Break Out of Your Cage

      When the opportunity to read and review the new book by Mark Batterson came my way I jumped at the chance. As a future church planter I love reading about the successes and failures of other church planters and the risks that they take it following God.  Wild Goose Chase is Batterson’s second book and came out in bookstores today.

      There have been several books that I have read within my life that have fired me up and stirred me to take risks, move on something that God had called me to but I was sitting on, and get off the bench and into the game. Mark Batterson’s Wild Goose Chase is one of those books. Mark Batterson is the pastor of National Community Church in Washington D.C. NCC is one church in 4 locations. Their main location is within the movie theatres of Union Station where 25 million visitors travel each year. What better place is there for a church than where 25 million people pass your doors each year?

    Over the course of his life Mark has taken some incredible risks that God has used to bless his life and the lives of thousands of others. Wild Goose Chase is about breaking out of the cages that confines us from becoming who God would have us become and what He would have us do. The Wild Goose is a translation for the Celtic term for the Holy Spirit.  Mark has defined six different cages that keep us from living the extraordinary life that God would have for us. Much like Erwin McManus’ An Unstoppable Force I feel that Batterson’s book will inspire thousands of people to get off the bench of the comfortable Christian life and into the adventure of following God where He calls us to go. I named my dog after Erwin by the way.

     Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

• Are you living a life of “self-absorbed spirituality?”
• “When we lack the guts to step out in faith, we rob God of the glory that rightfully belongs to Him.” Worship is more than music. It is the way we live our lives everyday.
• “Our faith doesn’t require any faith.”
• “the sacred becomes routine.”
• “We can get so busy doing “ministry” that we don’t have time for ministry.”
• “Faith is not logical. But it isn’t illogical either. Faith is theological.”
• “It’s never too late to become who you might have been.”
• “Our reactions reveal who we really are.”
• “You know what surprises me now? Someone who has the courage to confess.”
• “God often uses the things that seem to be taking us off our course to keep us on His course.”
• “It is the shipwrecks and snakebites that make us who we are. And they are the stories we love to tell later in life.”

      That last quote is one of my favorites because it reminds me of the moments in life when I have followed God when He has called me to do things that seemed crazy to me or seemed to shipwreck what I had planned, but ended up providing me with the most enriching and amazing experiences in my life.

     I don’t care who you are or where you are in your life, Wild Goose Chase is a must read. It is time for you to get off of the bench, break free from the cages that you are holding yourself within, and join the adventure that God is calling you to. Check out www.chasethegoose.com for more information on the book and to read a sample chapter of the book. Purchase this book for your small group to study and spur one another onto chasing the Wild Goose.

     In addition to getting an advance copy for myself I received a copy to give away to one of my blog readers. So here is how I am going to give the book away. It is time for you readers to reveal yourself to each other. Leave a note about yourself in the comments of this post and tell the other blogs readers a little bit about yourself; stuff like your name, where you are from, and what you do. On Thursday I will put the names of the people who have left a comment into a hat and draw. The winner gets the book.

Looking forward to reading more about you.