Lore Ferguson WilbertCritiques

There are many books out there that could be considered apologetic. Those books will answer many questions, but this book will dive into those questions and bring out the deeply thought out answers

Whether you are searching for answers or seeking to deepen your understanding, this will be an informative read.

Summary: A book about the questions God asks, we ask, and those we wish we were asked, all with the message of living the questions and not hastily grasping for answers.

There is a strong and deeply embedded streak within me to want to have the answer to any question. Perhaps it came from being the class nerd, somewhat overweight, who compensated for his lack of athleticism with being a good student. Later, as a young follower of Christ, it seemed to be important to answer the questions my friends who didn’t believe would ask. Yet I began to notice that my “answers” didn’t reach to the heart of my friends’ questions. Then midlife hit, and deeply painful life junctures and I became aware that the answers weren’t reaching to the heart of my questions. And because the questions were existential ones like, “does my life really matter?” and “does God really care?”, they mattered, and I began to learn that living the questions rather than hastening to answers that really didn’t work was vital. Those questions laid bare what was in me and awakened in me my longing for God, not as an answer, but One to be known.

That journey is one Lore Ferguson Wilbert traces in her own life. The book opens with epigraphs from Madeleine L’Engle and Rainer Maria Wilke about living the questions. Wilbert traces her own journey from certitudes to questions, finding a church that loved her despite all her questions, living them with her. What is most striking though is that in three parts she explores the questions we find in scripture: The questions God asks of people, the questions we ask of God, and the questions we wish someone would ask of us, the questions asked by Jesus during his ministry.

The chapters (32 in all) are short, allowing readers to pause and sit with the questions and reflections and consider where these might connect with the questions they are living in their own lives. One chapter I appreciated was God’s question to Moses: “What is in your hand?” Wilbert observes: “When God asks what is in Moses’s hand, the staff in his hand is there because so many things have just gone wrong in Moses life.” She sees in that staff all our failures in life and then moves to consider what that staff in his hand came to mean as Moses shepherded God’s people. She considers the question Jesus asks the woman caught in adultery, “Who condemns you?”, and reflects on how often we have a condemning voice in our head and think ourselves utter failures at being good Christians when Jesus’ first concern for the woman is that she be safe and know that no one condemns her–only then is she or any of us free to refrain from sinning.

The invitation throughout is to be curious. To sit with questions, to keep questioning, to bring our questions to God, opening ourselves to God. Her curiosity sometimes leads her to ask a raft of questions in some of the chapters and this perhaps can be overwhelming. Sometimes, a single good question is enough. She urges us to not be hasty to grasp at answers that are too small for our questions. In various ways she holds out the hope that there is really one Answer, and to wait for Him and to allow his questions and ours to take us on that journey to Him, however that comes to pass.

I thought her most profound chapter the one on “The Unasked Questions” where she describes the Tenebrae service that ends with the cry, “My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?” followed by all lights extinguished. Sometimes we don’t even know the questions to ask, we live a kind of death, as we await the coming of light, and life. Only what has died may be raised.

This is an uncomfortable book. But there are many living with uncomfortable questions. To them, this book is a kind of balm, that encourages them to keep living them. They are questions that matter, questions that break us open to God, questions that lead us to far more than just “answers.” Often such people are thought to have lost their way. This book proposes that a curious faith that lives the questions is the only way to find one’s way.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

Frank and refreshing are two words that summarize my opinion of this book.
Persons who are assumed to already have knowledge of material being presented are generally reluctant to ask questions even when they have a need for clarification. It is probably due to a fear they will be exposed as having less knowledge than they are touted to possess. Over my non-technical career in a high-tech industry, I have seen the reluctance first hand. It is also common when the topic includes topics of faith and the bible. The author of this book refutes that fear by illustrating that there are multiple reasons to ask questions other than seeking knowledge. Rather than presenting technical data regarding the art of asking questions, Wilbert cites examples from the Bible where questions are asked for other purposes.
The most important reason for asking questions is to establish a relationship. That relationship enables the passage of information but, more important, it provides the conditions necessary to grow together. Wilbert first focuses on the questions God asks us and then the questions we ask God citing applicable Bible verses as examples. She then turns to questions we should ask of each other. The author approaches the issue of Christian relationships from an interesting perspective and, in the process, teaches us how to be better Christians. It is well worth the read.

A great book for anyone who has deep-seeded questions about faith and God. Questions do not imply a weakness of faith but the capability to deepen relationship and understanding. Good read!

This book poses some questions the typical person would not consider. The author does a good of using the Bible to determine what questions we should be asking ourselves and also showing that sometimes the right question is more important than knowing an answer

This book was a wonderful gem to discover. The writer, Lore Ferguson Wilbert explores a series of questions throughout Scripture in a welcoming and moving way. Her honesty about her own pains and experiences invites her readers to probe their own lives in the same way. The book consisted of thirty-two short chapters, which are perfect for accompanying a daily devotional time.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher. The opinions in this review are my own.½

Lore Ferguson Wilbert’s book is a challenge to embrace “the power of touch in life and ministry.” Through examples from Christ’s own ministry, Wilbert exposes the mistake we make when we shrink away from physical touch as a meaningful expression of belonging, leaving a vacuum in the lives of those to whom we minister.

She confronts our perception of the danger of physical touch in a way that is beneficial to pastors and lay leaders alike, as they seek to form community within the body of Christ. Handle with Care exhorts us to better express our love and care for the family of God around us.

Pastors and staff are all too aware of the dangers of misused touch. Our society has so sexually charged touch that we have created moats around our relationships to protect both the minister and those ministered to. But what if those moats are so wide that they actually enforce distance between us?

Jesus didn’t hesitate to touch, as Wilbert clearly documents. She affirms:

“We have a unique chance to embody a godly, caring approach to this issue that neither withholds touch, nor forcefully takes it. And the key word there is caring. We need to teach how to touch with true care.”

Leaders who understand the value of relationship in ministry will appreciate the combination of Scriptural challenge and powerful experience in Wilbert’s exploration of the need for appropriate, caring touch within our communities.

Particularly, those who understand the importance of relationship-based ministry will benefit from the well of experience Wilbert draws on as she focuses on the human need for physical contact and details the results of that need going unanswered. While she explores the particular plight of the single believer, singles are not the only ones in our faith communities in desperate need of affirming touch.

Whatever one’s life situation, forming deeply connected lives with others naturally includes such touch. In fact, this would be a particularly timely book to recommend and read through with those preparing for marriage, as Wilbert transparently discusses differing needs for touch within her own marriage.

As I read, I wrestled. There is an uneasy abiding between the assertation that touch is imperative if we are to minister to the whole person and the juxtaposition of the near-constant revelations in the news regarding abuse within ministries. I have struggled under the instructions “Don’t touch,” reconciling that with both children and adults who are in obvious need of comforting hugs, handholding and encouraging physical contact.

To embrace each other will require reversing decades of pulling away and a commitment to learning what healthy, faithful touch means. Yet, Handle with Care details Jesus’s touch woven throughout His ministry. Dare we not follow?

Handle with Care is not a how-to guide, but rather the opening statement in a conversation with which the church must not only engage, but lead. It’s time.

https://go.efca.org/blog/handled-almost-enough-care