(2 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
Loading ...ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church
Alan Hirsch & Michael Frost
Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost have written so many amazing books on ‘missional’ church. It’s what they do. But in their newest, ReJesus, they bring their life’s work into crystal-clear focus. ‘Missional’ is all about Missio Dei, the God of mission – who is, they say, “Christ-like.” And Christ shapes mission which in turn shapes our church life: Christology > missiology > ecclesiology.
In an era of out-of-control ‘church growth strategies,’ Hirsch & Frost call readers to ‘Re-Jesus’ the Church along personal, collective, imaginative, and organizational lines, posing these questions:
- What ongoing role does Jesus the Messiah play in shaping the ethos and self understanding of the movement that originated in him?
How is the Christian religion informed and shaped by the Jesus that we meet in the Gospels?
How do we assess the continuity required between the life and example of Jesus and the subsequent religion called Christianity?
In how many ways do we domesticate the radical Revolutionary in order to sustain our religion and religiosity?
How can a rediscovery of Jesus renew our discipleship, the Christian community, and the ongoing mission of the church?
What others are saying:
Frost and Hirsch challenge us to reinstate Jesus as the central focus of our spiritual lives-both as individual disciples and as communities of his people. The Jesus they present is not the domesticated Jesus that we learned about in Sunday school, but the “loving, wildly passionate, dangerous, radically merciful and always surprising” Jesus portrayed in the Gospels. An encounter with this Jesus transforms us from the inside out and radically changes our approach to mission.
-Felicity Dale, author, An Army of Ordinary People
Frost and Hirsch have done it again! In their characteristic way (heart-pounding in a spiritual sense) they invite us to a journey with God. Don’t miss this trip!
-Reggie McNeal, author, Missional Renaissance
For anyone in the missional conversation in even the slightest way, this book addresses what is by far the most important thing about it theologically and practically.
-Dan Kimball, pastor and author, They Like Jesus but Not the Church
Frost and Hirsch tear away false characterizations about Jesus and reveal a wild and radical revolutionary . . . anything but boring. This book is a huge leap in the right direction.
-Neil Cole, pastor and author, Organic Church
ReJesus will rock your world-and cause you to reJesus your life, reJesus your church, and reJesus your Bible. Expect “reJesus” to become a mantra and a mobilization in the revitalization of Christianity in the 21st century.
-Leonard Sweet, professor and author, The Gospel According to Starbucks
Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost continue to push the church into the future with their latest project, ReJesus. Herein they focus on what every Christian church must focus on–Jesus Christ–and they develop a Christ-centered strategy for missional ecclesiology. This is a timely and relevant book and deserves a wide readership.
-Tony Jones, national coordinator of Emergent Village, doctoral fellow in practical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, author, The New Christians
In this bold, compelling, and prophetic masterpiece, Hirsch and Frost articulate the beautiful vision of the Jesus-centered Kingdom that is driving this new Reformation. Hirsch and Frost brilliantly weave together insightful biblical exegesis, critical historical reflection, transforming spiritual discipleship, probing cultural analysis, and even a good bit of humor in ways that help readers get free from the deadening yoke of the Christian religion and rediscover the wild, untamed, life-giving Jesus of the Gospels. I hope everyone who professes faith in Christ will dare to read this book. They will not put it down unchanged.
-Greg Boyd, Senior Pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, co-author, The Jesus Legend
drmikekear
ReJesus, by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, is a book about seriously studying the Gospels in order to reform the Church into the image of Jesus Christ. Too often, especially in the USA, the Church has been made into the image of predominant culture. The same can be said of Jesus Himself. We create God in our image. in ReJesus Frost and Hirsch confront us with the Jesus of the Gospels, who is wilder than our Judeo-Christian culture would like. The Jesus of the Gospel means business.
I recommend this book. The illustrations and comparative studies in the lives of radical Jesus followers are also to be commended.
Mar 17th, 2009
dougorama63
Wow! A wake-up call for Western Christianity!! ReJesus kicked me square in the derrier. Frost and Hirsch have summoned the Christian Church out of its cubby hole and into a radical (root) imitation of Jesus Christ. The Church is to do nothing less. For too long we Christians have domesticated Jesus so severely that most Christians yawn when they hear His name. The authors correctly observe that the only way to let this wild Messiah loose is for the Church, individually and corporately, to engage in a thorough study and implementation of the Gospel narratives of the life of Jesus. The only way to have a vibrant relationship with Jesus is to copy Him. And as we do this, new life is breathed into the church and the world.
