Lake Neuron

When we reformulated our Sunday School class last fall, and I wound up teaching, we started on the book “Blue Like Jazz” by Donald Miller. I had great trepidation about how people would react to the book, but it’s been a great success. We’re almost through with it now, and we’ve got to find a new book. I wouldn’t mind doing one of Miller’s other books eventually, but I didn’t want to do them back-to-back.

Tomorrow morning, I’m going to propose that we use “The Ragamuffin Gospel” by Brennan Manning. This was the book I took with me to read during my 2004 mission trip to Kenya. (One of my teammates, by sheer coincidence, had brought a different Brennan Manning book.) It’s all about grace, and about even though most of us as Christians have mental knowledge that God is saving us and we aren’t saving ourselves, we still feel as if we have to earn our way to heaven. It’s not as funny and earthy as “Blue Like Jazz,” but I think the class can get something out of it, and I’d really enjoy teaching it.

Ironically, today’s chapter of “Blue Like Jazz” deals with accepting others unconditionally, and so perhaps it gives me the perfect opportunity to jump off and talk about “The Ragamuffin Gospel.”