Product Description

Jim Palmer's critically acclaimed Divine Nobodies was only half the story - the deconstruction and shedding of a religious mentality that hindered his knowing God. In his next book, Jim takes the reader along into the wide open spaces of exploring and experiencing God beyond religion. Jim writes, "It is no secret that God can be lost beneath the waving banner of religion. Divine Nobodies is my story of how this happened to me. Sometimes you have to disentangle God from religion, even Christ from Christianity, to find the truth. With the help of some unsuspecting nobodies, I uncovered a new starting line with God. As I've put one foot in front of another, I've experienced God in ways that are deeply transforming."

Each chapter revolves around a central question related to knowing God on fresh terms: Is God a belief system? Is the Bible a landing strip or launching pad? Can what we're feeling inside be God? Are we too religiously minded to be any earthly good?

Brian McLaren wrote, "I am tempted to say that Jim Palmer could well be the next Don Miller, but what they have in common, along with an honest spirituality and extraordinary skill as storytellers, is a unique voice."

The Library Reviews said of him, "Jim Palmer's casual, yet compelling writing style cuts through the religious rhetoric and gets to the real issues…readers will love this author! His sense of humor is alternately mixed with shocking sentences and poignant moments. Laced throughout is a refreshing honesty that ties his ideas together with a ribbon of reality…each turn of the page strips away a little more of the contrived mystery of Christianity until the simplicity and sincerity of it stands in realistic splendor."

More and more people seek a deeper spirituality beyond status-quo religion. Others are left empty and weary from a shallow and narrow pop-Christianity. Palmer says that God's kingdom of love, peace, and freedom can be a present reality in any person's life. He proclaims that God is indeed in the process of birthing something deep and wide among unlikely people in unconventional ways, which is changing the world...one "nobody" at a time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #89428 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
With Divine Nobodies, emerging church leader Palmer touched a nerve with readers who gravitate toward cutting-edge evangelical writers like Brian McLaren and Donald Miller. Similarly, this book employs a personal, homespun style to dissent from Christianity-as-usual. Palmer examines such spiritual disciplines as honing one's belief system in accordance with biblical principles; advancing the gospel outside of church walls; dismantling ineffective church practices; and discovering purpose in unexpected places. He might raise the hackles of some evangelicals with a confessional narrative of putting aside the Bible for a season, recognizing that it was at the center of ...a religion that had left [him] empty, exhausted, and disillusioned. Palmer shed this conventional religion as he purposefully tuned out preachers and others quoting or referring to it, and writes that the result was that God spoke to him through nature, people, art, film and music. Palmer might be termed a renegade, but most young evangelicals will see him as a rebel with a cause and a message worth considering. (Dec. 4)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Recommended to people who are ready to color outside the lines of traditional faith
Jim Palmer has had a fascinating spiritual journal. Though his resume includes working in pastoral ministry at Willow Creek Community Church and pioneering an emerging church in Nashville, Tennessee, Palmer has found his own faith grow wildly by stepping outside the confines of traditional religion and experiencing the fullness of God in everyday life. WIDE OPEN SPACES is the follow-up to his debut, DIVINE NOBODIES, and invites readers to look for a deeper spirituality beyond the status-quo. Palmer believes that the kingdom of God that includes love, peace and freedom is awaiting every follower of Jesus who will open his eyes and hear what God wants to do.

Each chapter of WIDE OPEN SPACES takes a different snapshot of Palmer's spiritual journey and ideas. The chapter titles play on pop culture phrases and references such as "The Devil Wears Levis 501 Jeans" and "Humankind is from Mars, God is from Venus." The subtitles, though, more clearly identify the purpose of each chapter-length essay. They ask thought-provoking questions such as "Does It Matter If We Can't Do It?" "Is the Reality of Evil an Inconvenient Truth?" and "Can We Trust Our Gut?" Along the way, readers get insights into Palmer's thought process, background and life.

Though well written throughout, the best chapter of the book is also the first, "My God Can Whup Your God! Is God a Belief System?" Palmer writes, "One of the most freeing discoveries these past few years in my relationship with God (and it's still sinking in) is that God is not a belief system or a fixed set of theological propositions. On the one hand, it seems patently obvious that a list of claims about God can't actually be God himself. There isn't a lockbox at the center of the universe containing a divine computer program and doctrinal code. Hopefully we've all realized that THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY is fiction and that the number forty-two doesn't answer anything of ultimate significance."

Despite such realizations, Palmer points out that for years Christianity was thought of as a well-defined set of propositions and practices. As a result, he spent many years treating his belief system as his savior. While important, solid doctrine is not the basis for salvation; instead, it's a relationship with Christ. Palmer shares quite transparently that for years his sense of security and comfort came from being right about God. Now he finds his security and comfort in knowing God and discovering His compassion, goodness, favor, forgiveness, beauty, truth and love. As demonstrated throughout the book, he finds it in more places than you can imagine.

WIDE OPEN SPACES is a well-written book that contributes to the emerging conversation on where the church has been as well as where it is going and what that journey looks like in one little Christ-follower's life. It is recommended to people who are ready to color outside the lines of traditional faith and delve into a deeper relationship with Christ.

--- Reviewed by Margaret Oines

Fed up with church?
Palmer's former life as an executive pastor is a little bit fresh, making his outline of a new kind of orthopraxy both refreshingly freedom-focused and depressingly churchy in its expression. Still, Palmer is vulnerable (and cautious not to overstay his welcome) in sharing his changed perspective on Christ and Christ's message. The result is a challenge to orthodoxy that almost sings (especially his careful explication of American culture's sky-god). If you're fed up with traditional church, read this book.

Wonderful, thought provoking
I found this book to be incredibly amazing and thought provoking. I am currently reading Palmer's first book "Divine Nobodies" and i would recommend that as well. it really struck a chord with me and everyone should think about picking it up!