Wayne Jacobsen

Tomorrow I’m off to drive around the state of California for the next few days, with a BridgeBuilders presentation tomorrow afternoon in the Bay area, and a retreat over the weekend in Oakhurst, CA. Then I have some business meetings with various people as I meander back to Southern California early next week. I’m excited, except for all that driving. I’ve got to save up my favorite podcasts to help pass the time. And on an unrelated note, we have begun to post a Russian translation of He Loves Me, for those interested. You can find out more about all our translated materials on our new International Page. But that’s not what I really wanted to write about.

I love the exuberance of youth. It isn’t easy to create exuberance and passion, and young people have it in abundance, but with it often comes misplaced confidence, and that can spell a ton of trouble. And no, I’m not talking about age here as much as I’m talking about experience on this journey.

Often I overhear someone say, “I have the Holy Spirit to guide me, so I don’t need the Bible or anyone else.” I clench a bit when I hear it. Ahh… Youth! Love the passion, but you’ve got to know they’ll end up strewn across the rocks some day having chased down something they thought the Spirit was speaking to them, only to find out it was their own passion or too much pizza. The more people pretend to be certain about some God-told-me information, the more I suspect that they are still a bit green on this journey. Yes, God will scoop them up, help teach them that humility is a wonderful key to living his life, but I would save them from that crash if I could.

Even Paul, the Apostle said, that he only knew what he knew in part, a “poor reflection as in a mirror.” (I Corinthians 13) And remember their mirrors were not the perfectly flat, highly polished surfaces we have today. They were more metallic, like looking at your reflection on a sheet of metal. He’s specifically talking about prophecy and how well any of us actually discern what God wants. I relate to that. I very rarely think that I’ve heard anything God says with absolute certainty. I have inklings on my heart, growing convictions that seem to nudge me in a certain direction. Some of them even turn out to be the Spirit’s leading, while others prove in time they weren’t. So I’m with Paul on this. When it comes to following the leading of the Spirit a bit of caution and humility go a long way to helping us get it right.

In a fresh reading through the book of Acts in the last few weeks, I have been blessed at how the early believers found their sense of direction. Often a turn of events brings them back to Jesus to seek his mind. One of those times is in Acts 15 where the young believers are fighting over whether or not Gentile believers must observe Jewish rituals or not. The focus was on circumcision as some argued that it was an important sign of the covenant that all male believers had to undergo. Paul, of course, disagreed. So some of those more mature on the journey got together to hash it out. You can read the details, but what I love about these moments in Acts was that they looked for three things to line up to have some certainty about what God might be saying.

They looked for how God had seemed to lead and spoken in their circumstances. The looked to the Scriptures, both the Old Testament, as well as the things Jesus said and modeled that eventually became our New Testament. They would zero in on those insights that seemed most applicable to their situation. And, they talked it through with each other until they came to some measure of agreement. Only then, when all three lined up, did they have the confidence to reach a decision together.

I find myself living the same way. Yes, I look for the nudges and insights of the Spirit to guide me in decisions I make. But I’m never certain of those leadings alone. I also search the Scriptures and think about what Jesus and the early church modeled to see if that lines up as well. (I don’t go looking for proof texts to justify my point of view, because that will only lead me back to myself.) And I find myself talking about it with people God has put into my life as we kick around what might be him and what might be Wayne. (Of course it is important on this last consideration to be talking with those who are truly learning to walk in humility with God, not just people who want to scratch your back by saying what you want to hear. Also make sure they are people on the journey of being shaped by Jesus, not just Pharisee types who merely follow rules and rituals and want to find some principle to guide you.)

I have the most confidence to move ahead when all three of those line up. One alone isn’t sufficient, though I’ll let my best understanding of Scripture veto any decision I’m going to make. Instruments on an airplane measure a number of variables, and when they all line up, you know you’re on course or the glideslope for landing. And, yes, I realize many have not yet learned how to search the Scriptures outside the false religious interpretations that long held them captive, but that is no reason to discount their value. It may be incentive enough to learn how they become an important piece of the puzzle of making God’s life more certain in you.

But don’t fly with only one input when you don’t have to. God has not only given us his Spirit, but also his recorded revelation and other brothers and sisters who can help us see more clearly what God might be doing in us. I’m thankful for all three.

I often report on my impressions from my travels, but it is far more fascinating to me to read what others seem to see in it. One of the brothers I met in Vancouver last weekend wrote up his impression about the trip and if you want to see what it looks like to someone else, you can read Paul’s insights at Radical Reversal.

