Life Lessons from a Bad Quaker: A Humble Stumble Toward Simplicity and Grace
I am delighted to tell you that the author is someone who cares deeply about being the best Quaker he can be. As I read what it's like to be Quaker and how he tries to live out his beliefs, I found a lot to treasure and think about in this book. And I often laughed out loud when I read about notorious bad Quakers throughout history.
I haven't come across any other books about Quakers, not that I'm saying there aren't any out there. I'm sure there are. I do believe that this an excellent introduction to the Quaker faith. Not only that, but a good book to read for any Christian. (less)
Friend and friend Brent's brand-new book (released just yesterday!) brings us a panorama of a few more or less typical days in the several and varied lives of a Bad Quaker hoping to become better by following Jesus more closely. Not too long, easy to read, fun to read, yet packed with probing questions about Jesus' clear examples and our own lifestyles.
Technically Brent is a birthright Quaker or cradle Quaker, someone literally born into that expression of Christianity. Early in the book he explains how he still needed to assess and claim the Quaker tradition for himself because there's an element of human choice and decision to follow a particular style of Christianity with the broader Way of the Nazarene Jesus. Brent tells us why simply living as Jesus' Friend is best for him. What church tradition or denomination has God called you to at this time? And why? "No one right answer," as Brent reminds us in the quick questions sprinkled through this book.
Most Americans have some awareness of the rotund guy in a black hat featured on packages of Quaker cereal products. Per the Quaker cereal website, he "is not an actual person. His image is that of a man dressed in the Quaker garb, chosen because the Quaker faith projected the values of honesty, integrity, purity and strength." Some people confuse Quakers with other Christian groups who aim to live simply, whose worship is less formally liturgical—although some Quaker worship is programmed. Amish, Mennonites, Church of the Brethren also come to mind as examples of simple Christianity; Restoration Movements in the USA during the 19th century also attempted to reclaim a more basic, foundational, New Testament Christianity. Most of my own church and Jesus experience is solidly within the theological and liturgical traditions of the Protestant Mainline, and that means an emphasis on sacraments and on scriptural scholarship, with wonderfully effective histories of social and political activism. Like myself, many within the Mainline Churches USA are not especially adept at being quiet and waiting on the Spirit to move among us. In fact, I tend to be as much of a human doing as I am a human being.
Similar to at least a half-dozen books I've read in the past year or two, Life Lessons from a Bad Quaker by J. Brent Bill encourages me to observe the world around me, assess how I relate to the people in that world, to keep asking "what would Jesus do," cuz as trite as that question sounds by now, in the Spirit of Life God calls us and enables us to be Jesus here and now, to do what Jesus would do, even to say the words Jesus might choose. The Quaker faith still projects values of "honesty, integrity, purity and strength" with each individual's life totally immersed in the very sacramental "holy ordinary" that happens to be the title of one of Brent's blogs. Maybe surprisingly, The Society of Friends does not celebrate sacraments or ordinances in the orderly programmatic sense those of us in more mainstream mainline church bodies do.
Life Lessons from a Bad Quaker brings us much more of the practical than of the theoretical. Did I mention what a human doing I naturally tend to be? That's right, I did, but in spite of that tendency, my drive to do needs a whole lot of refinement and some redefining. I'd benefit a whole lot by creating my own Life Lessons journal of some days in my own life. Maybe you would, too? Popularized by the majorly successful Godspell, Richard of Chichester's prayer pleads "May I know Thee more clearly, love Thee more dearly, follow Thee more nearly." Brent's newest book just may lead you to know, love, and follow Jesus with more simplicity and more grace. (less)
Let me share a few lessons that J. Brent Bill learned that resonated with me.
"I have learned that growing deep in the life of the Spirit doesn’t take me out of the life I’m living." Yes. This is so true. In order to truly live, one needs to go deep in the life of the Spirit. The outer life is only as good as the inner life. This will take time! We need to keep at it. "Busy outwardly, centered and silently inwardly. Speaking from experience, it’s not gonna happen overnight."
