Life is messy and complicated, and the path to heaven is not as clear cut as it used to seem. Jim Clarke shares his experience of privileged immersion into the lives of ordinary people around the world-their questions, their pushbacks, their stories of suffering, but most of all, their faith-expanding the boundaries of Clarke's white, middle-class, orthodox thinking, challenging his certainty about theological stances, and inviting him into a more thoroughly incarnational way of thinking. This book is not concerned with canonical matters, nor does it concern itself with abstruse theological debates, and it is not didactic in nature. It is purely and simply concerned with pastoral considerations, and it is hoped that it has "the smell of the sheep." All conversations, questions, and wonderings recorded in the pages of this book come from genuine pastoral encounters with real people who shared their life experiences in a spirit of trust and openness. Book jacket.