I’ve had a long reading list sitting on the shelf next to by bed for about two months now. I don’t get too many opportunities to get lost in a good book these days — usually just a few minutes before I fall asleep at night. However, I am slowly making it through my list. The first book I grabbed is Don Miller’s “Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality” (Thomas Nelson). It is the first “Christian” book that I have actually read cover-to-cover in about six years.

I have to admit that the reason I picked Miller’s book is because it seemed the popular thing to do these days. “Blue Like Jazz” has become an anthem of sorts for the Emerging Church (or “the church that is emerging” — whatever). It speaks to a lot of what the rapidly growing demographic of churchfolk these days are longing for — living and loving as Christ, and developing a sense of community with other Christians.

I especially like the manner in which Miller speaks of other influential Christian leaders these days — referring to them only by their first names, giving them cute nicknames (The Cussing Pastor, etc.) and bringing even the most successful of them into the realm of the believable — as if the only thing different between them and us is the fact that they have managed to sell a million books. In that sense, I’ll just call the author “Don the Book Guy” for now, since he is just a normal guy who has managed to sell a million books.

To me the culmination of Don the Book Guy’s book is Chapter 18. He shares his experience living “among the hippies,” and also his experience as a counselor at a Christian summer camp. It all leads up to the revelation that “Christian love” isn’t really what we’d like it to be. Our love isn’t perfect — in fact, it often isn’t even as pure and undefiled as that of many of the unbelievers out there in the “real world.” He goes on to say that as Christians, we often use love like we use money — as a tool to lavishly finance the ones who agree with us, and to withhold affirmation from those who don’t. Don the Book Guy makes the statement, “When the church does not love its enemies, it fuels their rage. It makes them hate us more.” Just as an economic sanction in the world of national politics seldom accomplishes the desired goal, withholding love from somebody as a means of “punishing” them for not thinking, feeling, or believing like us can result in no good end.

Anyway, Don the Book Guy does a great job of speaking clearly to the younger generation. For us older folks, it reads like somebody who is relating past experiences (10-15 years ago) in the manner of the present generation, which in fact is probably true. Don the Book Guy is the same age as me (34 going on 35 at the time of this writing).

I take that as encouragement, since Don the Book Guy has truly impacted a generation with his writings. If I could be as cool as Don the Book Guy, I might impact people, too.

Of course, that’s not the point. It just goes to show that genuine spirituality transcends age, gender, race, creed — people can sense when you are a phony. Yes, Don the Book Guy is cool. Yes, he talks the language of the upcoming generation. But he is no phony.

One very interesting thing about this book to me is the fact that Don the Book Guy bridges the gap between the “Mars Hill” movement and the “Emergent” movement. It is not really public knowledge, but the “Emergent” folks are under fire from the “Mars Hill” folks because of their apparent casual attitude toward the atonement of Christ for the sins of the world. I won’t get into the details here, but the gist is that Don the Book Guy is respected by both crowds.

My biggest beef about the book is the somewhat misleading title. The rambling thoughts that Don the Book Guy relates are, in fact, very religious. It comes off as a little smug to suggest that the “established church” has lost sight of these “nonreligious thoughts.” While undoubtedly some have focused on other things, the thoughts (or the subject of the thoughts) have never been nonreligious.

The title is also somewhat ambiguous. Is it “blue, like jazz,” or is it “blue-like jazz?” The reference to the title appears on page 100, “There is something beautiful about a billion stars held steady by a God who knows what He is doing. (They hang there, the stars, like notes on a page of music, free-form verse, silent mysteries swirling in the blue like jazz.)” No help there — he could mean either thing. That’s one reason why I never liked poetry much. Too many things can mean too many different things just for the sake of being profound (sometimes).

I guess I’ll end by saying that I’m not “ga-ga” over this book, it’s a simple collection of ramblings which point toward the conclusion that much of what we do as Christians deserves a thorough review, lest we end up completely alienating ourselves from the very mission field we are called to reach. A timeless reminder, for sure.

(Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality is copyright 2003 by Donald Miller, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN)