He was, as he had predicted, imprisoned for challenging the Machine that was the Third Reich. One of his prison-mates recorded this story that captures the essence of the tension Acts presents to us:

Pastor Bonhoeffer held a little service and spoke to us in a manner which reached the hearts of all, finding just the right words to express the spirit of our imprisonment and the thoughts and resolutions which it had brought. He had hardly finished his last prayer when the door opened and two evil-looking men in civilian clothes came in and said: “Prisoner Bonhoeffer, get ready to come with us.” Those words “come with us”—for all prisoners they had come to mean one thing only—the scaffold. We bade him good-bye—he drew me aside—“This is the end,” he said. “For me, the beginning of life,” (Bonhoeffer, Clyde Fant, 24).

In one of the dreaming sessions, David used the example of wedding videos. A lot of churches are living good stories. They are full of love, endurance, hope, and beauty. But, the stories they are living are like the wedding videos we keep in our house. When people come into our house, we put the wedding video in the DVD player. We watch, add commentary (”Oh, you’ll love this part.” or “I don’t even remember saying this.”)

It’s cute and fun.

For about ten minutes.

Then our guests lose interest. Not because it isn’t a good story. It’s fine. Some are even really funny. But the problem is that the story isn’t big enough for everyone to have a role.

A lot of churches are doing good work. But, I wonder if, instead of writing epics that draw all kinds of different characters into the narrative, churches are settling for putting the wedding video in the DVD.

The wedding is an important day for me and Kara. It will be forever etched into my soul. But it’s only one chapter in a bigger story. A story that includes Texas, Michigan, Tennessee, Honduras, Mexico, Uganda Scotland; friends, family, and Lucas; coaching college basketball, changing schools, ministry, grad school, becoming a writer.

I want to be a part of a church that writes a story so big, those who never saw themselves as players in the divine plot, will lean in, with a glimmer of interest in their eye and say, “Tell me more.”

“A church which pitches its tents, without constantly looking for new horizons, which does not continually strike camp, is being untrue to its calling . . . We must play down our longing for certainty, accept what is risky, live by improvisation and experiment.”—Hans Küng

“One day, rummaging through a dusty old attic in a small Austrian town, a collector comes across a faded manuscript containing many pages of music. It is written for the piano. Curious, he takes it to a dealer. The dealer phones a friend, who appears half an hour later. When he sees the music he becomes excited, then puzzled. This looks like the handwriting of Mozart himself, but it isn’t a well-known piece. In fact, he’s never heard it. More phone calls. More excitement. More consultations. It really does seem to be Mozart. And, though some parts seem distantly familiar, it doesn’t correspond to anything already known in his works.

. . . What they are looking as it is indeed by Mozart. It is indeed beautiful. But it’s the piano part of a piece that involves another instrument, or perhaps other instruments. By itself it is frustratingly incomplete. A further search of the attic reveals nothing else that would provide a clue. The piano music is all there is, a signpost to something that was there once and might still turn up one day.”

Some thinkers say religion is dangerous. This group would include Christopher Hitchens (author of God is Not Great) and others who point out the tragedies and violence done in the name of religion. They point to The Crusades, Constantine’s Army, Catholic/Protestant Wars, Holocaust (Germany was overwhelmingly Lutheran at the time), along with bloodshed caused by Islam and modern day Israel. They point out that more people died in the twentieth century, the height of Christendom’s influence in the world, than in all the previous nineteen centuries combined. And, I haven’t even pointed out the Christian/Muslim tension in the world today. They look to Nietzsche and his premise that religion is the opiate of the masses, a crutch that helps less intelligent folks make sense of their lives (especially mortality).

Other thinkers say religion is not dangerous. This group would include many political conservative and (some) liberal thinkers, fundamentalists, evangelicals, and (some) mainline leaders along with other loyalists to a particular re-telling of America’s inception. This group would point to the influence of Judeo-Christian values in the U.S. Constitution, the building of hospitals in India, the modern day school system, work with the poor, literacy, Civil Rights Movement (led by a black Baptist minister), Red Cross, A.I.D.S. relief in Africa, along with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Post-Apartheid South Africa (Desmond Tutu was unapologetically Christian in his leadership of this incredible work . . . what N.T. Wright has called the “most significant accomplishment of Christianity in the twentieth century”).

Those who argue that religion/Christianity is poisonous to civilization tend to ignore the accomplishments and sheer will of Christian passion over the last several centuries. While they are correct in pointing out slavery (America’s original sin), they gloss over the fact that a Christian (William Wilberforce) helped to end the peculiar institution.

Those who argue that religion/Christianity is necessary and good for civilization tend to ignore the aforementioned skeletons in the proverbial religious closet. They are limited in their understanding of the way in which religion has promoted evil, division and hate in some parts of the world. They are easily duped by nostalgia and wishful thinking.

I hope to be a part of a church that is a blazing a third way. A way that owns up to the sins of our past and present (my generation loves to point out the racism of our parents and grandparents while ignoring the plank of materialism, apathy, and indifference in our own collective eye) while also having the courage to point out what is good, just, and right about Christianity and other religions.

Christians, it seems to me, suffer from a lack of imagination. We lack the imagination to see a way in which we can make a sustained difference on issues of abortion (I’m pro-life and I’m committed to providing care for young mothers and children born into poverty), war (particularly the re-integration of soldiers into “civilian life”), poverty, addiction (drug, alcohol, eating disorders, gambling, sexual, among others) divorce, abuse, and depression. We feel powerless, as if we cannot make a real dent in the destruction and decay of life as we know and accept it.

God’s Spirit is able to blaze a path in the midst of overwhelming odds. I want to be a part of a church that rises above these old dichotomies, into a new set of questions, dreams, and possibilities.

“What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”

The second edition of MD is out. For this edition, I’ve written a detailed study guide alongside Lee Camp for the sole purpose of equipping church leaders, teachers, and ministers to bring this important discussion to the place for which the book was written in the first place: the local church!

If you were challenged by the first edition, consider purchasing the second. If you have not read this book, here’s your chance.

Click here for a preview.

“What a book. This is one of those books that you wear out carrying around, marking up, and loaning out. Camp’s words are timeless, and timely. And the crazy thing is this: the church is actually ready to hear them. In post-Religious Right America, there is an entire generation that is not willing to settle for the dream of America over the dream of God. There is a hunger for a Christianity that is not just something we believe but something we live and embody, a church filled not just with believers and worshippers but with disciples. Lee Camp points us towards a Christianity that is worth believing in.”–Shane Claiborne, author of The Irresistible Revolution, coauthor of Jesus for President