And then I got this last week, and just loved the journey this man is on and how he’s responding to the life God is bringing to him. Here are some excerpts from his journey:

What a wonderful series Transitions is! I have and am listening to it over and over and over. It is fresh air! It is windblown! It is revolutionary!

I grew up Amish. All my life I have felt a pull to something more, something eternal, forever, beyond, a beckoning. Somehow I knew it was God, but never realized it could be a relationship with the Father. Your stuff is so rich, deep and right! I’m now 47 yrs. old and beginning to live loved! I have lived my entire life trying to find this; I tried and did everything religion required, I wore the right clothes, said the right things, testified correctly, combed my hair the right way, went on mission trips, taught Sunday school, prayed before meals, memorized chapters and books of scriptures, I even wore the color of shoes that was required (black). I did so much and it left me soooo tired!!

Somewhere along the route a friend hooked me up to your website and it is good! I just wanted to say Thanks for spreading good stuff.

And one more. This from a brother that just read the Jake Book:

A friend of mine gave me a copy of your book, So, You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore. Reading that book has been the most liberating experience since coming to Christ. To be free to relate to individual believers as God establishes relationships without the need to join a particular organization has enabled me to hear from and grow in God in ways I would never have before.

It gives me the freedom to discuss issues and feelings without the fear of ecclesiastic sanctions. I find that I am a lot more open with others and able to receive feedback from them. I feel less threatened and I believe that I am less threatening to those God places me with. Thank you for your words of wisdom.

It’s a lot of fun to see all the ways Father encourages people on this journey, to live more deeply in him and the freedom Jesus purchased for us. Grab a bucket, will you? And sling some freedom around your corner of the world. Don’t worry about battering ‘the system’ or trying to convince people you’re right. Just help them wherever they are take another step closer to Father’s reality. How? However he leads you!

The best personal assistant I’ve ever had in my office, won’t return today. Julie Williams, my deeply loved daughter and the one who has filled all the book orders and kept the place organized for the last two years is retiring. Actually, she is great with child, and in another month or so, I’m going to pick up another granddaughter that will bring great joy around here. So that will be awesome!

If any of you dealt with Julie while she worked here, you will realize how grossly overqualified she was to do what she did for us. She did it for some extra spending money and to help out around here. She could also bring her daughter to play with grandpa while she worked. It was perfect! And now, it’s over and I’ll admit to being a bit sad but that’s only because of what an awesome gift she was while she was here. She did more in her eight hours a week here than most would do in twenty and tracked so many things that for the time being will fall back into my portfolio! Drats!

I will miss her sorely in months to come, not just for the work she did but the extra Father-daughter time that allowed us and the wisdom she brought to so many of the projects we worked on here. She helped with The Shack and the new edition of He Loves Me. She helped me make decisions about so many things. What an awesome young woman! I couldn’t be more pleased at how she lives her life, and am incredibly blessed to be her father and her friend. Of course we’ll see a lot of her around here still. (Babysitting will become more important I suspect with a second.)

But I have no idea how to replace her. Since my office is in my home, it isn’t easy just to hire someone from outside. I’m sure Jesus has a solution, but I don’t see it yet. So in the meantime, I’ll be picking up her workload, which may mean things will have to wait a bit longer to get done.

But I wouldn’t have traded the last two years for anything. Thank you, Julie! You were a great blessing to me and so many others. May you know great joys ahead loving your husband, raising your two young girls and everything else that Father calls you to do. And, besides, I’d rather be your father than your boss any day! But if you miss those book orders someday, you’ll be welcome back any time…

I’ve had a great 10 days traveling through a bit of British Columbia. I’ve met a lot of people over that time at various stages of sorting out what it means to live free in Jesus. We’ve talked tons about our life in him and learning how we live in the simplicity of his working, instead of the frustration and ineffectiveness of our own. It’s been wonderful.

I fly home tomorrow and probably won’t have to board another airplane this year. I’m going to stick pretty close to home for a while. I do have one car trip in November plan for a BridgeBuilders presentation to the Association of California Administrators and then a weekend in the Oakhurst/Fresno area with some fellow-travelers. Other than that it is time to take some rest and get some stuff done around the office and home. This ends a pretty extensive travel season for me, where I have had multiple trips, back-to-back, that have kept me on the road for 11 to 12 days. It’s all been good, but it’s time to hang around the house so Sara won’t forget who I am.

