Böcker av James McReynolds

Richard Niebuhr said of faith: "Faith is the attitude of the self in its existence toward all existences that surround it, as being relied upon or to be suspected. It is the attitude that appears in all the wariness and confidence of life as it moves about among the living. It is fundamentally trust or distrust in the being itself." (H. Richard Niebuhr, The Responsible Self, p. 118)People have suffered and enjoyed, lost and won, doubted and believed, regressed and progressed on their faith journey. Ask anyone who has faith, has known doubt. Christian writers possess quiet confidence. This writer sees faith as the complete trust in the God of the gospels. Each human experience is different, but the points of trust as the same.We shun failure because we fear that revealing our weaknesses and imperfections will cause us to be unacceptable, unlovable, and of no use, unmarketable. Failure exposes our vulnerability. Failure is part of humanity. Being human challenges us to recognize life as a gift. Difficulties and failures have essential things to offer us. Children learn to walk by trying, failing, and trying again.Mistakes, errors, failures are ways to learn to live life more fully. God proceeds to stay with us when we are raw and vulnerable, moving in our being with deep care and gentleness. Failure can lead us to the light.Trust and mistrust are ways we relate to our parents and others beginning early in life and running deeply all the years of our lives. I enjoyed Jennifer Lawrence's movie, Joy. Lawrence plays a lovely young woman who believes in our self. She envisions and creates a simple mop. Nobody thinks it will ever be a success. She is strong and despite her many disappointments and pain, she gains faith and success. Failure was her friend. She acknowledge he failure without becoming trapped by it.Reflection enables us to remain responsible, spiritual, emotional, and practical. Failure offers us an opportunity to look and ask and delve into who we are. How do we desire to live life. We don't feel valued by our culture, church or community, or even ourselves. God's love and grace helps us love ourselves. Loving ourselves includes struggling with jealousy and envy toward others whose lives appear easier and more successful than ours. We reflect alone and with others. Sharing experiences of failure with people who know and love us provides encouragement in our times of darkness.Failure reminds us to look back with gratitude for God's faithfulness in the past. We look forward in anticipation to the eternal joy that can become ours. Failure invites us to gather bot the past and future into the present moment that we live fully and faithfully now.The challenge of failure is for us to remain faithful despite our fears, in the middle of the grief, loss, and pain, embarrassment, insecurity, and disappointment.We become even further graced as we grow with compassion, wisdom, and love. If you think you have failed completely with no hope, please read this book, and give a copy to others.Remember Jesus failed. We live on this side of the resurrection, so we miss the anguish and pain of the failure that proceeded it. The world would think that the life and ministry of Jesus were failures. He did not change the hearts of all those who heard him. He was not the type of messiah that brought the reign of God on earth. Jesus even failed to gain the complete loyalty of his disciples. They denied any association with him.Jesus died as a common criminal. He died lonely, in much pain, ridiculed, and taunted. The challenge of faith and faithfulness is to hold that fruit of the Spirit within us, whatever life brings. That is the reality of faith.

Jim McReynolds has done it again! He has filled another book from cover to cover with sheer, unadulterated joy. This man is a marvel. He truly is. I really believe he could be confined in a straitjacket, strapped in a briar-studded, hard, and unyielding chair in some subterranean prison with an unforgiving noise level produced by constantly thudding jackhammers and screaming air-whistles, and still think about how wonderfully joyous it all is. Age has not dimmed his voice or quelled his spirit. Now in his 80s, Jim is more devoted than ever to this ever-recurring theme in all his writings, that no matter how desperate our circumstances or how mitigated our pleasures, there is an indefinable, insuperable joy at the heart of human existence, and we are grossly remiss if we fail to note it and celebrate it with every heart's breath we take. I sometimes wonder what it must be like to be Laurel McReynolds and to married to this fantastically positive and celebrate eternal joy. The illustrious Norman Vincent Peale, author of the perennially best-selling The Power of Positive Thinking, was right, all those years ago, when he heard Jim preach a sermon, anointed him the Minister of Joy to the World. It took one to know one, and Peale was nothing if he was not the great drum major of joyful, creative thinking from his pulpit on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Perhaps Laurel, who has served Jim's meals and helped to keep his house or what now proved years on end. Perhaps one day she would favor us with a book of her own, or at least an article, in which she describes what it has been like to share a home with this irrepressible genius of the eternal joyful attitude. Laurel is a joy herself, reflecting in her personality and face the supernal glow from her love for God who gives eternal joy. - From the Foreword by John KillingerJames E. McReynolds is a preacher, teacher, author, coach, and retreat leader who shares the joy of the Lord. He is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He lives in Elmwood, Nebraska.

I don''t think I have ever known anyone who experiences joy the way James McReynolds does.Jim is my friend. I have known him many years. He seems to breathe joy in the way most of us inhale the air around us, naturally and continually. And the best thing is that he writes about it.Jim lets us in on the sources and products of the joy in our lives all the time. He writes with a lightness and beauty we would not otherwise know. He permits us to experience some of the rarefied enjoyment that he himself actually lives with all the time.It is wonderful that Jim has written a book about the seasons of joy in our lives-how joys morph and reemerge in new forms throughout our lifetimes, and how paying attention to these joys can enrich and bless the human psyche at every stage.Jim has peppered his chapters with stories and illustrations that will charm, enrich, and truly enlighten his readers. This is the gift God has given him. The very concept he is working with, talking about the joys of life in the various seasons of our lives, has already caused me to think about the multiple joys in the seasons of my own life.I recall my general happiness in childhood, the springtime of my life, and how wonderful it was to grow up in a quiet, lovely neighborhood in a small town and have my early schooling under some wonderful, kindhearted teachers. In those early years, when the weather was good, I especially loved playing for hours at a time under a big, overarching bush outside our house and pretending a lot of things that I know helped to deepen and enrich my whole life.Then came the delights of going to college, making new friends, and finding my way into the work of the Christian ministry. I recall with pleasure the small country churches I served during my summer years, and the simple, warm-hearted goodness of the farmers and laborers who attended those churches. The joys of those little churches eventually gave way to a whole new set of joys as I pastored other, larger congregations, and as I do sometimes, left my ministerial job for a few years to teach in a college or a university. It was while I was teaching at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, in fact, that I first encountered young James McReynolds, then an employee of the Sunday School Board. I enjoyed his friendship both inside the classroom and in the halls and extracurricular life of the university.What were the special joys of my autumn years? At this point, I was being given incredible opportunities to travel abroad, offering seminars to Air Force chaplains in other parts of the world, and my growing family often enjoyed the benefits of journeying with me. I also had the pleasure of publishing a number of books about a lot of things that I hoped mattered to other people as much as they did to me.Now I am in the winter of my life, and, wonder of wonders, the joys still abound. My greatest joys are the active exchanges I continue to have with former students, parishioners, and professional acquaintances-people like Jim. I am grateful for the Internet, and the ease which I can communicate with all these wonderful folks. I approach my computer eagerly each morning, looking forward to seeing who has written since the day before. I am grateful to share in many friends'' lives not only all over the United States, but on foreign shores as well.I am sure, from what I have already read in Joy in the Seasons of Life: Walking Each Other Home to God, this beautifully written book will remind us of joys we haven''t thought about.Dr. John Killinger | Warrenton, Virginia 

The church is a congregation of likeminded believers, supporting and encouraging one another; a place of forgiveness and healing. On any given Sunday, you will find pastors speaking passionately from the pulpit, people singing and worshiping unashamed of their love for God. Yet mention the word "sex" or "sexuality" and you can hear a pin drop.Why the silence around the topic of sexuality in the church? Where did the passion go? Where did the celebration of lovers, like the teaching on the subject from the Songs of Solomon go?This book is a bold proclamation, from a courageous pastor, willing to break the silence and speak about the joy still found in sexuality and the church. It challenges congregations everywhere to open their platforms and ministries to discuss this important subject; one that deeply affects our households and future generations.Here one will discover a voice for sexuality from a spiritual perspective, filled with love and grace, giving us permission to fully embrace our sexuality as a gift from God.Thank you pastor James for your courage to share.

If a pastor could dream up and plant the perfect church, what would it be like? Realistically, a minister accepts the church he gets. John Killinger once said, "The trouble with churches are that they fill up with people." All types of people. I dream about a church that is so loving, where my gifts would be valued, and my passions would flourish. My dream congregation would be full of joy. I would never be embarrassed to call it my spiritual home. The church would be so amazing than any non-Christian who visited would never want to leave.Being an empathic minister and a therapist, I know and understand emotions. Each emotion-fear, anger, anxiety, guilt, and joy according to research-is real and distinct as colors and shades are to an artist.Emphatic skills are not unusual. Everybody has these skills. We are sensitive and intuitive. We feel what some people never acknowledge. We can't figure out what emotions are. For the past five years, I have traveled to New Haven, Connecticut to share in a twelve-million-dollar study of joy funded by the Templeton Foundation.

I know the importance of James McReynolds' work. If more people noticed all the joys that surround them every day, exploding like fireworks in their dark and glorious skies, there would be fewer wars, fewer crimes, and more sheer excitement about being alive.This book bristles with Jim's thoughts about the joyful life. He talks about it on every page. No one can read the book without coming away thinking about joy and what it means to his or her life. I wish it were required reading for everybody, regardless of age or stage of life. There would be an immediate and noticeable leap in the world's wellness quotient!

James McReynolds has been my friend for more than 40 years. He and I first met when we were young staff members for our denominations-he a Southern Baptist, and I a Methodist. We were both working in communication-he a Southern Baptist and I for the Methodist Board of Evangelism. We were both pursuing doctoral studies at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee. He was born to be a communicator. More than this, he was born to be a preacher. --Harold BalesFor my friend, encourager, and colleague in Christ, Jim McReynolds About 15 years ago, I received my calling from God to become a preacher of the Word and it scared me to death. But like Isaiah, after the "Woe is me," I said, "Here am I, Lord." A few year later I was blessed to meet Jim, a very kind and compassionate man with a love for preaching the Word of God. --Catherine A. Stander