I've been reading this book that my lovely friend Allison gave me for Christmas - Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas. I'm only about 1/4 of the way through it, but I'm loving it already and had some thoughts I wanted to go ahead and blog about now.
But first, a little background. This book is a bio on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a man who was pretty freaking amazing, if you couldn't tell by the subtitle. He was a German Christian author and preacher, and during World War Two he helped smuggle Jews to Switzerland and became involved in a famous attempt to assassinate Hitler (I really can't wait to get to that part of the book!). Maybe his most famous book is called The Cost of Discipleship, and if you haven't read it, you totally should.
So far, I've got two main thoughts that keep coming up while I'm reading. The first is: Where have all the men gone? (Now the following is not meant to be a slight on all men. I know a LOT of great, solid Christian men, but just in general in the Church, I'm afraid some of these things are true.) Where I am in the book, Bonhoeffer has recently turned 25. He wrote a letter to his twin sister on their birthday. Despite having already received a doctorate at 21, publishing his first book, preaching in multiple churches around the world, leading many Sunday school and theology classes for children and adults, being an accomplished pianist and singer, and many other things we rarely expect from people of the same age now, he lamented that he still hadn't done enough with his life! He said, "If I were to imagine I had already been married for over five years, had two children, my own house, well, then I could feel fully justified turning twenty-five." I'm definitely not saying that every man needs to be a married, father of 2, homeowner by 25. But what I do think we're missing in general is men who even aim to be this grown up. As a society, it seems like we've allowed for this extended childhood/adolescence that doesn't make anyone take responsibility for their lives until they feel like it, and this is a huge detriment to the Church where the men are supposed to be the leaders. I've noticed this firsthand in college ministry. We have some great guys who get really involved, but they are FAR outnumbered by girls. We need men to get serious about their lives and their faith at much earlier ages and step it up!
My other thought is: The church local and Church universal is really important. It's interesting to be reading this at a time when so many people are posting that "Why I hate religion but love Jesus" video, but that's probably a whole other blog post. Bonhoeffer actually started off his life not really going to church regularly. Even when he became a Christian and started writing and teaching, he didn't understand the importance of church. But around where I am in the book, he's starting to realize how important it is, and I think he's eventually going to lead a big movement to remind people of that fact. In talking about Bonhoeffer's lectures, one of his students said, "He pointed out that nowadays we often ask ourselves whether we still need the Church, whether we still need God. But this question, he said, is wrong. We are the ones who are questioned. The Church exists and God exists, and we are asked whether we are willing to be of service." He began thinking and teaching this way after he spent some time in America during 1930-31 when the battle between the Fundamentalists and the Liberals in Christianity was raging. He went to various churches and found that they "preach about virtually everything, only one thing is not addressed, or is addressed so rarely that I have as yet been unable to bear it, namely, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the cross, sin and forgiveness, death and life." He was saddened by the fact that most of the (liberal) churches he was going to seemed to be little more than social clubs where people went to fill their time and maybe do some service in the community. But then he visited a church in Harlem. He heard gospel music. He heard Jesus Christ preached. He heard social justice preached as well, but finally in the context of the gospel. And he started going there every week and teaching Sunday school classes with the kids. I just love the idea of this pasty German guy being so involved in the biggest, most famous church in Harlem! And I love that it changed his life.
Okay, I think that's all for now. I'm probably going to write more about this book by the time I'm done with it. In the meantime, if you're looking for a good read, pick it up and let me know what you think!
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