That was the caption on the screen as I walked into Apex Community Church (Dayton, OH area) last night. Shane's name and community (thesimpleway) is one I'm familiar with because of the Catalyst podcast as well as through reading his book Irresistable Revolution. I was immediately drawn to Shane's story and ministry because of an early passion (which I didn't totally follow through with) for urban ministry.
Originally, I was planning to drive up to Mount Vernon to hang with Travis Keller and some other MVNU friends tomorrow as Shane is headed that direction. But when I heard that Cedarville cancelled and he would be in Dayton Monday evening...I realized that would save me 4 hours of driving and a good bit of gas.
If you're interested in hearing Shane's talk, I think you download it here from Apex's website come Wednesday morning or so. Warning: He's a good ol' boy from East Tennessee and makes his own clothes!
Basically, I think Shane tells stories about life transformation and is engaged in a radical (like Jesus) environment of intentional community. You can find more info about that at the website above. My response to the evening is that you simply cannot dismiss someone's life, ministry, writings, and spiritual impact for the Kingdom based on alleged theological and doctrinal disputes. If what we believe was so much more important than how we live...Jesus' point in Matthew 25 is blasphemy. For those who want to continually throw around the word blasphemy (and heresy)...just realize who used that word the most in Scripture...and welcome yourself to the club.
Back to Shane Claiborne though...inspiring story and a truly authentic follower of Christ from what I see. Which reminds me of another great point he made...actually the introduction. How were the disciples to communicate to John the Baptist about Jesus? (Luke 7) Tell of what you've seen and heard...he didn't send them back with "statement of faith" or orthodox list of Messianic requirements.
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