In his introduction to The Jesus Way, Eugene Peterson sets up a strong contrast between "ways and means culture" of North America and what it means to follow Jesus as "the Way." The ways of Jesus are personal, relational, particular, local, "flesh and blood", while the ways employed in our North American culture are "conspicuously impersonal."
I think Peterson is right that too many of us who claim to be followers of Jesus "without hesitation, and apparently without thinking" embrace the thinking of our culture as we go about living our daily llives. This has obvious implications both for the individual and the local church.
We can think through what this means for the church in a couple of days. Let's start - and I do mean start - thinking through what it means for me in my day to day choices and actions.
Peterson makes the following key statement, which flies in the face of our Western individualism: "I cannot follow Jesus any which way I like. My following must be consonant with His leading." Sounds simple enough, but if I take any time to scratch below the surface of my daily life, I find that it is rife with instances of basing my choices and directions on things that are, sadly, often the exact opposite of where Jesus would be leading.
What would it look like in 21st century America for me to follow Him in such a way that my lifestyle choices, my time patterns, my "free time" ... my whole life was in concert with His leading?
I think ultimately that's the question that I need to wrestle with in working through this book. But I don't need to do it in an academic way. The goal is not to understand more, the goal is to actually follow Him. I like the way Peterson describes it - "to really live, to live eternal life in ordinary time."