Endorsements: It’s a Dance

Shane Claiborne, author of Irresistible Revolution (Zondervan, 2006), activist, and recovering sinner
A book written with the artful grace and subtle mystique the Spirit deserves...like a refreshing ballet amid the hustle and bustle of postmodern theologizing.

Neil Cole, church starter and wineskin architect, author of Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens (Jossey-Bass, 2005)
There is music everywhere if you stop and listen. Oden has heard the beat and started into the dance. In this book, Oden has truth and fiction twirling together in a beautiful waltz. Once you hear the music, you can never go without it. Join the dance.

Michael Frost, founding director of Centre for Evangelism and Global Mission at Morling Theological College, Sydney, Australia; author of Exiles (Hendrickson, 2006) and coauthor of The Shaping of Things to Come (Hendrickson, 2003)
It's a Dance is a conversation more than a book. It's a lively discussion through which we develop a fluid, organic, shifting, growing awareness of the unmistakable and missional work of the Holy Spirit. It's a conversation that the emerging church definitely needs to have and we are indebted to Patrick Oden for starting it.

Eddie Gibbs, senior professor, School of Intercultural Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California
The theoretical principles of the emerging-church phenomena only reach a limited audience of pastors and students. Patrick Oden's storytelling approach makes those insights far more attractive and accessible to a wider audience, which needs to be part of the conversation. He has done an excellent job not only of popularizing the key concepts but of adding insights of his own.

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, professor of systematic theology, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California; docent of ecumenics, University of Helsinki, Finland
While books on pneumatology—the doctrine and spirituality of the Holy Spirit—abound in these days, there is no work comparable to that of It's a Dance: Moving with the Holy Spirit. This pneumatological narrative indeed is a dance with the Spirit, an invitation to the Divine Ball, a feast of pneumatology. It not only breaks new ground in combining creatively biblical, pastoral, theological, and literary elements. It also points to the future of doing theology in a postmodern world, consulting spiritual experiences in the community and everyday life along with best insights of theological tradition and contemporary constructive thinking.

Kirsteen Kim, honorary lecturer, University of Birmingham, U.K.; vice-moderator of the World Council of Churches' Commission on World Mission and Evangelism; author of The Holy Spirit in the World (Orbis, 2007)
An imaginative book for people who have been touched by the Spirit of God and want to know more. It introduces key biblical passages and doctrines on the Holy Spirit in a painless way, and gently widens perceptions of where and how the Spirit is at work.

Dan Kimball, a pastor at Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, California; author of They Like Jesus but Not the Church (Zondervan, 2007), and The Emerging Church (Zondervan, 2003)
What an encouraging, inspiring, and refreshing book to read! Often we forget the critical importance of acknowledging the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives that this book strongly reminds us of.

Frank D. Macchia, professor of theology, Vanguard University of Southern California, Costa Mesa; author of Baptized in the Spirit: A Global Pentecostal Theology (Zondervan, 2006)
What a great idea: theology through table talk! Patrick Oden invites the reader to listen in on a series of fictional conversations about the life of the Holy Spirit. The result is an invitation to focus on Jesus and to follow him by participating, and inviting others to participate, in the creative dance of the Holy Trinity. There is no dry or abstract theologizing here, only a highly readable guide to the Holy Spirit that everyone will truly enjoy, from the seasoned pastor to the new Christian.

Jürgen Moltmann, professor of theology, University of Tübingen, Germany
I read Patrick Oden's book with growing admiration. This new style of theology is a surprise from chapter to chapter. One is drawn into a proceeding conversation and is ‘in' all of a sudden. I like chapter 9 on inciting creativity. The whole book is inspired by the creativity of the Spirit. It's a ‘dance' in the vividness of the Spirit. Let this dance never end!

Carole Spencer, adjunct professor of church history and spiritual formation, George Fox Evangelical Seminary, Portland, Oregon
Among the myriad new books on the emergent church that have appeared lately, Patrick Oden's book is different. It's a compelling dialogue, solid theology, and insightful biblical studies all rolled into one. Oden's book is an amazing combination of a Quaker understanding of the Holy Spirit with revolutionary insight for the renewal of the church in our time. This book is a great gift to the Friends Church and beyond. I plan to use this book as one of the required texts in my Theology and Culture class because it provides ready access to how critical thinking about the doctrine of the Holy Spirit interfaces with the role and function of the church in a missional context.