Yesterday was a wonderful day! I had the privilege to listen and engage in broad conversation with Shane Claiborne around three talking points - Resurrecting Church, Another Way of Life, and the Scandal of Grace. Shane is an author of several books including: Irrresitible Revolutionand Jesus for President; he is involved in a "movement" called The Simply Way whose motto is Dream big. Live small. Shane has also spent time with Mother Teresa working with orphans and the disenfranchised of Calcutta.
Observations about Shane
Right from his opening joke, what struck me the most about Shane was his joy. At the end of the day, I found myself praying in the car on my way home that God would grant me a portion of Shane's joy. While he had every opportunity to point out all the church's faults and criticize her for all her wrong-doings throughout history - he didn't. Rather he joyfully and tearfully shared stories of where God showed up in people's lives. I respect that. I want that. I want that kind of joy for others.
I found Shane's warmth, candidness, and approach very inviting and I think his demeanor allowed the audience to ask him some difficult [but very good] questions with mutual respect and candidness.
Observations Regarding Making Disciples
Here are some of Shane's observations about making disciples in our contexts today:
1. Move in to the abandoned places - move toward suffering and enter into it, not away from it.
2. Shared economics - practice giving a relational tithe to those whom we know personally. This can be as simple as forming a babysitting co-op to save on babysitting fees or as complex as forming a health care co-op to help pay medical bills for under- or uninsured friends.
3. Practice hospitality and open our homes to those who are hungry or in need.
4. Seek racial reconciliation.
5. Have conversations around sexuality - celebrate singleness and leave room for the celebate. Quoting Shane quoting a monk said, "We can live without sex, but we can't live without love." Well said.
6. Become stewards of God's creation by caring for the earth and exploring alternative options and create teaching opportunities in our neighborhoods to teach stewardship.
7. Seek peace always.
8. Live in rhythm of prayer and Sabbath-rest.
Another Way of Doing Life
In this session, Shane talked at length about a Theology of Enough. He began his talk with a quote from Ghandi who said that there are enough resources in this world to meed everyone's need, but not enough resources to meet everyone's greed. Point well taken. A theology of enough, for Claiborne, is centered in rebirth. Spiritual rebirth, as symbolized and demonstrated in the first part of the Book of Acts, shows that the early Christian church shared all things in common and no one was in need of anything. Rebirth leads to redistribution of goods, services, and wealth. Shane recognizes that this sounds a lot like Communism. To his critics he says, "Loving neighbors [as taught in the Christian Scriptures] makes capitalism obsolete and Marxism unnecessary."
A theology of enough means that we hold on to our possession lightly. Practice the principle of non-attachment which says: I will purchase or receive nothing that I cannot give away. A theology of enough says that the best thing we can do is to give away our best things.
Quotable Quotes
Here are some quotes from Shane's talks that I don't have any other place for:
"Being a Christian is not about better vision, but about having new eyes to see."
"God loves us back to life - we have a God who is greater than our worst sin."
"The closer to God we are, the less we want to throw stones."
"It is grace that dulls the executioner's sword."
"If we lose a generation, it's not because we didn't entertain them, it's because we didn't dare them to follow Jesus."
