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Jesus Was An Episcopalian (And You Can Be One Too!): A Newcomer's Guide to the Episcopal Church

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Publisher: LeaderResources
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This light-hearted, interesting and thoroughly engaging book invites newcomers and those looking for a refresher course to take a new look at the Episcopal Church. “It's an amazing time to be an Episcopalian. Our church has a renewed sense of vision and leadership that’s all about feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. We’re all about standing up for equal rights and the environment. We’re all about welcoming everybody to the table, preaching repentance and accepting forgiveness. We hold together modern thought and an ancient faith firmly rooted in Jesus Christ. We offer vital communities that help families, singles - countless people make sense of their lives and their places in the world. Jesus Was an Episcopalian (And You Can Be One Too!) is all about letting the world know who we are and who the Lord is calling us to be. Let’s face it, few people today know what an Episcopalian is (be honest – how many people have asked you how to spell it?), yet many of us who have found Christ through this wonderful tradition believe we have an incredible gift to share. That’s what this book is about. It’s an uplifting, breezy, down-to-earth apologia for a new generation. It’s for the church. It’s for the world. It’s one way for the church to love the world.” (Chris Yaw)


DESCRIPTION:

Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9781595180001
ISBN: 1595180001
Label: LeaderResources
Manufacturer: LeaderResources
Number Of Pages: 168
Publication Date: 2008-07-28
Publisher: LeaderResources
Release Date: 2008-07-28
Studio: LeaderResources


SIMILAR ITEMS:

• Great Emergence, The: How Christianity Is Changing and Why (emersion: Emergent Village resources for communities of faith)
• My Faith, My Life: A Teen's Guide to the Episcopal Church
• Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the Ancient Practices
• Community: The Structure of Belonging
• Lent, Holy Week, and Easter: A Ceremonial Guide


CUSTOMER REVIEWS:

Customer Rating:
Summary: Beyond "Velvet Elvis" -- Responding to God's Call Together
Comment: Start reading this wonderful little book and you'll immediately discover one thing: the Rev. Chris Yaw has an amazing, self-deprecating sense of humor. He uses this affable persona to draw the reader into a fast-paced, deeply honest conversation about the future of Christianity.

Even non-Episcopalians will be moved -- and challenged -- by what he has to say.

The author's main point is this: We are at a major crossroads in the history of Christianity. God is calling us to live out our faith in POWERFUL new ways that can have a profound impact on the entire world. The confluence of globalization, new forms of communication and the spread of "Emerging Church" thinking is adding to this urgency.

The Episcopal Church, says Yaw, offers an awesome "set of tools" that can help us respond to God's call. And those tools are desperately needed.

Studies show that most non-church-going young people find Christianity to be boring, intolerant and irrelevant. What better antidote to this problem than the Episcopal Church's tradition of participatory worship, tolerance and social engagement. (There's a reason why you don't see Episcopal priests on those horrible televangelism shows, where so-called "preachers" tell everyone else how to think, how to live and where to send their money.)

But make no mistake: This book isn't about bashing others. Instead, Yaw calls us to recognize the gifts we have as Episcopalians -- and to use those gifts to help reinvigorate all of Christianity. There's not a lot of talk here about theology, doctrine or creeds. Nor does Yaw spend much time on the current liberal vs. conservative battle raging in the U.S. church. He's all about getting things done in response to God's call.

Yaw uses a wide variety of literary tools to draw us into the narrative, including personal stories, news notes, economic statistics, social snapshots and contemplation. If you enjoyed Rob Bell's early work (e.g., Velvet Elvis), you'll love this book as well. It's accessible to almost anyone over age 14.

Today, millions of Americans say they're "spiritual, not religious." If you have friends in that category, give them a copy of Chris Yaw's book to read. It could be the beginning of a very interesting journey -- indeed.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Chris Yaw was the Associate Rector at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Battle Creek, Michigan, until about 18 months ago. I still attend St. Thomas today.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Bread in the Wilderness, Not Pie in the Sky
Comment: BOOK REVIEW: JESUS WAS AN EPISCOPALIAN

This book, written in a conversational, sometimes whimsical, tone, is intended for inquirers, seekers, and spiritual pilgrims who are looking for, or at least curious about, the possibility of a church community they can trust.

