*This post is part of the Patheos Bookclub review for “Dallas and the Spitfire”
*** Leave a comment on this post, with adequate contact information and I might pick you to get a free copy of the book!
I sit on my couch and ponder my youth ministry days. Discipleship, in a student ministry setting, increasingly reminds us that relationships matter most. I can think of many relationships as a mentor with fond memories. The same relationships also brought about chaos, emotional strife, and disappointment. But through it all, somehow God showed up in the mess.
Today I read a book by Ted Kluck and Dallas Jahncke called “Dallas and the Spitfire – An old car, an ex-con, and an unlikely friendship.” It begins at a typical coffee shop scene. 30-year-old meets up with a young twenty-something. As they sip their lattes they both increasingly become aware that the coffee shop setting is not the right place for these kinds of rustic dudes. They’re both “manly men.” Their personalities mash almost instantly as they leave the coffee shop behind and head into real life.
Dallas comes from a background that began with the abuse of alcoholism as an 8-year-old in his 1st sexual experience as a 10-year-old. Nothing about his life was quote typical” for most people in conservative evangelical churches. By the time he was a teenager he was kicked out of his house. Addicted to drugs. Beating people, committing crimes, and using women. All of this to maintain his habit and to survive in a system that had neglected him.
Ted, on the other hand, knows nothing of that world. He is an author and what many would consider a quote normal” middle-class white family man. Yet, after Dallas finds himself out of jail and back into the church, these 2 stories collide into something messy yet beautiful. [Read more...]
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