Read this book! It lifted my spirits and gave me hope that the Living Christ still wants to use us in His mission to unite all things in heaven and earth.
Mar 19th, 2009
lucasland
agree with 99% of what they have written in their new book ReJesus. So, if I spend most of my time criticizing or questioning their work, it is only because I agree with them so much. We criticize most that which we love most.
The basic thesis of their book is that the church throughout history, particularly in our time, has tended to stray from its founder, Jesus. We have created idols, false images, of Jesus. In order to “refound” the church, we must return to a radical (to the root) understanding of Jesus. The central idea here is that our theology should be shaped in this order: Christology > Missiology > Ecclesiology. We have tended to do it in the exact reverse order, allowing our ecclesiology to shape how we practice mission and define the person of Jesus.
I think Frost and Hirsch are on to something important here. However, I have three concerns/clarifications/additions.
1. Which Jesus?
The authors hint at the problem of unpacking the baggage we have attached to Jesus. They try to unmask many of the idols we have created that obscure the radical biblical Jesus. However, we are left without a clear vision of who this Jesus that we are to “refound” the church on is or how we come to know him. I think it is necessary to engage in some discussion about how we read the Gospels and discern the character and nature of Christ.
I would also like to add that we should take a stab at nailing down some things about Jesus, but be open to God and others changing our understanding. For example, I am committed to the fact that Jesus teaches an ethics of non-violence, or better, just peacemaking. There are many who read the same text and disagree. There is room within the history of interpretation for more than one perspective. Are the authors insisting we reach a consensus about some or all aspects of Jesus’ nature and teachings? What would be the essential things we need in order to “ReJesus” the church?
2. A Line or a Circle
I wonder if their model (Christology > Missiology > Ecclesiology) is still too linear a way of thinking about theology. Their diagram does have a loop back to Christology, but a cyclical model could more accurately describe the way that our Ecclesiology informs our Christology. In other words, perhaps the model should reflect not only an ideal for forming theology, but the reality of these discipline’s interdependence.
3. Putting the Last Things First
The final change I would make is the addition of Eschatology at the beginning of their model. While some context is included, Jesus is not set within the context of the broader biblical narrative. They make the same mistake as Red-letter Christians. While it’s better than “Buddy Jesus” it is still less than the fullness of the biblical Jesus. Eschatology is too often thought of primarily as a study of the “end times.” Properly understood it is more about the telos, purpose or goal of both history and the mission of God. Placing Jesus within the context of God’s ongoing mission also helps to mitigate the problem of interpretation and creating an idolatrous version of Jesus.
The idea of “refounding” the church also has some problematic elements. There is a danger of becoming primitivist and insisting that the church go back to a first century church. This can result in disengagement with the world we live in. We cannot “go back.” We must live in the time we are given.
For many ministers and Christians this is an excellent book written in a popular style, but engaging some deeper ideas. For an egghead like me it doesn’t address all the issues that its main tenets raise. Frost and Hirsch continue to stir good discussion and thinking about the church past, present and future.
Mar 21st, 2009
dustball44
I just finished Hirsch and Frost’s new collaborative effort, “Re-Jesus; A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church” and thought it was a fun, challenging, and insightful read.
Throughout church history there have been many “back to the foundations” type movements. The church heritage that I come from (Restoration Movement) was one of these. These movements emphasize the throwing off the unhelpful layers of church tradition and practice that have built up over the years and get back to being a New Testament Church. Part of this is a result of a general naivete of what the first century church looked like (have they read 1 Corinthians?). But part of it is a genuine desire to clear the way for people to know Jesus and to not be hindered by the crap that can get in the way.
In a sense this is what Hirsch and Frost have attempted to do in ReJesus. The difference however is their starting point. Many “back to the beginning” movements (and many of us pastors) start with making changes in or adjusting our ecclesiology. The authors take things back a few steps and start with Christology which they contend must be prior to our missiology or ecclesiology. And it is for this reason that I think they are on to something that, while we’ll always be readjusting and recalibrating, would bring powerful change and break down some of the barriers for people trying to find their way back to God.
Dustin Bagby
dbagby@gmail.com
http://www.dustball.blogspot.com
Apr 7th, 2009
RJJFleming
Near the end of their book, reJesus, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch put forward a provocative idea: Jesus didn’t ask us to worship Him. Jesus demanded obedience instead.
This is a simple idea when you think about it. In its day, this idea changed the landscape, shifted the paradigm, and turned the world upside down.
To this day, I nod my head in agreement with this idea. But, then, while the idea is still reverberating, I shake my head in sadness as I realize how far from it I’ve strayed. I think longingly of a time long past “when I knew next to nothing” and Christianity was exciting and scary and exhilarating and delicious and sweet and all that was Christianity was someone named Jesus; no institution, no programs, no buildings, just Jesus. That was all and that was enough.
If I approach the message of Christ as a call to obedience it changes radically what I do on Sunday morning and even more radically what I do on Monday morning.
Frost and Hirsch don’t claim this idea is original. But, then again, Christianity is not about originality. It’s about following. Following, by its very nature, is not original. Paul told the Philippians to follow him as he followed Christ. And we follow those who came before who followed Christ. Nothing original here.
But a lack of originality does not necessarily preclude the use of creativity.
Sounds odd, doesn’t it? Originality is not creativity: This is the kind of paradox Frost and Hirsch seem to address in reJesus. And, as they compellingly argue, we need to address this kind of paradox, both as individuals and in groups.
How do we follow Christ creatively?
Their answer does create possibilities for creativity: We need to get to know the Jesus of the gospels. What kind of man was/is He? What did He teach? What is it about Jesus that surprises us? And, maybe as important as the things we don’t know, what do we do with the things we think about Jesus that cannot be validated by the gospel accounts, about the “things we know that ain’t so?”
This is the second book they’ve written together. The first book, The Shaping of Things to Come was about ecclesiology and how the church could become more missional and incarnational. ReJesus, however, centers upon the more foundational idea of how a study of Jesus (Christology) informs and shapes the mission of the church. “Christology,” they say, “is the key to the renewal of the church in every age.” Christology leads to Missiology which then informs Ecclesiology. This is constantly recalibrated with every age in church history.
As they say: “The inference is that by and large the church as we currently experience it in the West has to varying degrees lost touch with the wild and dangerous message it carries and is duty bound to live out and pass on.” In their third chapter, they include a generous profile of the Pharisees, a group about whom Jesus said nothing good. Every point they make about the Pharisees could also be applied to many contemporary groups of Evangelicals. Their point? That our institutional structures and even our so-called Christian sub-culture has lost touch with the Jesus of the gospels. And this is what we need to regain: We need to re-Jesus the church.
If their first three chapters are theologically heavy, their fourth chapter takes a light-hearted turn. The chapter is entitled “I Have a Picture of Jesus” and examines artist’s depictions of Jesus through the centuries. They discuss paintings they rename “Bearded Lady Jesus” and “Spooky Jesus” to show how our preconceptions can work their way into who we think Jesus was and is. I’d love to take a small group through just this chapter and then end the session with a paraphrase of the prayer by C. S. Lewis, “Lord, I pray to you not as I think you are but as you know yourself to be.”
All in all, I liked their book; it gave me much to think about and I recommend it highly. Their last three chapters give practical advice as to how to put the idea into practice and how they think Christians could be obedient to their calling. You may not agree with everything they say and they don’t provide an exact blueprint. But then again, they leave plenty of room for creativity.
Apr 16th, 2009
dlandt
I found ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church to be the strongest book written by the Frost/Hirsch missional duo. The main thrust of their newest work is that mission and ecclesiology must be born out of who Jesus was and is. Their book is an invitation to take another look at Jesus and have our assumptions challenged and converted. This fresh conversion with the very Jewish and 1 century messianic figure will inform our ecclesial and missional concerns and questions.
To be faithful to their thesis you may want to consider reading ReJesus before ReMission.
I very much appreciated the authors synthesis of the writing of Jacques Ellul. If you aren’t familiar with Ellul’s writing, ReJesus is a wonderful primer. The other feature of this book, that is worth the purchase, is their stand alone biographical vignettes of people throughout history they see embodying the life of Jesus in their unique contexts.
ReJesus has the new perspective feel of The Jesus I Never Knew meets Jacques Ellul. It is an engaging and important read and my favorite so far from Frost and Hirsch.
dlandt
dlandt.typepad.com
Apr 20th, 2009
smh00a
By Steve Holt
In missional church circles, “Frost & Hirsch” is certifiably a household phrase. The authors, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, have written one previous book together – The Shaping of Things to Come – and two separately. (Exiles, Frost; The Forgotten Ways, Hirsch) The Aussie duo takes their most recent work, reJesus, in a slightly different direction, though, centering their study and reflection on the person and meaning of Jesus Christ.
