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Revisiting Brother Lawrence

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If Brother Lawrence's Practicing His Presence was written by a group of people who failed and succeeded together, instead of an solitary believer, it might look something like Soul Revolution. Burke's book is the story of a community of people who tried to consider God every hour for 60 days. Are you interested? All you need to do is buy a cheap watch with an every-hour beeper, and you're off to the races.

While I'm pretty sure this book lacks the simple staying power of Brother Lawrence's effort, there were a number of things about it that I enjoyed:

1. The stories fit the message perfectly. You can tell Burke is a preacher--he has the perfect anecdote for every situation. I even used one of these stories to challenge our congregation here in Bracebridge.
2. The sidebars contain testimonies of people who took the challenge and learned from it. The honesty of these messages drive the point of the book home.
3. There is a ring of authenticity here. You will finish this book with hope that you can grow in your Christian life, because other people have broken the trail.

Full disclosure: I didn't take the 60-60 test, I just read throught the book. Even so, I was challenged and encouraged. If you're looking for something to help you beyond the making and break of of annual resolutions, give Soul Revolution a try.

Great resource for its purpose. NOt so great for advanced students.

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I just finished my last book for review by Zondervan. Thanks guys. It is John Burke's new book, Soul Revolution. It was released in October. Let me preface my review by explaining that I could not stand his first book, No Perfect People Allowed. I thought he had too many anectdotes and not enough substance. This second book is very similar in many ways and significantly different in others.


The premise of the book is that if a person wants to grow spiritually, one way to do it is to connect with God for 60 seconds every hour. When the top of the hour comes, pause and listen to God. Reorient your life to His voice rather than our circadian rythms. It is an experiment Burke does from time to time in his church and he sharess many anecdotes about how it has been helpful to those who practice it.

Thankfully, it is not completely anecdotal. He does a much better job of curbing his testimonies and adding more of the reason why these practices are important. It is incredibly approachable, no matter how much experience a person has with God. That is, he explains the cliches he uses, and makes it understandable to somebody who hasn't grown up in the church, which is a major strength. At the end of each chapter is a section focused on application. These are incredibly weak because they are identicle every week (talk to you running partners, think about the chapter, pray). They are not specific at all.

That being said, overall I enjoyed the book. He keeps spirituality simple, which is how it was created to be. This is a bare bones manual for growing closer to God, and is useful to a person who is intimidated by words like "Spritiual discipline" or "spirituality". It is basically how to live a Christian life and stay connected to God. It is a manual on abiding in God's presence (similar to Brother Lawrence's practicing the presence of God)

For a book to be worthwhile, it has to have either a new idea, or a new packaging of an old idea. Soul Revolution is a new packaging, but a very unique version of it. For that, it is worth purchasing if you would like to grow closer to God, but just don't know how. Especially if you are intimidated by books written before 1900.

The Good: very approachable. Very pracitcal. very simple. True to Scripture. Fits its purpose of introducing spiritual formation to young Christians.

The Bad: horrible application (it felt forced). Too many anecdotes at points. Gets repetitive about halfway through.

The verdict: Worth purchasing if you are new to spiritual formation. If you are familiar with Dallas Willards's The SPirit of the Disciplines, or Fosters work, or Ortbergs work, or any other introduction to spiritual formation, or if you like Christianese, not the book for you. I will recommend this to new Christians, and that's about it.

A simple approach to spiritual growth

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Soul Revolution reads like a daily devotional or small group study book, tracing what Burke calls the "60-60 experiment" through discussions of various aspects of the Christian life focused on loving God and loving others. Burke uses illustrations and stories from the church he founded in Austin , Gateway Church, offering examples of the kind of transformation that took place when the church practiced the 60-60 experiment. The experiment was essentially a challenge for people to turn their focus to God every 60 minutes of their day for 60 days. The goal of this practice is "to stay consciously aware all through your day that God is with you and desires loving, trusting relationship" (43).

Obviously this is an extremely simple practice and nothing terribly new, yet the book is filled with stories of people who feel their lives have radically changed through regularly turning their attention to God throughout the day. I did not find the ideas Burke presented as particularly radical or revolutionary looking back on Christian history, but the stories of change in the book are both radical and revolutionary. Burke describes a community struggling with addictions, violence, abuse, greed, selfishness who were able to find a new freedom from these vices through the community of Gateway journeying together.

At times, the stories Burke shares makes the 60-60 experiment seem like a kind of magic cure for the problems that plague us in life. In the chapter on tithing, Burke warns that no one should "give to get" (240), but each of the stories recounts people who have decided to begin tithing for a period of time and experienced unexpected material or financial gain. While I respect the way that Burke frames his discussion of wealth and the Christian journey as a whole, it is hard not to feel like the 60-60 challenge is in some sense being pushed as the miracle cure for addictions, poverty, depression, etc.

I have been having several ongoing conversations with different people in my life about what spiritual growth looks like. It is easy to say that the goal is to 'look like Jesus' or to 'keep your focus on God,' yet difficult to make any kind of broad generalizations about what that might actually like in someones life. I found Burke's approach to be helpful, particularly in it's simplicity, but I think there needs to be more discussion about what it means to grow spiritually when you don't see radical changes or results in 60 days.

real relationships, not religion

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It isn't an accident that Dr. Henry Cloud wrote the foreword to Soul Revolution. Like Cloud & Townsand (authors of 'Safe People' and 'Boundaries') Burke's main focus is relational. Referencing Laubauch's experiment (in 'Practicing His Presence'), Burke challenges readers to live "in moment by moment continuous conversation with God." Burke is quick to point out that this does not come naturally, but that this relationship is the answer to what we all long for most. The latter part of Soul Rev. focuses on relationships with others. Especially helpful to me was the solid advice (I wished I'd known 36 years ago) on how to deal with conflict in ways that have the potential to heal relationships and help them grow. The chapter "God Has a Body" really helped me bring Jesus a little closer down to earth by thinking about the church as Christ's very tangible body today. One final thought: I don't think that my experience of this book would have been a 5-star rating if I had not read it as it was intended, with others who took the challenge.

Simple steps to a more radical faith

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We have lost the ability to see and hear and understand how to truly follow the way of Christ moment by moment, according to John Burke in this book. As a first step to reconnecting, John invites us to try a simple experiment: for a period of sixty days, have your watch set so that it beeps every hour to remind you to abide in the presence of God.

A major problem with the way Christianity is lived in western countries today is that Christians do not resemble the disciples of Jesus as described in the New Testament in the ways they think and act, and the priorities they hold. The book invites us to imagine ourselves as being loving towards unlovable people, increasingly generous, relishing the gift of life and making a lasting difference in the lives of others.

A soul revolution is what we need, and we can gain it by practicing the presence of God each moment in our lives. The book is divided into five sections: Preparing for a soul revolution; Loving God; Loving people; Building character; and Being the Body. Each section contains fresh and insightful commentary and moving testimonies. I found it to be one of the best written and most inspiring Christian books that I have read in recent years.