"So even though God speaks to me constantly, I’m just not listening. That’s why I need silence." If we want to hear God speaking, we need to shut up. I think J. Brent Bill would agree with me saying it so bluntly.
"We believe that God always has something to teach us about being people of faith in our current times. So we ask lots of questions hoping to find out how to live godly lives." Quakers ask lots of questions. I loved all of the questions that were sprinkled throughout each chapter. I often found myself reading a question and then taking five minutes to meditate on my answers to this question. I jotted down multiple one sentence answers to each question. Questions help us grow. I grew as I read this book.
"Cumbered” is how early Quakers referred to the way the things we own (or think we own) weigh us down and steal attention away from the life of the Spirit." I found myself wondering the same thing. What is taking me away from the life of the Spirit? Is it my iPhone or iPad ? Is it Facebook and or Twitter? Perhaps it is being annoyed at others, the traffic jam I am stuck in or being bogged down with the never ending household chores that seem to always pop up?
"My good friend Connie taught me what she calls the SOB prayer. I use it a lot: “God, give that SOB everything I would hope for myself to be made happy, whole, and free.”
It is a fact. We are not going to like everybody we come across. I am sure there are plenty of people that do not like me. However, that person is still a child of God. God loves them just as much as God loves me. I still need to pray for them. I still need to love them. "God loves everybody as much as God loves me? If that’s true, I’d better start treating people better."
"There are plenty of things I could do. The issue is what is God calling me to do." I pulled this out of the chapter, "Gods Good Green Earth". If I get quiet, I just might hear what it is that God is calling me to do to take better care of mother earth. We and this includes me, forget and take for granted that God has blessed us with this beautiful earth. We and this means me, need to take better care of it. What is God calling me to do?
Read "Life Lessons From A Bad Quaker". Take the time to meditate on the questions sprinkled throughout each chapter. Is your faith challenging you and rubbing up against the parts of you that need to be smoothed out? Quiet yourself! What actions is God calling you to take?
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With that being said, I am also a "Bad Quaker", while having it influence my life, didn't really "get it" until a couple of years ago -- but I jumped in, and went right to the deep end, devouring all sort of Quaker texts and histories.
I can relate to, empathize with, and laugh along with Mr. Bill (especially because we share a few mutual Friends!). Some reviewers on here seem to be a little unfair, saying this isn't a book about Quakerism, as such as it is a conversation with a man with a "smarmy voice". In my opinion, no smarmy-ness was perceived, but maybe that's just how we Quakers talk.
No, I don't think this book was a good jumping in place for someone new to the Quaker ideals -- but I don't think they would be totally in the dark, either. I think it was the perfect book for someone like me, a Quaker by heritage, but haven't always been true to attending Meetings, but still communes with the Light in Myself, and looks for ways to live out my Quaker Testaments of Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community and Equality -- but stumbles humbly more often than not.
I've already formed a list of people (Friends and friends) to whom I want to gift this book. I hope you, review-reader, will do yourself a favor a give it a read as well. (less)
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J Brent Bill uses his own ‘imperfection’ being a Quaker as a way into discussing why the Religious Society of Friends may be helpful to many who know little about this religious sect.
Bill may be more conservative than the Quakers I hung around with first at a Quaker Boarding School for four years and then as a member of first one, than another, monthly meeting – what Friends call their separate places of worship.
Our yearly meeting – what Quakers call a large number of their monthly meetings – was made up of New York City; Northern New Jersey, and the eastern chunk of Upstate NY – we had a wide range of belief – from former (or possibly, current) Jewish men and women to Goddess people to conservative Christians. Friends can be found with those kinds of beliefs.
For a intriguing and engrossing read, you might want to tackle, Jan de Hartog’s THE PEACEABLE KINGDOM, that will tell you more about the Religious Society of Friends in novel form than anything else I know – and unlike LIFE LESSONS FROM A BAD QUAKER – it’s even written in good English.
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I write the above because the Mr. Bill's book is about inward reflecting. And what he offers is a book that falls into themes, along with questions that you can consider and contemplate. Some of the questions involve God, but if your a non-God person you can either ignore those, or re-write them to be more appropriate for you.