Not to say their other books haven’t been Jesus-focused, because they have … in a circuitous way. Their other books have been more nuts-and-bolts manuals to starting churches and faith communities in contemporary culture, especially The Forgotten Ways and Shaping. This is not surprising coming from two missiologists.
But Frost & Hirsch are also practitioners of the mission they preach, a mission they have found is fueled and led by the suffering servant, Jesus. Thus we have reJesus, a worthy follow-up to their past study. In their previous books, both separately and together, Frost & Hirsch have argued that a robust Christology must precede both missiology and ecclesiology. Translation: our sense of mission and the shape of our communities take their cues from the life and teachings of Jesus. (ironic, though, how their book on Jesus follows books on both mission and the church)
reJesus examines Christian vocation in light of a Savior and Example who has, as Frost & Hirsch argue vehemently, been largely misunderstood throughout the ages and especially in recent centuries. Our blonde, Western, domesticated Jesus must give way to a wild-eyed revolutionary who looked to turn the world he entered on its head. Lest someone think Frost & Hirsch adhere to a [Mark] Driscoll[ian] view of Jesus – that he had ripply muscles, carried an AK-47, would have liked to watch ultimate fighting, and presumably suppressed women – let me stop you right there. They don’t. They are simply arguing for a Jesus who cannot – nay, will not – be tamed by our religious institutions and power-grabbing efforts. He has other plans.
Those new to Frost & Hirsch (or, perhaps, “Frirsch” for short) will need to get used to copious footnotes and quotes from other authors/speakers, as well as their patented charts and diagrams, used to visually display difficult theological concepts. This will be helpful to some, annoying to others. One great aspect of the book is their interludes throughout in which they feature a “revolutionary” who impacted his or her world in a Jesus-like manner. Examples include Martin Luther King, Jr., Janani Luwum, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, William Wilberforce, and, of course, Mother Teresa.
Having read their other books, I found myself skimming parts that were warmed up for use in reJesus, and thus this book wasn’t as “aha!” for me as it might be for, say, a person who is a) new to Christianity; b) new to emergent/missional Christianity; or c) uninterested with technical missions strategies. My fear is that many for whom this book was undoubtedly written are already uninterested with the ongoing missional church conversation and would rather just “follow Jesus.” In other words, reforming the institutional church may not be on the radar screen for many who read this book, though it touches, at times, on precisely that. The overwhelming focus, though, is clearly Jesus, who is characterized as holistically and biblically as in any book I’ve read. For Christians taken by the person of Jesus, pick up this book.
(to be posted at harvestboston.wordpress.com or http://www.jesusmanifesto.com)
Apr 27th, 2009
labman2808
Living in the age we live, we’re all familiar with the term ” re-boot “. Over time we download, upload, delete and edit things on our computers. Files get fragmented and corrupted and the original operating system ceases to function properly. In a nut shell, that would be the overall premise of Michael Frost’s and Alan Hirsch’s most recent book, ” reJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church. We need to re-boot our operating systems to it’s original formulation to the centrality of Jesus.
First glance of the catchy title left me a little apprehensive. In the back of my mind I mused the thought of a quick fix for all post-Christendom’s's and the church’s problems. Perhaps, like pushing a button, a clever program you cut and paste into your church’s context and your fixed, ” mission-al accomplished.
Far more than any program, this book will and should the spark the synapses in the mind of your church to see the redemptive imagination of Jesus and His Kingdom.
The book is broken down into seven chapters;
How Jesus Changes Everything
ReJesus and Personal ReNewal
ReJesus fro the Church and Organization
I’ve got a Picture of Jesus
The Shema Schema
Three, Two, One …Engage
The Church that Jesus Built
Recently, I heard Len Sweet comment that the church suffers from JDD ( Jesus Deficit Disorder ). I believe Frost and Hirsch have done a superb job of tackling the deficit in this book.
It was interesting in that when I was sent the book to review a friend of mine attending seminary over on the mainland was reading ReJesus at the same time. So we enjoyed some great conversation from different perspectives, he from a more academic/ theological view, and me from a more practitioner/ street level view. If your reading this book for a theological grounding into the missional conversation you might find it a little thin. The most theological chapter in the book is chapter five, ” The Shema Schema “, which focuses on Christology being the center and starting point into mission. It’s only from here ReJesus reveals that we know the Christ-likeness of God. It’s only in Jesus, we see God and what His mission is.
