For those who have seen Open Letter to Dr. Frank Page and Kent Shirley and/or Southern Baptist Convention Embracing Gnostic Mysticism (SBCGM)–the article that God has used to open this subject to discussion–here is a bit of an update concerning Kent Shirley.

As I previously mentioned Shirley is Director of Missions in Grand Valley Baptist Association (SBC) of Grand Junction, CO. In SBCGM I quoted his Recommended Reading for Pastors & Staff page. Shirley later updated that page as of 11/18/06. And it now reads:

Here are some books that have challenged my thinking, greatly inspired me or both! Warning! The Holy Spirit has used each of these works to teach me something important. If you are set in your thinking about church methodology, these may be dangerous to your health! The works are books that I have either read or re-read recently. Suggestion: don't judge the value of a book until you personally have read it with an open mind and have asked the Holy Spirit to show you if there is anything you can learn from the work! These works are my personal recommendation for reading and enlightenment and are not in any way meant to represent the views of the Grand Valley Baptist Association. Kent Shirley

I draw your attention to the highlighted parts which were added later and Shirley is now claiming God used these books to “to teach me something important.” And Shirley has also added a “suggestion” which I assume he believes will prove helpful in that we should read these books “with an open mind.” Then as we do we should be asking God “the Holy Spirit” what it is we might learn from these particular works which are listed below.

Frankly, if I didn’t know better I’d have to say here Kent Shirley sounds a bit like a Mormon Missionary bearing their testimony that if you sincerely pray about the Book of Mormon then God will give you “burning in the bosom” to confirm it is true. So Brother Shirley, exactly what do you think God is going to teach us about evangelism through a heretic like Brian McLaren who denies both the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible and the vicarious penal substitutionary atonement of our Lord on the Cross?

Or are we really to believe this bit of “wisdom” from Donald Miller author of your recommended Blue Like Jazz was actually revealed by the Holy Spirit:

If we hold that Jesus wanted us to “believe” certain ideas or “do” certain things in order to be a Christian, we are holding to heresy. In that bar on Hawthorne, I finished the last paragraph and felt a kind of sickness at the thought of whether or not I was telling the truth. But after further consideration, and after rewriting the book, I realized the formulaic version of Christianity was irrational, and for that matter, unbiblical.

Would that be heresy in certain unbiblical things to believe like where Jesus says – “I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I Am the One I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins” (John 8:24). Or how about heresy in certain unbiblical things to do like where our Creator says – “anyone who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38). Hmmm, you know come to think of it, that special night with Miller being in “that bar in Hawthorne” spirits just might have played a part after all…

Title / Author / (publisher)

Church Next by Eddie Gibbs (IVP)

Prayerwalking "Praying on Site with Insight" by Steve Hawthorne and Graham Kendrick (Creation House)

The Present Future by Reggie McNeal (Jossey-Bass)

The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch (Hendrickson)

Church Planting Movements by David Garrison

The Organic Church by Neil Cole (Jossey-Bass)

The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church by Roland Allen

Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders

The Red Sea Rules by Robert J. Morgan (Thomas Nelson)

Red Moon Rising by Pete Greig & Dave Roberts (Kingsway Publications)

Paul by Charles R. Swindoll (W Publishing)

The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus (Thomas Nelson)

He Shall Be Called by Robert J. Morgan (Warner Faith)

Transformation by Bob Roberts Jr. "How Glocal Churches Transform Lives and the World" (Zondervan)

The Celtic Way of Evangelism by George G. Hunter III (Abingdon)

Simple Church by Thom S. Rainer & Eric Geiger (Broadman & Holman)

Blue Like Jazz "Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality" by Donald Miller (Thomas Nelson)

Exiles by Michael Frost (Hendrickson)

More Ready Than You Realize by Brian McLaren (Zondervan)

note: this page was last updated 11/18/06