1965
"Taste and see that the Lord is good/׳ the psalmist wrote (34:8).
That s pretty much the thesis of Keith Miller's refreshing book.
His title is an apt metaphor. You might say the church of the mid-1960s was manufacturing the wine, bottling the wine, marketing {151} the wine—but few were actually tasting it. Miller exclaims that the Christian life must be more than a matter of holding correct doctrines. We must experience a relationship with Jesus Christ!
This idea of Christianity as a relationship rather than a religion may seem hackneyed to you now. But in 1965 it was revolutionary. Miller, who was directing a spiritual-growth conference center in Texas at the time, was calling Christians to live what they said they believed. He mentioned in the preface to this book that when he invited conference participants to write anonymous questions, "they secretly tell us that they do not know how to pray, how to witness to other people about Christ without being embarrassed, how to simply communicate with their wives and families, or how to approach their vocational and social lives as committed Christians.״ It's interesting that these questions had to be anonymous. Christians were supposed to know all these things, and few would openly admit that they didn't.
So Miller's first challenge is "a new honesty." It was a time of pretense, both inside and outside the church. People were taught to pretend everything was okay when it wasn't. This had to change, Miller said. "We must realize that our fellowship is incurably crippled until and unless we recognize and face squarely the nature and extent of our deceitfulness with God, with each other, and with ourselves."
Miller modeled his new honesty in the pages of his book, illustrating many of his points with stories from his own life, from his marriage, and from his business. This too seems old hat to us today. We're used to public confessionals and tell-all memoirs.
But Miller was doing something new, especially for the church. He was admitting that he struggled, that he didn't have all the answers, that he was learning new things as he went along.
The book goes on to talk about commitment, family life, prayer, support groups, and living for Christ in the business world. Miller himself was a businessman with an oil company before he came to the conference center, so he spoke from experience. As he challenged people to let their faith infect their daily lives on the job, he knew it wasn't easy. This short chapter touches on issues that Christians in business are still exploring today. Miller challenged his readers to try to see their vocation as a Christian calling, but he also noted, "... Christ does not promise the businessman great material success in his vocation ... but rather Christ brings the inner security which one seeks * 5 ' through great material success . . . and having found this, the burden of succeeding is lifted."
Miller was also ahead of his time in his chapter on sharing the new wine. He charged that Christians had "cheapened" the Christian message, that we should never see people as "prospects" for the church or "objects" for our witness. Instead, we should try to "listen to people with the idea in mind of making friends for Christ." Miller recommends that we respect peo-pie's privacy and not be too anxious to try to convince them. We should merely be honest about the role of Jesus in our lives, and encourage them to be honest with God as well.
Honesty is the best policy. It was sadly lacking in the church of Miller's day, but this book helped people begin to be more open about themselves. We should note another book that almost made our list, Honest to God by John A. T. Robinson (1963). That book also challenged the church, as Robinson opened up about modern struggles with traditional theology. Honest to God had significant impact on the mainline denominations, but from an evangelical perspective, Robinson was questioning too much. His honesty seemed to lead to a greater alienation from God. On the contrary, Miller's book hit home with evangelicals, because he was asking questions that led to a closer relationship with Christ.