One of the things we focused on this weekend is that the best expressions of church life do not form in models imposed on people by others who think they know what is best for them. The best expressions of church life rise out of friends and friends of friends that Jesus connects together. In other words the church is not something we build by our efforts, but rises naturally out of people learning to live in his love and sharing that love with others around them. It is hard for some folks to see that, since we have the idea that if we can just embrace the most Godly system we’ll see the church rise in glory. The fact is the church isn’t a system at all, but an extension of the relationships we have with other believers and seeing how Father directs those in that which he might ask us to do and discover together…

I have also not had a ‘send mail’ connection over the last couple of days, so I have a huge backlog of answered emails that won’t go out until tomorrow. So if you’re waiting for a response from me, just wait a day or two longer.

The man who sent me the pictures of the roadside memorial with a copy of The Shack posted on a one-way pole, wrote me to fill in a bit more of the details:

There was a father and his little girl killed at this spot within the last 2 or possibly 3 years. Their first names are on the little cross that is in the background of one of the pictures of which I was not close enough to capture in detail. From where I was standing I was not able to see any last names on the cross. The details as I recall was that the father was either heading out or returning home after a trip for some ice cream with his little girl. They hit a truck and trailer unit that was turning into a driveway a little past the sign in the picture. I tried to call up the news story using several search variations, however was unsuccessful in obtaining any information.

Needless to say I was extremely intrigued by this and very excited to see a copy of The Shack attached to the little makeshift memorial. Amazing!!! I sure would be interested in knowing what kind of impact this had on the person or person(s) who attached the book to the sign post?

Wouldn’t we all? But some things we don’t get to know. I’m surprised the memorial had been there so long, especially with the fresh flower by it, unless the person bungee-cording the book to the post left it there. Who knows what Father might accomplish through a simple gesture…

Someone from Alberta, Canada sent us these photos today. A few days ago he’d driven by a makeshift roadside memorial to a recent death on the highway. When he passed by it yesterday he noticed something had been added. Do you see it there on the post? Let’s zoom in by looking at the picture on the right. Someone had attached a copy of The Shack to the signpost near the accident.

That’s all we know. We have no idea who died there, who posted the book, or what is going on, but what a poignant statement. The mail we continue to get because of this little book is astounding.

One of the people really impacted by it is Wynonna Judd, the Country-Western recording artist. Here’s what she wrote:

“I received a copy of The Shack during a very difficult transition in my life. The story has blown the door wide open to my soul and during this time I’ve asked many questions. It reminds me that though I ask, ‘Why?, I know who is still in control.”

Just today I received this from a sister in South Carolina:

I’m half-way through The Shack and have been to Willie’s web site. I haven’t yet found the words to express how it has touched my heart. If only we were told of the inexplicable love of God when we were growing up, instead of the hell, fire, and brimstone so many of us were introduced to! When they taught us to sing, “Jesus loves me, this I know…” And we were like, “yeah, right!

And this from a South African couple who have recently re-located to England:

We really enjoyed our time with you in Bournemouth when you were out. We picked up a copy of The Shack that weekend and, man oh man, it was such a refreshingly different truth-injecting non religious read. I am busy giving it a second go due to the rich content that I seemed to have missed the first time round. We recently made a trip back to SA for a friend’s wedding and spent a lovely 2 weeks there. We took some copies of the book for people and the feedback has been really amazing.

Now I’ve got to get back to formating the hardback version for those who have requested copies that will be more permanent…

Sorry it has been so long again. My life is pretty crazy at this point. Only had 11 days between a trip to the East Coast and turning around to make my third trip this year into Canada, this one to British Columbia. And it’s been busy since we’re trying to get out a new hardback version of The Shack, for those who have been asking for a more permanent copy for their libraries.

I also got a shocking package in the mail Friday from an old publisher of mine. Thomas Nelson sent me a new copy of a Portuguese translation of In My Father’s Vineyard) (pictured at left, which is no longer in print in English). I had no idea this was even in process. This is the beautiful coffee table book that is now out of print. They did a beautiful job on the book. I miss the fact that we no longer have that available in English. It brought back so many rich images of growing up on my dad’s vineyard.

I had a great time with some old friends in upstate New York and down in central Pennsylvania. This trip produced some interesting conversations, some newfound friends and even defined some new terms. And in Pennsylvania, I picked up a new term for believers on this journey that we discussed on the last podcast. In case you missed it, I’ll fill you in here.

Someone was talking about a wine list they saw at a restaurant that was offering “free-range wine.” They were asking me what that was, knowing I’d grown up on a vineyard. The term really tickled me. According to Wikipedia “Free range is a method of farming husbandry where the animals are permitted to roam freely instead of being contained in any manner. The principle is to allow the animals as much freedom as possible, to live out their instinctual behaviors in a reasonably natural way…” I don’t know how you apply that to vines. We never had to cage them up in our vineyard because they weren’t ever trying to get away.

