Thoughts from a New Barbarian...

Ok, so I promised myself that I would do better on this blog thing. Maybe it just all comes down to having enough people who care enough to read this...nevertheless.

I just finished "The Barbarian Way" by Erwin McManus (in 1 1/2 sittings mind you...). Overall, I must say that I was very impressed. I am a huge McManus fan, yet somehow had not read arguably his best book.

The writer's main idea centers around the "untamed, raw nature" of following the Spirit of God. Rather than living the bored, domesticated faith that seems to permeate our desensitized church culture, McManus argues for a "primal, dangerous, barbaric faith." Now in all of this, understand that he is not advocating disorder or chaos, but rather a breaking free of real faith.

Some quotes you may enjoy include:
"This is the sticky part of the barbarian call. Its not fair or equitable. When you hear the call, you follow the call, you must recognize that it is a life-and-death proposition...He is not calling you to the same life everyone else will live. He's not even calling you to live the same path that every follower of Christ will walk. Your life is unique."

"Innovation is a life skill. When we're surrounded by civilization, innovation tends to motivated by boredom. When we are barbarians trying to reach barbarians, innovation is motivated by love."

"We have become believers rather than EXPERIENCERS."

"Discipleship has become the mechanism for uniformity rather than UNIQUENESS."

"The entire focus of our faith has been the elimination of sin, which is important but inadequate, rather than the unleashing of a unique, original, extraordinary, wonderfully untamed faith."

"I wonder how many of us have actually had this conversation with God: Abba, Father, Dad, would you purposefully put me in danger?" I think alot of us haven't asked God that question because we went ahead and answered it for Him."


In short, I can safely (or dangerously?) say that this book has definitely challenged me in soooo many ways. Have I been bored in my faith? As Paul's challenge to the latent Timothy, I needed to "fan my flame." In the words of the great Judah Smith, "God doesn't just want to light your flame, he wants to position it." Can you understand the magnitude of such a statement. So many times we cry on the alter "GOD, light me on fire...light me on fire." But how many times do we say "God take my flame that I already have and position it to a place of influence."

For those of you whom I mentor and lead...I want to leave you with this. I want my flame to be positioned to a place of encouraging and "danger-leading" influence in your life. I REFUSE to let you walk away from Christ because of mere boredom. To do so is to completely misunderstand the overwhelming weight of the gospel.

If you walk away from Jesus, I want you to walk away realizing that you have walked away from "a life of faith, risk, and adventure...to choose a life that is boring, mundane, and ordinary."

May you choose the barbarian way with me...