by Marva J. Dawn

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review by Colin Saxton

EVERY GOOD BOOK has a primary focus. Even better books—at least in my opinion—find ways to stretch our thinking beyond the narrow limits of that one main theme. While never losing sight of the point that guides and shapes the text, these “better” books also open doors to other important ideas, uncover rabbit trails to issues needing further exploration, and raise questions that, over time, eat at us until we search for answers.

Marva Dawn's, The Sense of the Call: A Sabbath Way of Life for Those Who Serve God, the Church, and the World is one of those “better” books. While offering a clear and consistent invitation to reflect on our calling in life, she integrates other key themes that add both depth and breadth to the book. Sabbath, justice, orthodoxy, and sexuality are a few such themes. In a helpful way, Dawn weaves these vast but related topics into her exploration, alongside the exhortation that we understand and act on the implications of our call to be “members of Christ's Body for the sake of God's Kingdom in the world” (from the introduction, p. x).

The Sense of the Call is only a most recent work by Dawn. Dawn is a prolific author and engaging speaker, consistent in her commitment and ability to integrate a heady and informed theology with a practical and workaday spirituality. Serving as a teaching fellow in Spiritual Theology at Regent College and as an educator with Christians Equipped for Ministry, Dawn publishes and lectures at a dizzying rate, despite dealing with a number of chronic and severe physical impairments.

It is only speculation on my part, but I wondered in reading the book whether this seeming paradox of severe disability and profound passion for ministry gives rise to the blend of ideas in the book. For throughout the text, Dawn frequently mentions her own experience—wrestling with the burden of being physically frail and the “burden” of being faithful to her God-given call to ministry. How do these twin burdens remain in healthy balance, anyway? In the author's experience, it seems they find a genuine center in living into our call through a Sabbath-perspective on life.

Though The Sense of the Call is especially written for those who are engaged in vocational ministry (108), this is a book for the whole priesthood of believers. Along the way, Dawn offers assistance to every person in ministry as we try to wade through the too-many opportunities that confront and confound us. Dawn holds out that instead of the frantic pace so many of us (including the author) seem to fall into, we can have a disciplined spirituality—one grounded in an authentic and biblical-theologically informed experience of God, and maintained through the prayerful and intentional choices we make.

While I don't believe Dawn underestimates God's role in our own transformation and ministry, she generously dollops personal responsibility on each of us who seek to follow Jesus. The primary theme of Scripture, she argues, is not so much God's love but fidelity to God's reign (8). Such understanding guards us from the kind of mushy sentimentality that robs Christian faith of both its meaning and power. Similarly, she goes on to say that in a culture of radical individualism and emphasis on personal freedom, followers of Jesus are called to something else—the larger, greater story of God and what God is doing in creation. This emphasis on the Kingdom of God, she notes, serves to help us order our lives well and be in harmony with a biblical understanding and experience of God.

A particularly helpful aspect of Dawn's work is the way she blends keen insight with practical application. In this way, the inquiring mind is stimulated and the activist is given useful tools to try. For instance, Dawn doesn't simply help us remember the theological relevance of Sabbath, she offers practical aids to help us live in it (69). Dawn doesn't just write about prayer as a good idea, but offers good ideas about the practice of prayer (109 ff.). With many subjects, Dawn works at wedding the ideal with the real, recognizing it is not enough to talk about a relationship with God—it must be experienced! Even better, she does so with the reminder that there are no quick fixes in the spiritual life (another trait that tends to dominate our Western spirituality). Rather, we have been invited into a journey that is bent on teaching us patience and long-suffering (18)…if we will allow it.

For me, The Sense of the Call is a book better enjoyed than consumed. In reading one section of it rather quickly, I found it to be less helpful. Later, as I returned to that section to give it a second chance, I found more substance than I first imagined. Rushing on without reflecting, one might overlook one of the many jewels scattered throughout the pages—ideas or insights that really do make this a “better” book. Personal favorites include the distinction she makes between a well-ordered and a balanced life. This is an old idea, uniquely phrased, that helped drive home an important point (135-136). Later, she tells a great story that reminds us there is always a balance between “my experience of God” and “our confession” of faith (226)—balancing the necessary personal experience of God in the context of spiritual community. Finally, a helpful quote: “No is a freedom word. I don't have to do what either my glands or my culture tell me to do” (122).

Of course, every book has its better sections and weaker features. While Dawn does a helpful job of collecting and applying the wisdom of others, drawing in reflections of both past and present saints, there does seem to be an overreliance on one or two more modern saints in particular. There is a downside, too, in her willingness to touch on those other important issues in the context of her main theme on call/Sabbath living. On occasion, matters of great magnitude receive only a fleeting glance. In particular, there are moments of rebuke for those of us who have grown up in a materialistic and militaristic society. Unfortunately, at least at times, this rebuke feels too easy, like hand-slap given to a child who has made a mistake but doesn't know how to correct it. The problem is not that the author speaks to these issues. Rather, there simply is not enough space in the book or enough room at the center of this theme to deal with every topic in a helpful and thorough way.

To her great credit, within the scope of what seemed like a much more limited topic, Dawn raises issues that most popular evangelical writers would never address. She dares to highlight critical (but often ignored) Christian concerns like poverty, the war in Iraq, sexual promiscuity, and economic justice. A great example is found at the heart of the book, where she cites the concern of many missionaries. She reports them saying:

North American Christianity is the biggest obstacle to evangelism in some areas of the world. Primarily this is because of the wealth of churches here and the seeming lack of concern for the poverty of so many elsewhere. Are we as leaders also a stumbling block? Only the gospel, the cross, should be such a scandal. (141)

Such a critique, and the question that comes with it, is not one we may like. It is one, however, we ought to listen to—just like many of the other encouraging and prophetic insights that are raised in The Sense of the Call.

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