But as we talked about it, we thought what a great term it was for believers who are no longer a committed part of Sunday morning institutions. We haven’t left Christ. We’ve not lost our passion for the body, but many of us have found it far easier to grow and help others grow without all the overhead, machinery and rituals of organized religion. To some of us it was a cage that did not promote healthy spiritual growth, but actually stifled it by all the personal expectations and political necessities of an institution. Now, I know not everyone feels that way and many continue to find great life and growth in such places. If it is helping you know God better and live more deeply in him, good on you! But it is also fabulous that others are finding more opportunities for growth in the freedom from some of the restrictive realities of many of those institutions.

‘Free-range believers’ is a good way to say it. Now don’t worry. I’m not coining a term to identify a new movement or exploit a new market. I just think it’s a wonderful way to express what many of us are finding to be true—maybe we all don’t have to grow up in the same environment. What may be a joy for some can become a prison for others. And yet we are all believers still in this marvelous journey. Free-ranger believer. That has all the overlays of freedom and not growing being hyped up through artificial nutrition. As many write me, it certainly is not an easier way to live, but for many it is more real and more life-transforming.

Now I’m on my way to Canada again. There are so many wonderful people up there on an incredible journey and I’ve got a slew of people on this trip that I’ll be meeting for the first time. I love it up there. Not only are the people awesome, but so is the chicken at Swiss Chalet and the chocolate dessert at Kelsey’s. (I know, it’s not the best for me, especially after my check-up at the docs last week. It’s time to get serious about a few dietary essentials. Bummer!

One last thing. If you want a bit more of The Shack, check out Willies blog from this weekend. It’s an awesome story in the same vain, and with the same poignant wisdom! You will thank me!

I leave for 10-day trip to upstate New York and Pennsylvania tonight. It’s one of those all-nighters! A read-eye is definitely what it is for me, since I don’t sleep well on airplanes. But I am looking forward to joining the folks in Lowville, NY for a second time, and then head down for a school board convention in Pennsylvania for my BridgeBuilders work, before spending the weekend with old friends in the Harrisburg/Hershey area of PA!

Also I was contacted yesterday by someone needing help for a research project:

My name is Barb Orlowski. I am on the Doctor of Ministry program at A.C.T.S. Seminaries in Langley, B.C., Canada. In order to conduct the research necessary to complete my dissertation, I could use your help. I am conducting a survey among Christians who have experienced emotional and spiritual distress under authoritarian and controlling church leaders and have recovered from this experience. And, I am looking for pastors who have endeavored to provide spiritual guidance and help for people who have experienced emotional and spiritual distress under authoritarian and controlling church leaders and who have ceased to be associated with those congregations.

If you fit either of these two groups of people and would consider helping her on her research, please email her here for more information.

Finally, I wanted to leave you with another response to my recent article, Friends and Friends of Friends in the newest edition of BodyLife. This is an interesting way to approach the subject as well. If Jesus wanted us to organize his church into institutions, why did he not leave us a detailed plan for doing so? His Father did that in the Old Testament. This is what my friend Kevin posed:

You know God was able to give Moses some very specific instructions on how to build the tabernacle. If He had wanted to, He could have done the same quite easily in defining what were the important sacraments, what day of the week we should meet, and what were the 17 key points to have in our statement of faith. Instead “He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

With all that there were arguments and schisms in the NT church too. I guess many of Paul’s letters (those that survived and those that didn’t) addressed that.

So do you think we have been doing it all wrong for 1700 or so years now since Constantine?

I suppose the problem is that you can’t really define what is beyond definition in some sense. People want an ecclesiology that they can see, understand, control, or at least that is definitive, ordered, and structured in some sense. They see a pattern or system to everything in the created world and expect the same in the church. What you’re describing is far too dynamic. People want to see and know what their role is in all of this. After all these years, we still want a king of our own flesh, just like Israel and a defined kingdom. We want a simpler order, hierarchy, methodology, or system. The order within a fractal is too complex!

Anyway…just some thoughts. In some sense its very simple to grasp. In another, it’s way over our heads, and not wanted because it’s not within our control, nor does it have the appearance of order in a simple way.

