In Love with Night

Chasing Daylight, by Erwin McManus
(Previously published as Seizing Your Divine Moment)
Nelson Books, 259 pages

All of us have the capacity to manipulate and must guard ourselves from violating relationships at this level. ---from Chasing Daylight

One of the remarkable things about the ministry of Erwin McManus is how much he has insulated himself from criticism now that the heat has really turned up. Amid criticism of the abuse of power, the man who has exhorted his followers to "choose a more dangerous path" has gone down the path of least resistance. Don't the former leaders who had served faithfully for years under his leadership deserve more than the insults of "volunteer staff" on a blog? Don't they deserve to hear from the man himself? Other questions have recently surfaced. Did the former pastor of Mosaic Pasadena deserve three uninvited guests at his door in the cover of night? There are more: Is it fair to retire a minister who served loyally for twenty-five years? Should said minister be in the mood for a party? Though we wait for answers we remain in the dark. His books don’t answer the specifics but they reveal much. Chasing Daylight reads like greatest hits of all his books: A curt dismissal of most Christian churches? Check. A call to celebrate the importance of the self? We got it here. A reminder from McManus himself of why he is so great? We can accommodate you. A collection of tidy, self-important sayings? But of course.

Chasing Daylight emphasizes the importance of taking hold of opportunities that God has created for you. He uses Jonathan as a prime example of his thesis. The "Pomegranate Dilemma," as he puts it, ignores those calls. His book opens with a clumsy and unfortunate analogy: "Ever heard that voice? It calls you like a temptress to abandon the monotony of life and begin the adventure." The book is chock full of those manufactured sayings you expect from his books: "Somehow we all know that to play it safe is to lose the game." Some are obvious: "human beings are created with the capacity to influence and be influenced," "moments move in a timely manner and time waits for no one." In one passage, he gets caught in strangled logic: "The more you move with God-given urgency, the more God seems to bless your life. The more God blesses your life, the more you have to lose. The more you have to lose, the more you have to risk. The more you have to risk, the higher price of following God." Try wrapping your mind around that one. This, like his other books, is clear in intent, however: Life is full of "opportunities and endless possibilities." Though seizing your divine moment sounds great in theory, there is a lot of talk about the self. McManus writes on page six: "You were born to live a great adventure, you were created with divine destiny." Even though it is to "fulfill a great mission" you can’t help but conclude when reading such passages that McManus places too high a priority on man’s role in God’s mission. I don’t buy it but McManus has his devotees.

Chasing Daylight not only celebrates the self but also McManus. On page fifty-two we are treated to this passage: "I had all of these important programs that would quickly lose momentum as soon as they lacked my attention. Now I have to admit, the church members were wonderful cheerleaders. They would always commend me for all the services that needed to happen. Most of the time when I started a ministry that someone else identified as a need, it would cease to exist the moment I detached from it." It should come as no surprise that he should think so highly of his ministerial gifts, but the egregious error he makes is the dismissal of those who don’t agree with him on worship and ministry. These are stuck on "tradition" and he sees it as his job to bring them forth into the new millennium. I wish he’d put the kibosh on this myth because it is insulting to people who worship with sincere hearts. Perhaps it escapes him that some of us don’t need strobe lights, dancers, and hip-hop routines to get right with God. I do not question the sincerity of those that enjoy those forms of worship. He should show the same consideration. There is another myth that I wish would go away. In an October 9, 2004 interview of McManus by the Los Angeles Times, there is this piece of information: "Erwin Raphael McManus was invited to Los Angeles to work at the now- closed Church on Brady. He started an alternative service there that grew into Mosaic six years ago." Are there any long-time members at Mosaic who feel even a bit uncomfortable with this history of their church? It is this kind of playing fast and loose with the facts that has contributed to the crisis facing Mosaic today. To rid a beloved former pastor seemed to push the boundaries of loyalty to a new dimension, and yet, the ship held sway. But to imply the church somehow died or ceased to exist nine years ago and a new church emerged from its ashes requires too much of that flock. To read that some of those former members are "nostagics" and "laggards" compounds the problem and rings like the taunts of a serial bully.

On page one hundred seventeen is a moving story about member Dave Auda and a gasoline attendant named Ron that is worth reading. McManus writes, "what may look like an inconvenience might be no less than the beginning of a life-changing opportunity." I couldn’t agree more. When God prompts us to act, we must act. "Those who know the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin," we are told in the book of James. Perhaps our current crisis is one of those times. Isn’t it biblical to answer some of the serious questions now being posed to Mosaic? Is it not also righteous to care for people who are bleeding? Seizing your divine moment, indeed.