This post is much less an academic review as it is a reflection of what I found most inspiring about Jackie\u2019s story, and in particular, her character. This approach seems to best honor the author\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve heard it said that the greatest threat to Christianity in the West is not Atheism, but superficiality. When I was a teenager and a new Christian, I remember my youth leaders constantly reminding us, over and over again, of Revelation 3:16, \u201cBecause you are lukewarm\u2014neither hot nor cold\u2014I am about to spit you out of my mouth.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n As a teenager, the simple application of that passage for my life was to not go to youth group on Wednesday nights and Friday night Bible study and pray and sing and all that, and then get wasted on Saturday night and cheat on my homework on Monday. It\u2019s easy to grow into adulthood and forget the verse entirely because the application during adolescence is no longer needed (not to mention the motivation of fear is much less compelling). But what does this verse say to adult Christians enjoying suburban life, or in the words of Ron Sider, what does this verse say to rich Christians in an age of hunger<\/em>?<\/p>\n When I look at Jackie Pullinger, I become aware of my guilt of lukewarmness, at least in the sense of sacrifice and comfort and basically ignoring many of Jesus\u2019 commands to serve the poor. Yet I find, then, that the average congregant is hardly a Christian at all, if being a Christian means living the way of Jesus in the world. And I\u2019m not much better.<\/p>\n For too long, Christianity in the West was mostly about ascribing to doctrines (without need for application), and perhaps the Protestant tradition is most guilty of leading an entire world away from \u201cChristianity as a way of life\u201d to \u201cChristianity as a way of belief.\u201d<\/p>\n The result, I wonder, is lukewarm, superficial Christianity. Why is it that the Spirit seems most palpably on fire and the church growing at an exceptional rate in the places of greatest suffering and opposition in the world? Does it not come back to this verse in Revelation? There\u2019s no room to be casually Christian in the face of communism or radical Islam, or abject poverty, or a bottle of Vodka after three months\u2019 sobriety, or your classmates at Brown University. One shall quickly be spit out!<\/p>\n But here in the comfy West, how easy it is for most to blend our Christianity with our lifestyle, especially, if after all, Christianity primarily means ascribing to right doctrine. But if Christianity means living the way of Jesus, we are in trouble. It\u2019s no wonder the church in the United States has kept Jackie out of our story. She is a threat to our way of being Christian.<\/p>\n The times in my life when I am most embarrassed is when my pastor friends from Colombia and Kenya come to visit me, in my home, community, and church. I see the strange look in their eyes, as though something doesn\u2019t seem to make sense about this picture, though they would never say such a thing. I do wonder what they say to their friends about the Church in America when they return home.<\/p>\n There is a simple, \u201cDo what Jesus said to do\u201d that is sorely lacking in the Church in the West today, and I am no exception. Yet is so plainly expressed in Jackie\u2019s story. She plainly admits her wrongs along the way, and her lack of faith, and her purest desires, and the plain miraculous work of the Spirit that any Christian who is plainly obeying Jesus would not be surprised to witness.<\/p>\n Jackie\u2019s simple willingness to do what Jesus said revealed the depth of her faith. She understands faith to be \u201ctrust\u201d in the real present-moment provision of God. For her, faith is not reciting the Apostle\u2019s Creed, it\u2019s putting it into action. Without embodiment, they are empty words. This faith gave her courage to enter into some of the most dangerous and horrendous conditions in the Name of Jesus. This faith gave her an acute sense of hearing, where she had clarity and the ability to silence every voice in her head but the voice of the Spirit. Perhaps most of all, this faith gave her the compassion of Jesus, especially as she considered God\u2019s compassion in her life.<\/p>\n Jackie said, \u201cGod cannot do through you what you won\u2019t let him do in you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe know, Jackie, but the idols are so compelling.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This post is much less an academic review as it is a reflection of what I found most inspiring about Jackie\u2019s story, and in particular, her character. This approach seems to best honor the author\u2019s work. I\u2019ve heard it said that the greatest threat to Christianity in the West is not Atheism, but superficiality. When […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":101,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17773,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17772\/revisions\/17773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}