This is where my friend complains of the books theological thinness, we’ve squeezed Jesus ut the context of the bigger story. But Frost and Hirsch have made it clear that part of their motivation is to move away from complex theological propositions and formulas. I like this. I’m growing weary of books on the theology of mission. I’s like throwing gasoline on a fire, it rages for awhile with great theological musings and eventually dies down until the fire is fed again. A friend who works the inner city streets, mused recently, ” when all is said and done…will we have done anything more than just talk.”
Again, I’m talking from a street level perspective, there is a real urgency out side the walls of your local faith communities, especially among the marginalized, the fringe in the inner cities. Jesus made the comment, ” the harvest is huge and the workers few.” We can wait until all our theology is lined up, and have the scholars affirm its soundness and then move. All I can say is take a walk down to your inner cities, if you listen closely you can here blind Bartimeaus calling from dark, garbage strewn alley. I believe Frost and Hirsch recognize the urgency and have opted for a practitioners approach to mission rather than theological.
In William Cavanaugh’s book, The Church as God’s Body Language, he says, ” People are usually converted into a new way of living by getting to know the people that live that way, and thus see themselves as being able to live that way too. This is the way God’s revolution works. The church is meant to be that community of people who make salvation ( Jesus ) visible for the rest of the world. Salvation is not a property of isolated individuals, but is only made visible in mutual love.
ReJesus, is the best book I have read in a long time. If you’ve been walking along the side lines of the playing field of what missional really is. Maybe be you’re a little anxious, a little apprehensive, a little unsure that you don’t know the game plan but, you feel Jesus calling you out on to the field. This book is for you.
It is a book for faith communities trying to under stand mission, but more than that, it’s for communities courageous enough to put mission into practice. I can not recommend this book enough.
One last thing I loved about the book was the vignettes ( little Jesus’ ), stories of people through out history who engaged in Jesus’ mission. If your looking for something theological, this might not be it…but, if your interested in the ” practice ” of faith, Jesus and God’s mission, this book will inspire and encourage you.
From Frost and Hirsch, ” As should be obvious by now, we believe that the Christian faith must look to Jesus and must be well founded on him if it is to be authentic. If NASA was even .05 degress off in luanching a rocket to the moon, they would miss the moon by thousands of miles. And in many ways this is the same as it applies to the gospel. Because of the fundamental role Jesus plays in Christian identity, ministry, and mission, we believe it is critical to geth this right and to constantly keep checking. Church history makes it clear that such shifts take place. But these shifts are usually in advertent and take place incrementally as other issues press in and traditions create their own overlay obscuring the core of the faith. Wahtever the process, it results in an insidious change in the resulting religion.”
” Therefore we propose that the church should be recalibrated around it’s founder, Jesus. But, what would this look like?
” Here is a curious question that will highlite the issue for us: If the church only had the four gospels to go by, what would it look like? Certainly discipleship would be emphasized, as would the prominence on living in and under the Kingdom of God. There would likely be a strong emphasis on uncluttered lifestyle and adventuresome community with lots of love, faithfulness, mercy and justice going around. Would this be an adequate expression of Christianity”
” The renewal of the church in our time is dependent on the renewal of the gospel. And the renewal of the gospel requires the recovery of the centrality of Jesus for faith and thought. We must reJesus our theology as well as our churches.”
D. Ritschl in a quote from the book says, ” The ultimate problem, which has caused our theological helplessness, lies in the separation between Jesus Christ and the Church.”
I think if we’re all honest in that separation we will find the ” Wild Messiah for a missional church ” that Frost and Hirsch write about. We have over time downloaded, uploaded, and deleted this from the original operating system of the church and it’s mission. The operating system is corrupt, fragmented and ceases to function properly. Frost and Hirsch have not got a clever program to install into the context of your church. The ask you to re-boot everything back to Jesus. They offer everything Jesus, not quick fix solutions or answers. You might even find you have more questions. But the answer is in the total focus on Jesus. The question is are we courageous enough to reJesus.
May 13th, 2009
Pam Hogeweide
he title and cover of this book totally hooked me. I had a lot of anticipation about what fresh insights would inspire me within the pages of the book. I loved how the cover of this book suggested a relatable, creative read that would engage my imagination. I am a collage artist in my spare time and so the blurring of images and graphics with the gritty fonts used on the book’s cover completetly hooked me. I am quite likely going to print up a copy of the cover and use it in a collage project. Great graphics.
