This is a book not only for those people, but for those who are tempted to sit in judgment over those people. Mike Yaconelli is former editor of "The Door", probably the only Christian humor magazine around, and is presently a lay pastor of a small church. He sees below the surface mess of people's lives and invites the reader out of a world of self-condemnation and into a land of freedom. Some may be concerned that this book gives people a license to sin. Well, most people sin quite well without a license! When we are honest before God and give up pretending that our lives are neat and tidy, that's when God can take the messes of our lives and redeem them into something beautiful. This is a little book, but it packs a big punch. Highly recommended.
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Summary: The Book I've Longed for My Whole Life
Review: In one of the chapters of the book, Yaconelli says, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd." I have always felt like I was odd, a poor fit for the church. I've had unconventional views of Jesus, discipleship and ways to approach life that have made some people uncomfortable and left me wondering whether I was a nut, apostate or both. Central to my philosophy of discipleship is the idea that Jesus died not to make us clean or obedient, but to form us to be passionate about knowing him in the midst of our profound uncleanness and disobedience. To have made it to age 35 with 15 years as an intentional disciple without getting smoked by God because of my sin leads me to believe that God's interest is in something more than my mere behavior. Yet, I have felt alone in this view. Mostly because it cuts against the vast grain that is so deeply entwined in church culture. You can't earn your salvation, but buddy, once you get it, you better work your bootocks off! But I have come to the point where I realize I can keep scrubbing but the dirt and mess is always there. And frankly, sometimes, I just get weary from the scrubbing. Yaconelli has written a book that celebrates the messy Christian. He authenticates the lonely disciple who refuses to believe that following Christ is about being well-behaved, "balanced," clean, and uniformly consistent with the church's list of What-To-Do/What-Not-To-Do. This book has caused me to weep with soulful tears because of its recognition of who I am: a man with a deep love for God and a deep love for himself and a deep love for sin. Yaconelli doesn't try to resolve the tension. He just lets you step into the wonder of loving a God who gladly accepts -- and maybe even CALLS us into -- messy, eliptical pursuits of him. To have someone recognize me in such a deep way is enough, but to have someone say that this type of Christianity is actually pleasing to God is liberating. I kid you not. Run three ways to get this book: hard, fast & immediately.
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Summary: Catching a Glimpse
Review: In poker, if one was to cheat, they might, "Glimpse" a card. That is, they would look at the card they are dealing, or perhaps they would watch the bottom card, for a moment to deal it to themselves, or a friend. In Dangerous Wonder (while it is a fabulous book, and I recommend it highly as well), Mike talks about reclaiming this Child-like Faith. Much like recalling the winning poker hand from years ago. However, what happens if you never had the winning poker hand of faith? If perhaps, you were always one card short of a hand making any sense? I had longed for a book give me that final piece. Mike Yaconelli, in his book, "Messy Spirituality" deals us such a card. He has been watching, not only the church, but himself very closely. Because of this, he is able to deal out the right card. Changing what I had in my hand... from seeing it as a mess to seeing it as a flush. Thanks Mike for writing a book for us, the pastors, the congregation members, those looking for a glimpse of God's grace.
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Summary: The REAL deal about believing
Review: Just because someone is a follower of Jesus Christ doesn't mean that they won't have problems. Unfortunately, some people actually do believe that belief in Christ equals no problems--and if you actually have problems, then something is wrong with you. "Messy Spirituality" explains belief as it is: you believe, but you sometimes make mistakes, do dumb things, and have problems.
This book gives you Christianity in its reality, and well worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: The REAL deal about believing
Review: Just because someone is a follower of Jesus Christ doesn't mean that they won't have problems. Unfortunately, some people actually do believe that belief in Christ equals no problems--and if you actually have problems, then something is wrong with you. "Messy Spirituality" explains belief as it is: you believe, but you sometimes make mistakes, do dumb things, and have problems.
