View from the High Horse

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been co-leading (mostly observing) a book study of Fearless by Max Lucado. Before this study, I had never read any of Mr. Lucado's books. But I had heard a little about them from others. And the sense I got was that my Duke-educated, highfalootin', book-learned self would not see a bit of redeeming value in anything he wrote. So when I was asked to help with this book study, I was a little nervous.

It turns out that I was right, but in a good way. Sure, Lucado's not exactly going to deal in the same terms as Bultmann, Barth, and Hauerwas, so the book was not something that I would get a lot of redeeming value out of. In fact, his writing is very simple, and even by the way the typeface was set, I felt that my intelligence had been insulted. What's more, his writing does come off as a little too "warm and fuzzy". But given all of this, it was not far off base. Fearless was pretty orthodox and Lucado drew straight from several biblical examples (some I thought risked reductionism- the reading of a text out of context, but most often not).

All of this reminded me how pseudo-intellectual, seminary-educated folks like me can totally miss our mark when we communicate with our parishioners. It's obvious that the reason that the Christian book-buying public eats up works by authors like Lucado and Osteen (but don't get me started on him) is because they are accessible. Sure, I would love if folks in the pews had a basic understanding of Hays or Lindbeck, or even if most knew how much they've been influenced by Reinhold Niebuhr, or how much I wish they would eat up some Lesslie Newbigin, James Howell, or Lauren Winner (I offer the latter four examples as authors who are well-learned yet somewhat lay-accessible). And I still encourage folks to read these people as well. But the truth of the matter is, that outside of worship, it is difficult for folks to find the time and desire to read more than a 5-page chapter in large type that requires very little thought. So my hat's off to you, Mr. Lucado, for spreading the Good News in a very accessible way.