A brief back-story for context first. The youth group I came up in regularly attended the Acquire the Fire conferences. A few of these events indeed marked what I would consider to be spiritual high points for me in my Christian walk. However, around this same time, I was also turned on to Yaconelli and exposed to his writings in the books “Messy Spirituality” and “Dangerous Wonder”… which I can say have had a greater impact upon me than any other books I’ve ever read (excluding the Bible) concerning religion and spirituality.

Normally in the weeks leading up to attending ATF, my youth pastor would craft his lessons to fit in with whatever the theme of that year’s conference was. To be honest at times I was uncomfortable with some of these lessons because they were wrapped heavy in militaristic jingoisms. We had to dawn our fatigues and go out into “enemy territory” as this group of pseudo-elite “Commandos for Christ” and do battle with the enemy in order to obtain the ultimate victory for ourselves in the end setting.

On the other extreme end of this, was the picture painted by Mike Yaconelli in his book Dangerous Wonder, of a Jesus who just wanted to love you right into eternity if you would just allow him to do so. The story that most grabbed me was the one of the little girl (who was disabled I believe) playing tee-ball, who naturally, never was able to hit said ball most of the time, then one day, out of the blue, knocks the ball deep into the outfield, and starts running the bases as fast as her abilities would allow her.. She rounds, first, second, then third, all the while, all the coaches, and parents, and everyone looking on were all screaming at the top of their lungs for her to get back to home plate and score the winning run. But then, instead of going on to claim her moment of glory in the world of little league Tee-ball, she notices a shaggy, but cuddly looking old dog beckoning her over by the bleachers, and instinctively, she goes to the dog.

How do I reconcile this with the shouting football coach/army general image of Jesus you get with Ron Luce? If it were him telling this story, would the little girl and the dog still be the heroes, or would it be a cautionary tale of someone getting so close to achieving their true potential, but then allowing a split-second distraction to lure them away from it? Perhaps, but I don’t think so. It’s taken a long time, but I think I’m beginning to see the differences between these men in kind of the same way some people read differences into the Apostle Paul and James, on the issue of faith and works… Now, in reality they (Paul and James) may have had real disagreements on this issue in some respects (as I imagine Yaconelli and Luce did as well on many issues…) but still the same Holy Spirit used them both to convey God’s thoughts on two different (but very related) issues. So just like you need to read James in order to get perspective on Paul’s epistles, and vice versa, to achieve a greater balance, so too, seemingly contrasting voices like Ron Luce and Mike Yaconelli can also, as you said, work together in order to create a fuller, and more balanced young Christian.

The problem arises only when one wanders too far into one extreme like you mentioned, and, on the Yac side, becoming complacent and just resting on your laurels that Jesus loves you and therefore you can just take it easy and becoming the dead lifeless kind of Christian that Ron Luce tries so hard to reach, in order to motivate them to lead a life worthy of the calling placed on them, or the Luce side, which one could strive so hard to achieve perfection that they become the burned out Christian wreck that Yaconelli warned of, and worked so hard to reach as well.

God bless.