This book gives you Christianity in its reality, and well worth the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Flounderers who love The Lord
Review: Long ago, at an impressionable age, I had the great good luck to discover a magazine known as The Wittenburg Door. It was like a Christian version of MAD magazine in some respects: satire, laughs, but it also had thought-provoking interviews and essays. I first encountered people like Robert Farrar Capon, Frederick Buechner, Richard John Neuhaus, and Juan Carlos Ortiz in the Door's pages. (In honor of the Argentinian Ortiz, the Door put a portrait of a llama on the cover.)
In the back of the magazine, there was a closing column by the editor, Mike Yaconelli. These pieces unsettled me. Here was this man publicly flaying himself, month after month, for this or that spiritual shortcoming. He was violently emotional--made Leo Buscaglia look like the Sphinx, sometimes--to the point of exhibitionism. He lamented his failings of discipleship, seized upon straws of insight, strove against his own flesh so passionately, that I was tempted several times to write him a letter asking him to ungrip, already.
Years passed, and I encountered this book. I see Mike is still calling himself a mess. I guess there's no need to doubt him. But now he is celebrating his acceptance in Christ, trying to draw a measure of peace from that and possibly the exhaustion that middle age brings to efforts at self-improvement.
The book itself is a farrago of anecdotes and excerpts from other books. Truth be told, if you don't feel yourself to be *quite* as wretched or resigned to backsliding as Mike, the book doesn't really offer a lot. But Mike is more valuable--has always been more valuable--for his example of striving and honesty in failure than for his actual preaching, anyway. If you wonder why you can't make your life come out picture-postcard perfect like other Christian self-help books suggest you should, his plaint is worth your hearing.
And, some days after I wrote this, I learned that Mike was killed in a car crash in October of 2003. RIP, and "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."
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Summary: This book set me free
Review: Nothing can happen in a Christian's spiritual walk until he or she submits, surrenders to Christ. This book set me free -- just as Jesus said, "The truth will set you free." It spoke to my heart, my core....by the end of the first chapter, I knew it was a winner, because I was crying, and few books have the power to do that. This book is all about grace and forgiveness...accepting God's forgiveness, and forgiving ourselves for not being as "spiritual" and "pious" and (God forbid, tho we tend to seek it anyway) "legalistic" as we think we should be. Only when we step aside can God take the reigns in our lives, and only when we admit we are a mess can God do His wondrous works. This book is about humility and the huge spiritual gains we can achieve by simply letting go...and letting God. Thank you, Mike. You've blessed me greatly.
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Summary: Love is the only way
Review: Praise God for this book. All too often what one hears as the "Christian" message is empty moralizing. Morals mean nothing if God does not have your heart. It is God's job to pursue us. Without having been seduced by God, we cannot give him our heart, much less our actions. Trying to live up to some external system of holiness only makes us better actors. Being swallowed whole by God's love is the only answer. A great book. (Further recommendations: the works of Brennan Manning, Rich Mullins, Robert Capon, Philip Yancey)
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Summary: One of the best books about REAL Christianity out there!
Review: So frequently Christian books tell you what to do and how to be a better Christian. Not so with Messy Spirituality! This book tells it how it is, how Christians suffer and have stress and pain and life happens to us just like everyone else. However, Mike Yaconelli pulls it around to a place of awe and wonder by making it all worthwhile and meaningful in God's context. The language and stories he used filled me with wonder in our awesome, amazing, beyond understanding God.
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Summary: Absolutely Required Reading
Review: Sometimes it is difficult to write an appropriate review for a book, such is the case here. It would be impossible in a brief review to convey the depth of understanding and clear vision of God and spirituality that this book conveys. If you are a Christian and in your Mary Poppins world think yourself to be practically perfect in every way, then this is not the book for you. For everyone else, including those who need to deal with perfect Christians, this is one of the best books that I have ever read on the subject of Christianity and spirituality. The focus of the text is to challenge one of the most insidious practices of the church, the expectation of perfection among its members, rituals and procedures. Through personal examples Michael Yaconelli illustrates the true grace of God and how it should show through in all the ways we interact with others. If you have been taught to berate yourself because you are less than a perfect Christian, this book is a breath of fresh air that truly frees you from those chains of what you "should" be. I have read many books on Christianity, theology, Bible Studies, etc. and many of them have been excellent, but if there were one book that I would recommend above all others this is the one that should be in every Christian's hands.
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