Monday, June 25, 2007

Endorsements

LifeSpace offers insights into Christian spirituality in ways that are wise, attractively written and humanly hopeful about our potential to receive the gifts of grace that are daily in our lives. Best of all, the book rings true in its message that we are closest to God when we love, and farthest away from that joy when we do not.

The word that echoes in my heart since reading LifeSpace is "expansive." I think about all the people whose faith has been boxed and shrink-wrapped, the people who feel claustrophobic in church, who feel they can't breathe or run or shout because of their religious constrictions, and I think, "They need this book." It did my soul good. The scientists tell us that God made an expanding universe: Joni Grace Powers and Bob Pyne help us have an expanding spiritual life to match it.

Warning: Reading this book could be hazardous to your categories. Do not open unless prepared to consider, breathe, emerge, revel, rejoice!

LifeSpace releases you onto the wide open horizon of God's good creation and the deep love of Christ, lungs full of breath and hands outstretched. Powers and Pyne adeptly integrate the holiness of God with the joyfulness of our human journey. They remind us of the very central calling to be fully present to the life God has given us.
Danielle Shroyer



"This book is not simply words on a page about God. It delivers what so many of us need, whether seasoned believer or wandering seeker---a fresh experience of the living God. The theology is shatteringly solid, the language warm and companionable. With Powers and Pyne as guides, I feel as though I’ve been given great draughts of oxygen---which is to say, a new look at the holiness and grace of God and what it means to live truly within that space."
Leslie Leyland Fields

Powers and Pyne have carved out a nice, little book here that flies in the face of spiritual hogwash. They paint a picture of a lavish life with God that is not exasperated by lines and boxes. Upon reading this book, you will get a clearer picture of what Christ meant when he talked about giving life to the fullest. You will not be disappointed.
Brian Tryhus

Bob and Joni have done a masterful job of reintroducing an expansive understanding of Christian living into a landscape that has become cluttered with models of sanctification bearing more resemblance to straightjackets and organized cubby holes than freedom in Christ. The authors explore the truths of Christian orthodoxy seeking to discover how the natures of and relationship between God and humanity matter to our next gasp of breath. They passionately argue from a perspective that honors both Scripture and church history while challenging some modern conceptions of Christian holiness. Their conclusions will likely be startling to some, reassuring to others, and the first step in a exhilarating journey for many more. All should love the symmetry between sound doctrine and evocative expression, biblical truth and genuine vulnerability.
—Tim Owens

So much more than just another book on the "How-To's" of living the Christian life! What you will find here are incredible insights expressed on every page into what it means to truly find and walk in REAL and LASTING LIFE! Let Bob Pyne and Joni Grace Powers lead you on a life-changing journey through the process of learning to breathe once again!! A true treasure of a book.
—Mark Zeigler

The chapters are copiously illustrated with a variety of experiences drawn from lives of the writers, as well as from a diverse congeries of authors ranging from Madeline L'Engle and Maya Angelou to Augustine, to Barth, to Buechner, and thankfully, to Flannery O'Connor. The reader will feel enriched and refreshed through the surprising array of Christian thinkers included in the text. Such unconventional thinkers as Annie Dillard and Emily Dickinson reflect the truth of Christ, but tell it "slant." Their perspectives on Christ catch us a little off balance, forcing us to reconsider our sometimes wobbly presuppositions about the Christian life. LifeSpace invites readers to celebrate Christ in real living - to be a people whose lives are marked by "the fire of God's wild breath" on our face. It is a book to be read, and then lived.
—Reg Grant