I first encountered Willard’s writings in 2005, while I was undergoing that great personal transformation that most recent college graduates must endure. I was asked to help a church better understand the tangible ideas of discipleship that he expresses in The Spirit of the Disciplines. I went on to devour Renovation of the Heart and eventually The Divine Conspiracy. I now try to read one of them once a year.

I never had the chance to meet Dr. WIllard in person. It was heartbreaking to find out he wouldn’t be joining us at Missio Alliance this past month. Now we understand why. However, everyone who did meet him mentioned that he seemed just like he did in his writings, brilliant yet approachable, even grandfatherly.

This blog, in many ways, is inspired by his writings.

Here are five life shaping ideas I learned from Dallas.

Jesus is the smartest man who ever lived.

Can we seriously imagine that Jesus could be Lord if he were not smart? If he were divine, would he be dumb? Or uninformed? Once you stop to think about it, how could he be what we take him to be in all other respects and not be the best-informed and most intelligent person of all, the smartest person who ever lived? That is exactly how his earliest apprentices in kingdom living thought of him….Jesus was of one who made all of created reality and kept it working, literally “holding it together” (Col. 1: 17). And today we think people are smart who make light bulbs and computer chips and rockets out of “stuff” already provided! He made “the stuff”!

The Divine Conspiracy (p. 94).

Understanding Jesus’s idea of the Kingdom of God is essential to understanding Jesus.

What we have come to call the Sermon on the Mount is a concise statement of Jesus’ teachings on how to actually live in the reality of God’s present kingdom available to us from the very space surrounding our bodies.

The Divine Conspiracy (p. 97).

Jesus really meant that we should do what he said to do.

The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who, by profession or culture, are identified as ‘Christians’ will become disciples – students, apprentices, practitioners – of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.
The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship (p. xiii).

Most churches, no matter their theology or politics, are in the “sin management” business.

..the only thing made essential on the right wing of theology is forgiveness of the individual’s sins. On the left it is the removal of social or structural evils. The current gospel then becomes a “gospel of sin management.” Transformation of life and character is no part of the redemptive message . Moment-to-moment human reality in its depths is not the arena of faith and eternal living.

The Divine Conspiracy (p. 40-41).

Churches should be more like AA.

Any successful plan for spiritual formation, whether for the individual or group, will in fact be significantly similar to the Alcoholics Anonymous program.

Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ (p. 85).

According to John Ortberg “When Dallas Willard was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in late summer of 2012, one of his reflections was: “I think that, when I die, it might be some time until I know it.”

We know it, and we miss you, Dallas.

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Dallas WIllard, The Great Omission.
Read as part of the MAGL.

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Missio Alliance is the brainchild of the Ecclesia Network.  It is a much needed effort to provide a theological framework for how to be the church in a 21st Century, Post-Christendom America.  It features a few speakers who have radically shaped who I am and how I think, most prevalently, Dallas Willard and Scot McKnight.  Other participants include my church’s own Gideon Tsang and one of my incredible Fuller MAGL professors Shelley Trebesch.  Beside’s world-class content, here are the other two reasons I can’t wait:

A Gathering of the Other Voices

Missio is not the first attempt to rethink the church for the 21st century.  However, previous attempts seem to have shifted their energies to focusing on postmodern deconstructionism, or reinvigorating reformed theology.  Missio bills itself as a gathering of Practitioners, Theologians and Missologists who are

“Exploring the shape of a missional encounter with this new context calls for asking fresh questions and engaging in dialogue about topics as fundamental as the gospel, humanity, Scripture, the Holy Spirit, and the Kingdom of God; all framed around the role of the Church in relationship to God’s mission in the world.”

It is a promise that the perspective of those of us who follow Christ but don’t fit into the boxes provided by the style of faith seen in American will be heard.

Relationships are Key

Knowing that the event is an outgrowth of the Ecclesia Network, you can expect a heavy focus on relationships.  The speakers are important, but I am much more excited for the time to share your war stories while sipping on quality beverages.

When someone asked me why I pay money to hang out at events like this, I broke it down this way: I spend my work life with secular people who don’t understand my faith.  I do a lot of multi-denominational work, supporting people I love, but often don’t agree with. I love doing these things, because they are my mission.  But Ecclesia gatherings are a chance to just hang out with people who love Jesus and are as crazy as I am.  That’s rare, and worth flying across the country to enjoy.

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If you could read only one book about Jesus, it should be The Divine Conspiracy. Dallas Willard masterfully explains the core topic of Jesus teachings, The Kingdom of God, and how we are to respond to them.

The book begins with a discussion of the very idea of a kingdom, how we each have our own, and what it means for God to have one.  At it’s most basic, the Kingdom of God is “the dome under which God is King.”  He then goes on to explain that if Jesus is God, he is also the smartest person that ever lived.  He also explains that Jesus teachings were meant to be taken as serious ethical directions for individuals and societies.  The majority of the book works through Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount.

What makes Willard’s writing so meaningful is that he is a foremost a highly astute philosopher.  Yet despite his intellectual prowess, the majority of his teaching is based in the belief that we can, and should do what Jesus said. He shows how very simple, yet difficult, it is to live in the kingdom of God.

Divine Conspiracy is on my vert short list of almost yearly reads.  When I read it, I feel like I am finally seeing who Jesus is, and how his teachings were meant to change our lives and the world.

You can find The Divine Conspiracy here in paperback, digital, and audio.

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Community of Character by Stanley Hauerwas.  When I first read Hauerwas’s The Peaceable Kingdom it sent me down a path that has defined much of my thinking ever since.  I’m super excited for more.

Experiencing the Trinity by Darrell Johnson.

Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard.  I’ve been through this once before on audio.  Anyone who I’ve ever talked to about books knows that there’s no one I hold in higher esteem that Willard.

Spiritual Direction by Henri Nouwen.  I’m not sure how I’ve made it this far in life without reading Nouwen.  Time to change that

The Ascent of a Leader by Thrall, McNichol and McElrath.  Leadership books always inspire me toward greater focus.

Spiritual Leadership by Blackaby.

The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, by Phillip Jenkins.  More of a sociological study for the “Global” in MAGL.

Announcing the Kingdom by Glasser, Van Engen and Redford.  Written by the Fuller Missions staff, this looks to be the heaviest theological work I’ll be doing this quarter.

Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission by Lesslie Newbigin (not pictured). As I’ve said before, Newbigin is responsible for launching much of the conversation in the Church today.  This will be important.

Time to get to work!

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