Father Chris has a knack for one-liners and off-beat images that speak of venerable truths in unexpected ways. "Episcopalians," he writes, "have an incredibly snappy little suitcase chock full of beliefs, practices, and traditions that provide a uniquely attractive way of `doing church' in the new millennium." He does mix metaphors a bit... in another place, he says Episcopalians make use of a "very distinctive old toolbox." But whether it's a toolbox or a suitcase, he writes of the contents in a way that is accurate (in my experience) and attractive (also my experience).
Not that he glosses over the dark side of our reality. He acknowledges that, to some observers, the Episcopal Church appears indecisive... "the bland leading the bland," he says. He also is aware of our historic association with the upper crust... "Homeless shelters are a United Nations of religion and Episcopalians are from a very small country." In the end, however, he presents the Episcopal Church as a proactive, self-differentiated community with a healthy, if ironic, sense of its own identity. He includes an anecdote about a parishioner who complains at the church door to a visiting Bishop:
" `Bishop, I didn't like that last hymn.' The cheeky Bishop smiled and said, `That's OK, we didn't sing it for you.'"
This book is written a style that will be familiar to those who do a lot of their reading on the Internet. There is a judicious use of side-bars and boxed-in asides (there's a name for those), as well as memorable quotations from sources famous and obscure. One of my favorites is from my theology professor at Nashotah House, Arthur Vogel: "We don't gather around the Communion Table to escape the world's problems, but to escape the world's answers."
To me it seems unusual to begin this sort of book with two chapters chock-full of statistics about the problems of the world and the failures of the churches. In effect, Chris Yaw is asking the reader to examine how messed up the world really is, and to acknowledge how ineffective the church has been in responding. As the saying goes, "you have to hear the bad news before you can hear the good news." To Father Chris, the gospel calls people to an activist role that hopes to achieve real change in a suffering world. "We don't come to fight about who's right and who's wrong," he writes. "We come to hear about the message of Jesus. We're hungry to find an honest environment where we can grow in spiritual knowledge and learn how Jesus helps us help ourselves and others." He goes on to say, "Jesus started a counterinsurgency based on love, mercy, inclusion and forgiveness, and was executed for it...It's amazing that anyone would follow."
I appreciate this approach because it is honest. It acknowledges that the gospel of Jesus Christ is not a "prosperity gospel" to reassure the upwardly mobile, but rather a countercultural and subversive way of life where the rewards take the form of bread shared in the wilderness, not pie in the sky. I wonder, will inquirers & seekers persevere through the early chapters of this book? Are they willing to digest the pages of percentages and segments of surveys? Will these facts and figures call them to the borderlands of the kingdom? I hope so, because I believe what is in them is true, but my experience is that many people have grown hugely skeptical of statistical data and are highly resistant to information that might involve change on their part. It is a hallmark of our postmodern era to agree with one of the authorities Father Chris cites: "Who really knows anything?"
But there is more to Jesus Was an Episcopalian than statistics. As one reads on, it becomes clear than the author has his own suitcase full of personal lore and anecdote drawn from his experience as a gospel activist. That he does not present these as examples of heroic discipleship is to his credit. Rather, he seems to assume that experiences among the homeless and hungry are normative for Episcopalians in our day. Increasingly, he is correct. Deo gatias. 25 years ago,who would have thunk it?
Jesus Was an Episcopalian calls us, in a winsome and credible fashion, to take a stand with Jesus in a complex, confusing, violent world. Chris Yaw assures us that to do so is not only "meet, right, and our bounden duty,", but can also be fun.