MY TAKE
At first I was put off by Brent Bill's writing style. It's whimsical and happy. At first it seemed to be self-focused BUT after I started the second chapter I realized how intentional his style was. By which I mean that because it was almost goofy it reached through my daily 'fog' and allowed me to get into a space where I could actually focus and think about the questions that he asked. So for me this book is a keeper.
Recommend if you think you'd like his approach.
~ review copy
Book #17 for 2016 (less)
Whom might this book work for? Persons who are interested in an experiential look into Quaker ethics and lifestyle, written by an Evangelical Quaker. And persons who are not familiar with Quakerism will find here a good introduction to the practical ethics of the Society of Friends. (less)
It’s an easy book to read, presenting the author as a likeable, somewhat clumsy, not-always-bright ol’ homeboy just trying to get along as god would have him go about it. Periodically, the narrative breaks long enough for the author to insert queries for his readers to consider. (Reflecting on“queries” is a Quaker practice of meditating on questions that, with thought and some divine inspiration, may lead us to be wiser and better people.)
One question troubled me throughout the book: who was it written for? Not, I think, for other Quakers (of which I am one). Often it seemed like it was meant to be an introduction to the Quaker life for those unfamiliar with it. Much supplementary material in the appendices (like a glossary of Quaker terms) would suggest that is the intended audience, but if so, it’s purpose is confusing and seems to shift around. I finally decided I enjoyed the book most when I simply thought of it as a somewhat self-indulgent memoir from the perspective of a writer who is having a good time reflecting on his “stumbling” efforts to behave himself, and that someone else (let’s pretend it’s not the author) has come along and annotated the text with queries and occasional explanations about Quakerism.
As a Quaker, my favorite chapters were the first and last. The first chapter considers the role of silence in the author’s life and many of the things that compete with silence. The last chapter considers humor and silliness. The author makes the point in a number of ways that we cannot be whole people, embracing and contributing to the goodness of the gifts of life, without a good dose of playfulness. I think he is right, and Quakers have not thought about this enough.
Two things about the book greatly interfered with my enjoyment of it. I could make my peace with the author’s very casual voice, which reads as spoken rather than written, though I found it a bit precious and distracting. But the spelling was over the top: “wanna” for “want to,” etc. I wish the author’s editor had held him more in check on this front. Second complaint is that, at least in the epub version I read, the endnotes for each chapter were not numbered and not referenced to any place in the text except the chapter as a whole. This was enormously frustrating, and will make me unlikely to purchase another book from Abingdon Press (whose fault I assume it is).
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I am not sure since I received an ARC or if it was intentional but in referring to the God, it was always god. Now there were a few times it wasn't but I am under the impression that it was. If it was, it brings up a red flag to the reason why that was done.
The book was written in question format to cause the reader to think and to receive which I embrace but I found that answering the questions, it became about what I can do... Can I listen, Are my words, If I, What I believe,... ...I start on the treadmill of despair when I much rather be humbled about who God is. It becomes another book about me centered .... What can I do, What I need to do, etc. instead of God centered. By God centered, I mean the cross and the plan of redemption to make all things new including me. The gratitude I have is because of what Jesus did. I want more of that gratitude that transforms.
In fairness, this is a conversation of Bill's experience and shortcoming. It is meant to be light and he has a desire to connect to his readers. I just did not.
Some of the quotes I found encouraging.
Peace is a process to engage in, not a goal to be reached. The task will never be done indeed.
Peacemaking is action - love in action.
We believe a simple life makes peace more possible.
A Special Thank you to Abingdon Press and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.
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At times, he may be working a bit too hard to make Quakers seem like ordinary people as opposed to Amish-like (which they are not at all). Likes to talk about his love for high-end cars and a vast music collection, for example. That said, this is an engaging and highly accessible message that will prompt readers to examine how we treat the earth and our fellow travelers. (less)
While Bill describes himself as a "bad" Quaker, he provides insight into the Quaker faith. Along the way he offers lessons learned from his faith that are indeed helpful things to live a better life. For example, Bill highlights the virtues of being quiet, integrity, and caring for creation. (less)