Group seeks God in 'The Shack'

The shack serves as a backdrop for a 12-week teaching series on a best-selling novel that is being praised and criticized in publications, on Web sites, by Bible study groups and during Starbucks' conversations across the nation.

The Rev. Chris Buskirk, founder and pastor of Abiding Harvest, said he decided to teach the series on "The Shack" after realizing it could help people "turn the page on the pain of broken relationships and tragedies in their lives."

"After reading the book, I felt closer to the Lord, more in conversation with God, than at any other time of my life," said Buskirk, who went through the pain of a divorce 15 years ago.

"It was so refreshing to feel that I could relate to God," he said.

The church bought 500 copies of the book for $10 each, and asked their members to give them away to friends. Forty visitors were at the church Sunday for the start of the series.

"The Shack" is an allegory about Mack, a man plunged into despair when a serial killer abducts and murders his young daughter Missy on a family vacation.

Four years later, when a cryptic letter purportedly from God invites him to the very shack where the murder took place, he is fearful, but decides to go.

There, he is met by three people, representing the Trinity.

God the Father is a large, black woman with a broad smile and an easy laugh who swings her hips when she sings and loves to cook. She calls herself Papa.

The Son is Jesus, a Middle Eastern-looking man.

And the Holy Spirit is Sarayu, a slight Asian woman with a light, shimmery appearance.

Over the course of their weekend conversations, Mack's life is healed as he comes to terms with his daughter's murder and begins to understand why God allows evil.

"The Shack" is an unlikely book to be No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list for 32 straight weeks, with more than 5 million copies in print.

It was written by William P. Young, an Oregon salesman, to tell his children how he overcame the pain of being sexually abused as a child, and the shame and guilt of adultery as an adult.

Young was assisted in the project by two friends -- Wayne Jacobson, a 1970s Oral Roberts University graduate, and Brad Cummings -- who both helped him rewrite, self-publish and promote the book on a tiny budget. Sales blossomed, fueled almost entirely by word of mouth.

Since its publication in 2007, the book has been at the center of numerous debates, conversations and sermons. Books for and against its unorthodox presentation of theology are beginning to crop up.

Atlanta pastor and radio and television Bible teacher Michael Youssef lists on his Web site what he calls the 13 heresies of "The Shack," among them that it preaches universalism (that all people will be saved); denies the reality of eternal judgment and hell; misrepresents the nature of the Trinity; and denies the authority of the Scripture.

Some evangelicals also have said the book promotes radical feminism by portraying God as a woman.

Jacobson told the Tulsa World by phone Wednesday that some of the criticism is fabricated.

For example, he said, the charge that the book teaches universalism is "clearly not true. It's not in the book."

Other criticism, he said, he welcomes because it is producing a "great discussion nationally among believers about who Jesus is, and how he touches the world." He said post-Christmas sales continue to be strong.

Theologian and author Randal Rauser praised the book in his soon-to-be released "Finding God in the Shack."

He defended the novel's theology of the Trinity, and explained why it could sometimes be appropriate to represent God the Father as a black woman.

" 'The Shack' has ignited the church's interest in the doctrine of the Trinity more than the dozens of theology books that have been published by academic theologians over the last 40 years," he wrote.

Buskirk said the Trinity is a mystery even to theologians, who see it revealed in Scripture but cannot explain it.

"It's like people living in a two-dimensional world trying to explain a third dimension," he said.

To those who say it is idolatry to portray God as a black woman, Buskirk said that God, who is infinite, often appears in the Bible in finite form to accommodate man's limited understanding.

"God himself took on flesh and dwelt among us. ... You'd think they (critics) would cut the book a little slack," he said.

God appears to Mack as a woman in the novel, he said, because Mack (and the author) were abused by men and could not identify with God as a father figure.

"No story is completely accurate in all ways describing what God has done for us in Jesus Christ," Buskirk said.

Chris Buskirk is the son of the Rev. James Buskirk, former dean of the Oral Roberts University seminary, and retired pastor of First United Methodist Church downtown.

In his early 30s, the younger Buskirk was on the fast track to ministerial success as the preaching associate at the 13,000-member First United Methodist Church in Houston.

But his goals changed as he saw a new convert struggle and then fall by the wayside in the mega-church.

"It broke my heart," he said. "I was preaching to thousands, but I knew something had to be wrong if a church could not raise one baby Christian. I got disillusioned with bigness for bigness' sake."

Against the advice of his father and other spiritual leaders, Buskirk returned to Tulsa determined to start a church that would help people grow spiritually.

He founded Abiding Harvest United Methodist Church 10 years ago in Broken Arrow on the cell church concept --that all members would belong to small groups where they would watch over one another in love, be discipled, and find friendship and true fellowship. The church of 350 now has 14 cell groups that meet weekly.

All the groups come together for breakfast at 10 a.m. Sundays in the coffee shop at the church, a new facility at 4407 S. Olive Ave., and for a 10:30 a.m. worship service.

"It's very different from a lot of Methodist churches," he said, "but it's a restoration of our heritage. It's the closest thing we have to the practice of early Methodism."

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