A few days ago Anna and I watched a CNN presentation called Escape from Jonestown, which is about a cult lead by Rev. Jim Jones that lead 900 people into Guyana to a “promised” land that led to their eventual deaths, as everyone was poisoned with cyanide. Story highlights included:

# In 1978, 909 Americans were led to mass murder-suicide by the Rev. Jim Jones
# One-third of the dead at Jonestown were children; only 33 people survived
# Jones led followers to their deaths after his gunmen killed congressman, others
# Sources: Jonestown camp received monthly shipments of cyanide in 1976

Anyway, it was during this special that a few of the people that escaped this tragedy shared their experiences and what went on during those years. Many of them shared that it was their spirituality that led them out there, but now they avoid any sentiment of organized religion. They are still very spiritual people, but they do not think their spirituality could sustain any more from institutions.

I remember when Anna and I heard this, Anna and I looked at each other said, “I totally understand what their saying.” I mean I have never encountered anything remotely close to that, but of course they wouldn’t want to be anywhere near an institution in terms of religion.

And this is where I pick up this book by Jim Palmer called Wide Open Spaces. A book, without the tragedy of death, carries in it the death of Jim Palmer’s connection to organized religion. I noticed this in his last book, Divine Nobodies, this consistent abandonment of organized religion for more organic structures of church and experience with God. But what seems to always preface these ideas, is a bad experience of church. For the Jonestown people I totally understand how they could never (hopefully not never) trust the church again, and I am noticing this same trend come out of US emergent writers mouths over and over again. There is something seriously devastating that has happened in many churches in the States that has seemed to effect a lot of people. Maybe it was the church, maybe it was a person in the church, maybe it was something that happened to the person personally while going to a church, but either way the organized church gets the blame for it and I guess it leads to lots of books about it.

With that said I am finding these books not very helpful in my journey as a church planter and although I get where these people are coming from, and it helps to know that people have been hurt, I find that these books are getting way too much credit, and there should be a movement of more positive reasons for organic church. You see I am all for different forms of organic church and not because I had a bad experience, but on the contrary because I have learned a lot about my Canadian Culture and my own ways of learning that have driven me to create a form of church that is contemporary to its neighbourhood.

So in the end I give this book my CP rating of 1.5/5. It’s maybe helpful if you have had a tough church experience in the United States, but if you are a church planter (and specifically in Canada) I don’t think you will be able to get through it… I sure had trouble.

Note: For a positive read on organic church, please read anything by Joseph Myers, and specifically Organic Community or my favourite, Search to Belong.

Tags: book review, cnn, jim palmer, jonestown, wide open spaces