Vince Antonucci's 'Guerrilla Lovers'
**Rowland Croucher**
She sat in her car out in the street in the pre-dawn darkness, and
wondered over and over, 'What am I doing this for?' When the
garbage-collector came she gave him some special cookies she'd baked. He
was astonished: 'No-one's done this for me before'.
Vince Antonucci's 'Guerrilla Lovers' (Baker Books, 2010) describes how
everyone in their church was handed an envelope with a Random Act of
Kindness to fulfil that week.
Actually, they called them 'Acts of Guerrilla Lovers' - loving friends,
strangers, enemies, anyone in the name of Jesus.
Antonucci's book is a page-turner: he's a brilliant conversational
writer, always interesting, challenging, inspiring - and sometimes
earthy. (His humorous 'below the waist' asides will shock some
'over-fifties'). He combines a passion for loving others with an
entrepreneurial gift and a 'with-it' mastery of contemporary culture
which would be very appealing to young people. A law school dropout, he
went to seminary (but I can't recall him quoting any leading theologians
in this book: the closest he gets is to cite a story from one of my
favorite preachers, Barbara Brown Taylor), had a few pastoral positions
before starting a church in the Las Vegas 'strip' with no one but his
wife. His heroes - Jesus (of course), but also 'crazies' like the
prophet Isaiah who wandered around naked for a few years, and Ezekiel
who slept in the middle of town on one side, and cooked his dinner with
cow pats!
Throughout his ministries Antonucci encouraged his people to do what
Jesus might do - like having church 'services' in a pub (and one of the
hard-drinkers wanted them to come and do that in his back-yard for all
his mates. That church service must have been doing something right!).
The stories are quite amazing: a Jesus-follower surrendered his wallet
to a knife-wielding teenager, but then offered his coat ('you might get
cold holding up people tonight') and invited him to a restaurant-dinner.
A young woman was attacked by a man in Haiti, but escaped to a nearby
house. When the would-be rapist was released from jail, she made contact
with him: and, yes, the senior woman-householder and the attacker both
became Jesus-followers. Then there was a homeless man in Las Vegas who
slept for nine months in a field, and for a long time never bathed: he
stank so much that other homeless people avoided him. But when he
wandered into a church, a Christian lady greeted him: 'You look as if
you need a hug' - and gave him one... and there and then began his
journey 'into the kingdom'.
A nine-year-old boy, Austin, saw a video about the AIDS epidemic in
Africa, where hundreds of thousands of kids are left orphans. Austin
wanted to help, so phoned a charity organization. The man asked him
'What's your favorite sport?'. 'Basketball'. 'Well, figure out a way to
use basketball to make money to help the orphans in Africa. Result:
hundreds of thousands of dollars raised through 'Hoops of Hope' (check
it out at hoopsofhope.org).
At one Antonucci's churches they wanted to evangelize an 'unreached
people group' so chose one of the most difficult mission-fields in the
world: a mountain-tribe in a 'communist South Asian country' where it's
forbidden to preach. There they provided drinking-water facilities,
health-care, computers for the school etc. And only evangelized when
asked questions by the recipients of this 'guerrilla love'.
Somewhere else I read this Danish fable today: 'A spider slid down a
filament of thread from the rafters of a lofty barn and established
himself on a lower shelf. There he spread his web, caught plenty of
flies, and grew sleek and prosperous. One day, wandering around his
premises, he saw the thread which stretched up into the unseen above
him. "What is that for?" asked the spider, and snapped it. And all his
little house of life collapsed about him'.
Without love - for God and for others - the thread is broken, and our
churches become lifeless and self-absorbed clubs for the religious...
The approach here is similar to that of Tony Campolo
(http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/16827.htm ) or Shane Claiborne (
http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/20305.htm ). It will appeal to younger
Christians who have not lost their idealism and settled into a risk-free
comfortable church culture .
Give it to your church's youth leader, and encourage him/her to do some
of this. It will be revolutionary.
Rowland Croucher
June 2010
Shalom/Salaam/Pax! Rowland Croucher
Justice for Dawn Rowan - http://dawnrowansaga.blogspot.com/
John Fraser
I was somehow put on a mailing list by a chap named Bill Keller. In one
of his devotionals, he relates an episode where he was given the opportunity
to appear on a Howard Stern show. He relates that he would rather be given
20 minutes on his show than several hours preaching in a church.
Cheers,
John
"**Rowland Croucher**" <rccroucher@contactemailonwebsite> wrote in message
news:4c0a1e59$0$31204$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...
**Rowland Croucher**
> Good evening Rowland;
>
> I was somehow put on a mailing list by a chap named Bill Keller. In one
> of his devotionals, he relates an episode where he was given the opportunity
> to appear on a Howard Stern show. He relates that he would rather be given
> 20 minutes on his show than several hours preaching in a church.
>
> Cheers,
> John
And I think if he preaches for 'several hours in a church' I'd rather
listen to him on a TV talk show too :-)!
John Fraser
In the case of Mr. Keller, he saw it as an opportunity to address a
fairly large audience who would not grace the doors of a church except for
perhaps a wedding or a funeral.
Cheers,
John
"**Rowland Croucher**" <rccroucher@contactemailonwebsite> wrote in message
news:4c105514$0$24251$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...