REVIVAL –

In February 2009, I emailed my pastor. I quoted some of it in my book, at one point telling him how I had talked with a couple of influential people about the future of Living Room:

“We talked about Living Room’s similarities to how AA developed. I think there’s much we can learn from how that organization spread. We all agreed that Living Room is a movement and that it should not be an institution. (again, drawing from the AA model) Not organized with managers, and without a governing body. There would only be organization to carry the message, produce publications, etc.”

My email received a cool response.

Today, in 2024, I’m looking back at the above and realize what I had meant all along when I asked for Living Room to have its wings. What I had tried to say was that Living Room should be freed, not being a ministry belonging to any person, any particular church, or institution, but “to be a movement like AA.”

The Living Room idea had spread quickly and widely, only three of four years after its founding. It became a vibrant ministry.

ONE SUCH AS ME? shows the struggles I had with my mental health as I tried to keep up with Living Room work, the writing and speaking to raise church awareness, and supporting individuals in crisis. I was constantly asking for help. But I didn’t received the help I needed. By 2015, broken, I had retired—not only from the wider movement—but even from leading my group. Thanks be to God, I was able to keep sending out Reflections on God’s Word, a written form of Living Room.

The movement ended up merging with Sanctuary Mental Health Ministries in 2014. They didn’t have the passion for it that I did. And so, in 2018, this organization removed it from their mandate and it failed to continue.

My nine years of effort to spread Living Room is described in detail in my book, ONE SUCH AS ME? I believe this book holds the key to how the movement could be picked up again from where it once was. I believe the book shows clearly how, with God in charge, this could happen.

Once again I have to reiterate: The kind of spiritual support provided by Living Room should be God’s alone to give and not kept tied to any particular person, religion, or organization.  And it should be helpful to all kinds of people dealing with mental health struggles. It’s part of his kingdom—he and his Son being the foundation on which it stands.

It looks like ONE SUCH AS ME? has now been released by Amazon.com.

When you read the book, the best place to start is at Chapter 3.

There will be an information session after church on Sunday, September 29 at New Life Community Church in Burnaby for those who are interested in bringing Living Room back to the movement it once was.

JESUS FOR ALL  –  even for non-believers like atheists?

From Jesus.net:

Surprising words come from the most famous atheist today, Richard Dawkins: “Jesus publicly advocated niceness and was one of the first to do so.” That is extraordinary because we have come to existence due to a random process of evolution which in fact “fosters selfishness, violence and indifference”. Based on this theory of evolution “this super niceness is just plain dumb”.

However, in Dawkins’ opinion, this super niceness is wonderful and he wishes that many more people were like that. To promote this he wants a T-shirt with the slogan ‘Atheists for Jesus’, and “were he to return today, he would be appalled at what is being done in his name… and he would turn his T-shirt around: Jesus for Atheists”.

And I think to myself:

If a famous atheist feels this way about Jesus, could there be some kind of Living Room group for people like him? With love Jesus reaches out to people of all faiths, even non-believers. If only everyone could be part of some kind of Living Room style group to absorb the love God has for them.

marja