Divine Nobodies: Shedding Religion to Find God (and the unlikely people who help you)

Divine Nobodies: Shedding Religion to Find God (and the unlikely people who help you) | Jim Palmer | Devine Nobodies

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Divine Nobodies: S...

	Divine Nobodies: Shedding Religion to Find God (and the unlikely people who help you) Jim Palmer Thomas Nelson, 2006 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 41 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

no more plastic Jesus

God has shown Himself through Jim Palmer in this gem of a book. Once a climbing-ever-higher well-known evangelical pastor, Jim found himself "de-throned" and working a series of "grunt jobs" among "ordinary nobodies." At first resentful of God's "bad treatment" of him (we've all been there haven't we?) he begins to really see these people, relate to them, learn from them and love them. Similar to Jesus His Son, Jim was taken down from his "high" position to walk among those in the trenches. The love of Christ for the very ordinary shines on every page of this book. In today's culture of relentless "7 Bullet-proof steps to becoming a Super Christian," books, "Divine Nobodies" is a comforting reminder that we truly are loved just as we are.

You go to church and try to be a good Christian. Upon conversion/joining the church, you are given the same package as everyone else. Like going to a convention and getting a free goodie bag. A church doctrine sheet, a spiritual inventories checklist, a volunteer signup sheet, a list of rules and guidelines for behavior. And they might as well throw in a little plastic Jesus doll into the bag - just like everyone else's.

This book, along with Jacobsen's "The Naked Church," has been pivotal for me. I now feel like I'm on the journey to finding a real, breathing, three-dimensional Jesus.

If you're tired of the Christianity today's conventional church serves up, read this book. I was losing my hope that Christianity was really more than a glorified behavior modification program. Now that hope is being revived - by reading Jim's journey on "the other side."

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Devine Nobodies

I "serendipitiously" found Devine Nobodies, and it was just what I was looking for. For years I've suspected I was the sort of luke-warm Christian Jesus would spit out. I am a Christian who doesn't go to church and questions the canonization of the New Testament. What value do I have to God? Yet, I'm not willing to separate God from my life quite yet. Jim Palmer has found a group of people just like me and has exposed them for all their wonderful qualities - qualities that aren't valued in our culture's view of Christianity. Thanks, Jim, for opening my eyes and banishing my lonliness.

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encouragement for the journey

God has always had a way of giving me light and direction along life's way, especially during those times when the way was dark and confusing. It was at such a time that I read Divine Nobodies. What an encouragement! I resonated so much with Jim's journey, having been in a very visible ministry myself then disappearing into oblivion. His story was such a testimony of the blessedness of being ordinary (which we all are anyway) and being with ordinary people, who God uses to teach us extraordinary lessons about what's really important--loving, being loved, and living life on life's terms. In any season of life, this book will offer hope and encouragement.

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Divine Reading On Nobodies

This is one of those books that is read and then continues to work its way through the reader. Palmer walks us through his own journey with God. Along the way, he encounters unexpected friends who shape him in unexpected ways. I think that's what drew me into this book so deeply, the way he grows to not only welcome but to also expect those unexpected twists in his life. We are generally people who avoid the unknown, who explain away the mysterious. But Jim's come to embrace it somehow (you can still read the ongoing journey at his blog), to discover that God is speaking through these twists and turns to bring real and meaningful transformation.

The basic gist of the book is Jim's discovery of "a little help" God is using in "acquiring" the honesty and elasticity needed to grow. Reading the first chapter about his friend Kit, I was sincerely jealous, wanting to retreat to a place (and a friendship) where my questioning mind and searching doubts could find room to roam and play. Continuing on, Jim discovers truth in hip-hop, theological depth at Waffle House, and a servant's heart in a pastoral mechanic. Politics, homosexuality, death - all topics are fair game for God's use in malding and shaping us.

It's as if Jim wrote what I would've wanted to write had I been in his shoes on his journey. We've intersected, if not in the details then in the formulas, and I felt like I was reading an understanding heart being poured out in paperback.

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A Must Read For All Christians

This is a great book. Jim Palmer has an easygoing, conversational writing style that makes the readers feel like they have known him for years. Each chapter is about an interesting character that he encountered along his spiritual journey. Some of them are quirky and unconventional. But they each have a compelling story and play a vital role in establishing God's kingdom here on earth. Would the world be a better place if everyone became "unplugged" from organized religion like Jim and his friends did? I'm not so sure. However, we are all spiritually richer because of his experience and the truths that he discovered along the way. I'm really looking forward to his next book, Wide Open Spaces. Here's hoping that Jim Palmer stays "unplugged".

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