Yaconelli

Found through Steve McMillan – a small sample of Yaconelli, and why he’ll be missed:

Jesus: “You think I died on a cross to make people nice? You think I want to be relegated to the status of motivational speaker? Listen, I don’t even like football, and I definitely don’t like nice people. Look at my disciples! Talk about loud, obnoxious, rude, flaky-hey, these guys were anything but nice. Remember when ‘Mr. Nice Guy’ John wanted me to send fire down on a little Samaritan village because they wouldn’t let us stay for the night? “Start telling parents that their sons and daughters should take a year after high school and do missions in South Africa and see how long you last. Tell them it isn’t a good decision to make their kids go to soccer camp instead of church camp and see how supportive they’ll be. Truth is, I came to ruin people’s lives-just like I ruined yours. I came to turn people’s lives upside down. Remember all that stuff I said about being a sword and turning parents against children? I wasn’t kidding.”

Update: Yaconelli on how he would be remembered:

I just want to be remembered as a person who loved God, who served others more than he served himself, who was trying to grow in maturity and stability. I want to have more victories than defeats, yet here I am, almost 60, and I fail on a regular basis. If I were to die today, I would be nervous about what people would say at my funeral. I would be happy if they said things like ‘He was a nice guy’ or ‘He was occasionally decent’ or ‘Mike wasn’t as bad as a lot of people.’ Unfortunately, eulogies are delivered by people who know the deceased. I know what the consensus would be. ‘Mike was a mess.’