Jonathan Sams




Customer Rating:
Summary: A must read, even for non-episcopalians
Comment: The Diocese of Michigan's own Rev. Chris Yaw is the author of this engaging, informative and inspiring book on the Episcopal Church, and what it has to offer the 21st century world. Billed as "A Newcomer's Guide to the Episcopal Church," I believe it has much to offer even the most entrenched "cradle" Episcopalian. For one thing, it does not start our story with Henry VIII and his infamous divorce! It begins with a profound vision of how ordinary people are working to make this world more like God's Kingdom, and how our Episcopal ethos is uniquely suited to this kind of work.

Henry VIII does turn up ... more than 100 pages in, after discussion of the current state of religion in American, the value Episcopalians place on using your MIND, the gift of welcome, the celebration of the eucharist, living an ethical life, the Bible ... and wait! There he is ... King Henry VIII, in the chapter on Roots, which really is a quick breeze through Christian history, with the English Reformation as just a bend in that great stream.

This is a wonderful, bright, informative book (Bishop Tutu loved it, too!) that is a good reminder of who we are and Whose we are. It would make a great gift for that family member of yours who doesn't quite get it how you ended up in the "Episcopalian" church. (And thanks, Chris, for reminding us that Episcopalian is a noun, and Episcopal is an adjective!) Or for your co-worker who wonders what you are doing over at that church all week.

But I'll leave you with Chris's vision of how God sees Episcopalians:
--God sees us passionately devoted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
--God sees us willing to fight poverty, disease and injustice.
--God sees us as thinkers.
--God sees us as accepting and open-minded.
--God sees us as reconcilers and forgivers.
--God sees us forming faithful and inclusive communities.
--God sees us as upholders of valuable traditions.
--God sees us devoted to the Eucharist.
--God sees us offering helpful missionary opportunities.
--God sees that we have good news to share.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An intelligent, fun, fair, positive introduction to Episcopalianism
Comment: There is one main suggestion that I have for this book: Chris Yaw needs to bring out another version with the title changed to Jesus Was An Anglican. In the midst of far too much gloomy, inward-looking Anglicanism (sorry - Episcopalianism), this book is a breath of fresh air. A book I would unreservedly hand to someone interested in "Anglican" or "Episcopalian". There are genuinely laugh-out-loud moments. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes, "Yes, the Lord has a sense of humor, that is why God created Anglicans! Thank you my friend for this light-hearted and generous invitation to inquirers."

" How lovely! It has so many nice quotes from the Prayer Book." Episcopalian after reading the Bible

Nowhere does the book descend to the stuffiness that some might associate with Anglicans/Episcopalians. I appreciate its missional starting point - the book begins not from history or internal structures, but with God using us to make a difference in the world. It is honest about the birth pangs into a new context. It is serious about the significance of being allowed (called!) to use our brains. (With its quote that 53% of Americans "believe God created humans in their present form exactly as described in the Bible" - by the way only 1% more than believe in astrology - the use of one's mind in discerning a variety of genres in the Bible may be a difficulty for some).

When it does come to history, I'm appreciative that Chris Yaw doesn't start, as too many do, at Henry VIII, but instead starts with the founder of the church being Jesus. Comfortable as I am with the mixed motives and mess of church history, I, for one, have little interest in belonging to a church founded relatively recently by an English king.

Structure, theology, and specifically Anglican approaches are well covered. The plethora of Episcopalian terminology is clearly and simply defined. Layout and images are clear, helpful, and appropriate.

This book is ideal for a number of contexts: individual reading for ideas and illustrations (I used a point from it, and let people know about the book in my Christ the King sermon yesterday), study groups, those interested in and/or new to Anglicanism/Epicopalianism. An intelligent, fun, fair, positive introduction to a prophetic denomination that is far far more influential than our numbers would suggest. I recommend it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great for Newcomers, Young and Old!!
Comment: It is so refreshing to have a Newcomer's Guide that is so in touch with popular culture. Unlike the other guides out there, this one does NOT start with the reign of King Henry VIII. Rather, it starts with what the Episcopal Church is doing now, what we stand for, and where we are going. Anything but boring, this book is perfect for those who are looking to find a church home but are put-off by the (sometimes) stuffy reputation of main stream Christianity. Well done!

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