Simple Spirituality

I know I haven’t posted anything in a really long time, but I haven’t really been able to pull enough thoughts together to put pen to paper in a while (or finger to keypad, rather). I did want to mention a book I just finished reading, though. I have a feeling it won’t get as much pub as a lot of other books do, so I thought I’d give it a little grassroots assistance.
Simple Spirituality is the first “feature-length writing project” from Chris Heuertz, director of Word Made Flesh. I was interested in the book because a friend of mine from my home church near Port Huron works for WMF in El Alto, Bolivia and I recognized Heuertz’s name from the issues of The Cry (WMF’s quarterly publication) that arrive at my parents’ house every few months.

I bought the book the day it arrived at Barnes & Noble, after finishing an interview for a job there that I hope to get soon (prayers for that would be much appreciated).

I was going to put the book on the back-burner for a while because I’m in the middle of about 5 others (which you can keep track of on the Shelfari widget on the left side of the blog if you’re even mildly interested), but after thumbing through the contents and the first chapter, I couldn’t put it down.

The book is excellent. I finished it in a few days and plan to read it again soon (possibly for a small group study?). Fans of Shane Claiborne and Mike Yankoski will likely love it, but those who might not love it should be required to read it anyways so they hopefully won’t remain as insulated as they’d prefer to be (read: West Michigan–myself included).

Heuertz outlines how he battles the “giants” of pride, control, excess, independence and resistance with what he calls the “Five Stones of Brokenness”: humility, submission, simplicity, community and brokenness. According to Heuertz, “the spirituality that God wishes for us is really quite simple: that against humility, community, simplicity, submission and even brokenness no giant can stand, but only the God who delivers us from them into the promises found in Scripture.”

Think of it as a bare-bones Celebration of Discipline–not a lighter version, but a more accessible and (I think) compelling version.

I don’t want to get into a full-on review of the book. I have to do enough of those in school and I’d rather you just read the book anyways. It’s not like it’s long (150 pages) and it’s definitely not boring. I just want to get the word out.

Grace and Peace,
Kyle