Book Review: Barbarian Way

Just finished a great book lent to me by my friend KC: The Barbarian Way.

I connected with this book immediately. Particularly challenging and exciting was reading someone who was describing the kind of faith I had during my teen years. Wild, reckless, risk-taking, total Spirit-in-the-Wind, which seems so very scary to consider now. Hmmm…

It’s only about 140 pages, meaning some of you can read it in an afternoon. I think he dictated the last chapter in one sitting because it just flew on by with a lot of motivation and theory. The prior 3 chapters however are full of Biblically-based fundamental ideas and challenges… much like what I was trying to do in this post: Where are the Jonathans? It was so refreshing to read someone who had practical, radical ideas about what’s broken with American Christianity and actually used the Scripture as his foundation and guidance for answers.

Obviously using the barbaric references infers warfare. McManus expands his war, tribe, barbarian themes to poignant examples using himself, his family and others in his congregation.

Here’s some quotes that have got me thinking and praying:

“If you are a follower of Christ and you have allowed yourself to be domesticated, you have lost the power of who you are and who God intends for you to be. You were not created to be normal…You must go to the primal place and enter the presence of the Most High God, for there you will be changed by His presence.”

another boom:

“The suffering of Christ glorifies God because it elevates love. Compelled by love, God would go where He knew suffering was certain. Love always moves to sacrifice, which is exactly where He calls us to go. We shouldn’t be surprised, then, that to follow Christ is to abandon the luxury of safety and security. If we are to be like Him, we must always risk for love. We are invited to follow Him with reckless abandon…Even when it seems beyond our abilities, we should not be surprised when God tells us to jump.”

and finally:

“It may seem counterintuitive, but the more civilized we seem to become, the more detached from the pain of others we end up finding ourselves. The most civilized churches have really no practical concern for people outside their congretations. The brokeness of a lost and unbelieving world is not enough to inspire the painful changes necessary to make the church relevent to the world in which we live.”

This was a great read, an inspiration for my walk, er, battle, and a first step to getting back the barbaric passion for my Savior.

Author: Brett Veenstra | Category: Disciple | Comments(2) May 2006