The Kingdom Experiment
The printing side of the Nazarene Publishing House has a new book imprint called The House Studio. You can access their site at www.theHouseStudio.com. The House Studio is focusing on what they hope will be a new generation of resources that are authentic, relevant, and life changing. (What publishing venture doesn't hope to be relevant and authentic?) The plan for The House Studio to accomplish this is to publish the conversation of the church and, from that discussion, to learn what God is doing.
Publishing project number one is the book The Kingdom Experiment: A Community Practice on Intentional Living. The text centers around the preaching of Jesus commonly known as the Sermon on the Mount. That sermon has long been recognized for its seemingly reverse-thinking by the Son of God. "You have heard it said, ‘Do not swear falsely'; but I say unto you, ‘Do not swear at all'." "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you'." One cannot read the Sermon on the Mount and not see that all has been turned around for those who receive the Kingdom of God.
It is just this "upside down" nature of the Sermon that points to the intentional living that is the heart cry of The House Studio. Using the Beatitudes as a framework, the authors poke and prod us to action by giving us particular ways we can engage ourselves, our neighbor and our culture.
The book's format is very atypical for most readers. There are only a few words appearing on each page. In fact, more white space is given than what is normal, but that is done so on purpose, so that the reader might write and reflect on what has been suggested. This technique makes the work very dialogical, both with the author and with the Holy Spirit who guides and instructs in the act of reflection.
My reading of this book caused me to reflect in a new way upon the old truth regarding the work of the Savior, which he has passed on to his disciples, "He has no hands but yours, he has no feet but yours, he has no lips but yours." I was reminded that God has appointed me (us) as an ambassador for Christ.
In 1982, John Tracy Kidder wrote The Soul of a New Machine for which he won the coveted Pulitzer Prize. Seven years later, he wrote what has been called his most emotionally powerful and memorable work; a work which he dedicated to his wife, Reine Marie Melanie Kidder who taught for 21 years in the high school English department. It has been one of my favorite books: Among Schoolchildren.
Among Schoolchildren is the story of Mrs. Zajac, a feisty, funny and tough 34-year-old school teacher who has returned home to teach at her old elementary school. "Mrs. Zajac spends her working life ‘among schoolchildren.' To some it might seem a small world, a world of spelling and recess and endless papers to correct. But we soon realize that her classroom is big enough to house much of human nature. Her little room contains a distillate of some of the worst social problems of our time...
"As we come to know these children, we long for their salvation-and we come to understand, as if for the first time, the difference that a good teacher can make on society."
My favorite part of the book is toward the end, toward the end of the school year in fact, when Mrs. Zajac is being a bit reflective on her work through the year and wondering if she had made any difference in her student's lives.
Kidder writes, "Teachers usually have no way of knowing that they have made a difference in a child's life, even when they have made a dramatic one. But for children who are used to thinking of themselves as stupid or not worth talking to... a good teacher can provide an astonishing revelation. A good teacher can give a child at least a chance to feel. ‘She thinks I'm worth something. Maybe I am.'
"Good teachers put snags in the river of children passing by, and over the years, they redirect hundreds of lives. Many people find it easy to imagine unseen webs of malevolent conspiracy in the world, and they are not always wrong. But there is also an innocence that conspires to hold humanity together, and it is made of people who can never fully know the good that they have done" (p. 313).
This is the call of The Kingdom Experiment. To snag a child or two, to throw a rope to a hurting neighbor, to find some methodology whereby one can put hands and feet and lips to the truths spoken so eloquently by the Son of God that day on the mountain. My sense is that much-very much-could be accomplished for Christ and his Church if his children would concentrate on just doing something tangible along the lines of that Sermon.
I typically don't care for books like this. Much of what I receive from the "new generation" of publishers is packaged in neat, quick answer formats. On my desk now is a book titled "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about God." It amazes me that the study of God can be reduced to 226 pages (with footnotes)! I am skeptical. There is a sequel by this author: "Everything Else You Always Wanted to Know About God." Maybe they should re-title the first, "Much of What You Always Wanted to Know about God."
Maybe it is my age, but I like books that work with me on my journey and which have text on the page, rather than a superabundant amount of writing space. But this method of "forced reflection" requires that I begin at the start to form thoughts, which could lead to convictions, which could lead to practical demonstrations of Kingdom living.
It could be argued that evangelicalism in North America has lost its way concerning service and the expression of agapé love to others. The age of self-help has left us turning away from the needs of others and focusing inwards. Congregations are not exempt from this. I can see how this book could be used to goad the thinking of men and women, goad them into action. Then the experiment can begin.