Latest project: Reborn to Be Wild (David C. Cook)

Resides in: Glendora, Calif.

Currently reading: Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton and just finished re-reading John Steinbeck’s East of Eden.

What was the inspiration for Reborn to Be Wild?

“I was agreeing with another theologically trained church leader about the excesses and dangers of the ‘Emergent’ church when God’s Spirit broke in with this rebuking thought, ‘You sound just like the church leaders who shamed and discouraged you back then!’ Back then, when I was part of an extreme movement of younger Christians; back then, when our hearts were full of unusual ideas about Jesus and His church; back then, when we were the ones church people talked about in sentences full of mistrust and shame. I realized right then that I miss the Jesus Movement, not the lifestyle of the ’60s, but what it felt like to be a part of a revival. That dissatisfaction with my own spiritual status quo led me on this journey that resulted in this book.”

Did you have your own spiritual reawakening?

“There have been several, the most dramatic being my battle with leukemia that is chronicled in my book When God Breaks Your Heart. I came to realize that I had allowed the institutional church to tame my wild heart. I simply wanted to go all out for Jesus in the same radical way we did during the Jesus Movement.”

What are some of the lies that believers have accepted as truth?

“I’m sure of at least six lies we Jesus Movement converts believed that sidetracked our revival and tamed our wild hearts. Here are a few of them: ‘Bigger is better’—we threw our energy into building megachurches that marketed Jesus instead of doing the hard work of disciple-making. Another one is that ‘it’s all mine’—this is the lie we most wanted to believe. We allowed convoluted interpretations of Jesus’ teachings on money to explain away our materialism and we’ve paid a huge spiritual price. Another lie is that ‘power is good’—we were the generation that brought down the presidency of Lyndon Johnson. We understood the power of politics, and too many times, let the politics of the right define us.”

What are the main culprits driving church-goers to complacency?

“I believe Christians want something real. We’re tired of plastic Christianity and life-in-the-suburbs mythologies that let us wiggle out of the hard sayings of Jesus. We also seem to have forgotten that Christianity is a supernatural endeavor. Words like ‘faith’ and ‘transformation’ seem to have given way to self-help spiritualities and campus-building programs.”

What are the positive signs you see in today’s generation?

“They’re fed up with the emphases on size and sizzle. They want to do something for the Lord Jesus. They don’t know exactly what they want, but they want to experience true spiritual community and make a tangible difference for Christ. They remind me of … well, us—the Jesus Movement rockers who lost our way. I hope this book can help them avoid the same mistakes we made.”

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