Life Interrupted

It is with something of an obsession that I’ve written Interrupted. There is no other message, no competing subject, nothing else but this extraordinary story God recently wrote into our script. This is the unplugged version of how God interrupted our typical American life and sent us in a direction we couldn’t even imagine. If I seem to have tunnel vision, all I can say is that’s what happens when God shouts in your face and demands entire life change. I am fixated, and the only objective as central as living out this new mandate is mobilizing others to join me.

Let me say at the outset, right at the beginning of what I hope becomes an interruption in your life, that I love and believe in the church. The church is God’s vehicle to change the world. And though I’m critical at times of us, as the church, I am so because I dream about what the church could and should be. But until we are all compelled and contributing members of the body of Jesus, we’ll have to settle for an anemic faith and a church that robs Christ-followers of their vitality and repels the rest of the world. There is a call on our generation that must be answered by us collectively. Sequestering into our tribes, staying safely inside the walls of our buildings, is a luxury we no longer have. We are at the tipping point when everyone has to grab an oar.

It is with great anticipation that I enter this discussion with you. You’ll find I don’t peddle fluff, and when not being sarcastic, I’m dead serious about the gospel and the church in this postmodern world. This book you’re holding represents the most transformational message I’ve ever encountered, and I’d been a believer for 28 years, a pastor’s daughter, a pastor’s wife, and author of six Christian books before I stumbled on it.

One last note on what this project is not: It is not a how-to manual. It is not an authoritative program for living missionally. It is not an expert’s opinion on church trends and postmodernist thought. It is not a raging deconstruction or a soft-sell relativist approach. I am a bumbling, fumbling, searching, questioning sojourner. I have some churchy credentials, but they are irrelevant to the arc of this story. So if you’re looking for a mentor or professional or someone who has already landed, put this book down and buy something by Ed Stetzer or John Piper.

However, if you’re navigating the tension between your Bible and your life, or Jesus’ ancient ideas and the modern wayward church, or God’s kingdom on earth and reality, then welcome. Sometimes it’s better to wade through murky waters with a fellow explorer than with an authority. Questions can still be investigated with another learner rather than with one who has only answers. There is much value in the struggle. I may not offer resolution, but I will humbly and gratefully enter the conversation with you. If you have looked at the church at large, the current presentation of “a good, obedient life,” or the Christian effect on culture and asked, “Is this all there is?” then you’re in the right place.

So then, let me tell you how my comfortable, consumer life was interrupted, and perhaps yours will be too.