I do think it is our need to control that causes us to gravitate toward human systems to somehow define or contain the body of Christ in a way we think we can manage. Such exhausting work! And I don’t think it took Constantine to do it for us. We have a track record in the early church in places like Galatia, Corinth and Colosse where the early believers went astray of the purity and simplicity of the gospel in their own need to achieve by human effort. It is a perilous road, no matter what the motivation!

I appreciate the way the Internet allows people to interact with things I write. Others add some great observations to this process. I’ve received some emails since the release of the new BodyLife and its lead article about Friends and Friends of Friends. It’s interesting that these both focused on fear and control as the reason we won’t trust Jesus to connect us the way he always desired to do.

This came from a long-time friend that has continued to look in a number of places to find some form of effective church life in a number of institutions:

I don’t know where to begin….was so impressed by what you had to say in the new newsletter. I have struggled with this issue for years and like you it was in front of us the whole time. Can’t tell you what a release I felt (and my wife as well). It is so hard to move away from the institution and the hold it can have on you. I recently watched a documentary on the Catholic Church in its attempts to deal with the sexuality of both male and female clergy, and the conclusion was simply that it was all done and justified on the basis of control, no matter what and that it will never change. It almost appears that the institution will do anything to keep people from fellowship with Jesus and with one another because of its fear of losing control even though lives will be destroyed. I can’t thank you enough for taking such a courageous stand.

And this came from a newer friend who has only recently left the institutional he served in for years. He was recently invited back to attend a ‘Defending the Faith’ class so he would know better how to “evangelize” young believers.

Why can’t we love people well enough that we just share our life with them in relationship instead of treating them as a project for coercion? You know why? It is because of fear. We are afraid we won’t know what to say. We are afraid that our not having an answer to their question will render them to eternal damnation. We are afraid we will say something wrong which make them walk away from Christ and they won’t ever pass that way again. We are afraid that a lot of their salvation is based on what I do.

But perfect love cast out all fear. If it really was about loving the people that Father puts in front of us each day, there is no fear of what to say, or what the results will be. I feel for those coercion projects that will soon be the victims of a new group of graduates from the “Defending the Faith” class. But then Father can make good of that too.

it’s amazing what Father uses. It really is! I’m grateful for how many times he’s used my immature ramblings to touch someone’s life and draw them closer to him. But like many of you, I’d much prefer Jesus flow out of my life because of how I’m responding to him, not in spite of it.

I flew back home today from six wonderful days all over the southern part of Alberta. I met some wonderful people and some incredible conversations and have returned home to a pile of backlogged emails and a full schedule for tomorrow. Bummer. Many people continue to be deeply touched by The Shack.

The team that helped put this together gets some incredible email every day at what God is doing in people’s hearts as they work through this little book. Of course, this is his doing, not the book’s, but it is fun to see how he’s using it as a catalyst to help people see a bit more clearly and live more freely in him…

This one from a friend in the U.S.:

Oh Wayne! I just finished reading The Shack! I am so emotional right now, and am using you to release some of them.

I cried, I saw…it is SO amazing! That which is in this book CONFIRMED so many things, I had thought I was the only one to believe them! But now I know. I KNOW! What He has been showing me all along this season is truth, and I had been a bit wondering if I dared to believe! But here it is, where someone else put those same things in writing!!!

What a relief! What a release! Wayne, I am so greatful to have had this….experience with all Three Persons of our God while the reading of this book, for truly He was with me, speaking, prodding, encouraging, pumping in and thus out of me His Life and Love.

Oh, and forgiveness. That, too, has happened to me, and I can’t even remember some of what I went through, it was deep. I feel like I was Mack! So much has happened to me…I believe I went on a journey with Him while reading this.!

The confirmation of it all…. I don’t even know what else to say.

This one from a sister in Australia:

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, for thinking outside the box, for not taking no for an answer, for bulldozing through the barriers of publishers so ordinary folk like us could read The Shack.

I have read it twice and as I pass it on to people I warn them it is like nothing they have ever read. Some people speak Spanish, some people speak English; Willie speaks the language of the soul, not unlike George McDonald!!!

What is it about it that brings so much healing and corrects the perspective of who my loving Father is? I have been thinking that it will make an impact in the life of our Father’s church around the world. Imagine all the people that are being freed and released from guilt. Imagine life changing choices being affected by love for Papa and not duty to a distant God. Windblown indeed!

Anything that helps people see God’s working in their own lives more clearly is a wonderful gift. I was with some people last night outside Edmonton and one woman talked about her reading of The Shack. She said that she had no idea that God could be such a God of grace and that it has sent her on a search to know God as he is and not how she has come to think of him only as a stern judge.

What a joy!