A MUST READ!!!
I have taken my time reading this book over the last month and a bit. It is incredible... Incredible not in the sense of entertaining... incredible as in the sense of challenging. If you want to be live comfortably in the status quo than do not read this book. But if you, like increasingly many more people, are thirsty for something different than the status quo, thirsty for a Christianity that radically makes a difference in our world (neighborhood, country, nationally) than read this. But let us not just read it. Let us wrestle with it.
Studies show that in North America, their is no statistical difference between those that call themselves Christians and those who don't. We (many of us who claim to be followers of Christ) look exactly like our culture... how we talk... what we watch... where we live... what we value... what we spend our money on... etc... But Jesus was a radical. he was counter cultural... He came preaching the Kingdom of God, a Kingdom that flew in the face of worldly Kingdoms. If we are living as citizens of God's Kingdom then our economics, way of life, and values should be much different than the worldly kingdoms we physically live in.
Shane Claiborne (the author) has a wealth of experience all the way from working with Mother Teresa, to working with Bill Hybels at Willow Creek... and does not just offer critiques for the church, but alternatives, and he does so in a loving but challenging way. Because he lives what he believes, it is not as easy just to write off what he has to say.
Let's embrace such challenges and be willing to imagine what God's Kingdom should like for us and dream of how it could impact each person that sees it and encounters it. I believe that people are thirsty for it ... creation is groaning for it...
Give it a read...
