“This Beautiful Mess” was written by Rick McKinley, pastor of Imago Dei church in Portland, Ore. That’s one of those creative, postmodern-ish churches that traditional evangelicals aren’t sure what to do with. They’re doing innovative things, more interested in relationships and empathy than in institution-building. And they have some great things to tell us about what Christianity is really all about. We need to listen and learn. I try to do both.

McKinley’s book talks about “the Kingdom.” Not Saudi Arabia, but the Kingdom of God. Parts are good, parts not so good. But I enjoyed it. Most chapters end with some free verse by poets I’ve never heard of, and some are excellent.

Here is a good quote:

“Pastors and lay leaders love to talk about advancing the kingdom, about building the kingdom. It’s as if Jesus said, “My kingdom is a pile of lumber on the truck in heaven, and I need you boys and girls to get a hammer and help me nail this thing together.”…When Jesus talked about the kingdom, he never talked about us building it or advancing it….The kingdom IS. That’s it. Jesus does not need you or me to nail it together.”

He says we’re not building something, but merely living in something that already exists. We embrace the kingdom. God is sovereign in this kingdom, and he’s got everything under control. Our inadequacies won’t cause it to crumble.

“I don’t see my life now as one in which I advance the kingdom of God. It is advancing all by itself….The kingdom is a dimension I acknowledge, I live in, I participate in….It is a lot less like building the business of Christianity and a lot more like slipping into the matrix of Jesus.”

These were some very interesting thoughts for me.