The Way Of Jesus

Book Review.
Campbell, Jonathan, S. Campbell, Jennifer. The Way Of Jesus. A journey of freedom for pilgrims and wanderers. Jossey-Boss. 2005. A Leadership Network publication.
Comment. Henry.
There are many stories around about people who have been disillusioned with the institutionalized church of modernity. This is the story of Jonathan and Jennifer Campbell. What makes their story more intense is that they were involved in positions of significant leadership. Jonathan has a PhD from Fuller. He was a ‘successful’ pastor and trainer of church planters and professor at graduate schools. After twelve years of professional ministry they left all that (and Christianity) to enter into what they call ‘the way of Jesus’. I found this book thought provoking and sometimes provoking. However, it is important to be aware of what is happening in our church environment if we are to be missional and/or relevant.
There is an inverse correlation between possessions and spiritual vitality. The author’s disappointing experiences with Christianity (see p. 19) are disturbing. The ‘Jesus Way’ is quite different from Christianity. It is among other things, a response to New Age spirituality. Two cultural chasms seem to characterize the church; the “church-culture chasm” (35, and the “church-Jesus chasm”. (38)
The ‘Jesus Way’ is really a rediscovery of first century Christendom. There is nothing new. Jesus is still the Way, the Truth, and the Life. In developing the concept of the “reality of the body of Christ” (69) a severe deconstruction (demolition) is done of the institutionalized church. The Thessalonian fellowship of believers is held up as an example of an effective church, i.e. people of the Way. Disciples are discussed under the topics “seed, sower, soil, Spirit, and sacrifice”. (84)
The analogy from scripture about wines and wineskins is used to explain the need for the ‘Jesus Way’. To access this way requires a letting go of and a dying to the status quo. We have “social longings for connection, ecological longings for creation, and spiritual longings for connection with the Creator”. (127) Our desire for God, our need for God, is primal.
Our identity, made in the image of God, has been severely impacted by the Fall. Our destiny is a restoration to a position of relationship with God through atonement. Living by faith is part of the ‘Way of Jesus’. Christ’s sufficiency becomes an increasing reality as we experience losses. “In Christ we undergo a metamorphosis, literally a changing of form.” (185)
Finding our way beyond religion is a difficult undertaking. Fruits of freedom are the result of ‘streams of living water’. Interconnectedness with life can only happen when Christ is the centre of our being. We must live what we believe. When we give what we have received from God, i.e. love, healing and forgiveness, we experience “Christ in community”. (219)
Here is the advice the author gives regarding what we should do with what we have read. “Gather all into your hand. Pick out the good to hold close to your heart. Blow the rest away with the breath of kindness. Know that whatever good you find is from the Creator.” Robert Francis, a Cherokee elder, talking about a hickory nut. I am not quite sure what I have but I seem to be quite breathless.
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