Great, great title. The authors call their work ReJesus, as a means of explaining how the collective body of Christ followers (in the West) known as The Church, need to get back to basics with our Founder. We need to be refound, not reformed or renewed or redeveloped. We need to be rebooted like a computer and return to our original operatng system, which for the Christ follower is Christ himself. Thus, according to Hisrsh and Frost, we need to ReJesus. I love this coined term and I am 100 percent on the same page as the authors in regards to this clarion call.
My primary criticism of this book is that it’s cover did not match it’s contents in that the book reads more like an academic text for seminarians. Rich with theological terms, like orthopraxy, pericope, routinization of charisma, missio Dei, etc… it is a text book with a really cool title and really, really cool cover.
In all fairness, perhaps this is the readership the authors were targeting. Ok, fine. But I kinda would have liked fair warning about that. In all truthfulness, I would not have read this book had I known it would mostly appeal to my intellect rather than my heart. 99% of the book content was lecture in style. One percent, in my estimation, storytelling. And for me, the most effective means of imparting information and knowledge is through the power of a great narrative. This book is sparse on story.
Having said that, one of the features of the book that I thoroughly enjoyed was the biographical sketches of various men and women who have demonstrated a commitment to following Christ, people who appeared to not need a dose of ReJesus’ing. This was not so much story telling as it was a kind of shout-out to some of the heroes and “sheroes” (as Shane Claiborne is apt to say!) of the faith. Ok, cool.
Another fun feature of the book is the graphics within. Not the diagrams or tables, God no, those were boring. Reminded me too much of all those mathematic classes I floundered in during my youth…I still flounder at math….but the authors saw to it that popular and iconic images of Jesus found in art were included. They wrote their observations and reviews of how art has reflected a distorted view of how we in the West have envisioned Christ. A soft, domesticated Savior who is nice to everybody and has good manners. Nope, not the Real Jesus, asserts Hirsch and Frost. And I would agree. Again, I did not have a disagreement with the content of this book. My criticism is that it was overwhelmingly academic in vocabulary, writing style and even the charts and diagrams and tables. It is the style that didn’t work for me.
Here’s an example of what I mean by overly academic:
Our commitment to exegesis are now so one-dimensional that we longer know how to connect with the Bible in a much more personally engaged manner. We suggest that along side the task of exegesis (which we must do), we need to learn the spiritual art of reading ourselves into the text, participating in it, normally forbidden to the academic approach. We think that we have much to unlearn in regard to our approach to Scripture, and therefore the God of the Scriptures, and much to relearn as we seek to reJesus our lives and churches. (p. 147)
Don’t misunderstand me. I may only be a cleaning woman by trade and a high school graduate by education, but I am intelligent and understand what this means. I understand the premise of the book. I just didn’t care for the overly academic approach in giving the message and wonder how much more accessible this book would be to everyday people had everyday language been used instead. As it stands, I’ll be passing this volume along to a woman I know who is a theologian. She may likely appreciate it more than I have.
There were many gleaming moments in the book for me, mostly when the adademic posture was relaxed and the tie was loosened. My favorite passage in the entire book is found in the last chapter where the authors issue a kind of statement of the difference between loving The Church versus not liking how church is done:
…to be sure, we do not like gatherings of strangers who never meet or know each other outside of Sundays, who sit passively while virtual strangers preach and lead singing, who put up with second-rate psuedo-community under the guise of connection with each other, who live different lives from Monday to Saturday than they do on Sunday, whose sole expression of worship is pop-style praise and worship, who rarely laugh together, fight injustice together, eat together, pray together, raise each others’ children together, serve the poor together, or share Jesus with those who have not yet been set free. We do not like the church if it’s a fractured organization with hundreds of competing creeds, names, and doctrines, teaching a multitude of contradictory beliefs and insisting on compliance with a raft of recently invented traditions. But if it’s a family of Jesus followers striving, no matter how inadequately, to be Christlike, holistic, peace-loving, worshipful, devoted, graced, holy and healthy, then we will love it with every ounce of physical and emotional strength we have. (p. 172-73)
I give the content of the book three stars, but the cover and especially that effin’ amazing title Five Stars, which averages my review to Four Stars.
And there you have it.
Aug 31st, 2009
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