The Irresistible Revolution
As I type this, I’m sitting in the lobby of one of the buildings at Terra Community College. Anyhow, over the last couple of days, I have been reading an interesting book by Shane Claiborne entitled The Irresistible Revolution. I’m still chewing on a lot of what he has to say, so don’t take this as a tacit endorsement, but he certainly makes some points that are painstakingly challenging.
Shane challenges the reader to consider what authentic Christianity looks like. It’s funny… I just typed that last sentence and had to pause because a woman, who I have never met before, interrupted my typing. She just started talking to me about her painful experiences of going to a church school for 12 years. It’s been quite a few years since she graduated from high school, yet she is still wary of anything that smacks of “the church.” We had a good conversation in which I encouraged her that there are people out there who are seeking to get beyond all of the manmade layers of “Christianity.”
Think about it, if we could just get to the core of what it really means to be a follower of Jesus, we might just find something that is drastically different from what we’re used to in America’s version of pop Christianity. What would it look like to actually, actively follow Jesus? That’s the point that Shane is making in his book. What would it look like to really follow Jesus… and not just the parts of His teachings that correlate with my American, conservative upbringing? What about the parts of Jesus’ teachings that totally disrupt and challenge my wasteful, extravagant, self-centered living?
Here are two quotes from his book that I’m currently chewing on:
“God forgive us for all those we have lost because we made the gospel boring. I am convinced that if we lose kids to the culture of drugs and materialism, of violence and war, it’s because we don’t dare them, not because we don’t entertain them. It’s because we make the gospel too easy, not because we make it too difficult. Kids want to do something heroic with their lives, which is why they play video games and join the army. But what are they to do with a church that teaches them to tiptoe through life so they can arrive safely at death” (p. 226).
Quoting Soren Kierkegaard, Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, p. 88 – “To want to admire, instead of follow, Christ is not an invention of bad people; no it is more an invention of those who spinelessly want to keep themselves detached at a safe distance from Jesus” (p. 226).
Shane challenges the reader to consider what authentic Christianity looks like. It’s funny… I just typed that last sentence and had to pause because a woman, who I have never met before, interrupted my typing. She just started talking to me about her painful experiences of going to a church school for 12 years. It’s been quite a few years since she graduated from high school, yet she is still wary of anything that smacks of “the church.” We had a good conversation in which I encouraged her that there are people out there who are seeking to get beyond all of the manmade layers of “Christianity.”
Think about it, if we could just get to the core of what it really means to be a follower of Jesus, we might just find something that is drastically different from what we’re used to in America’s version of pop Christianity. What would it look like to actually, actively follow Jesus? That’s the point that Shane is making in his book. What would it look like to really follow Jesus… and not just the parts of His teachings that correlate with my American, conservative upbringing? What about the parts of Jesus’ teachings that totally disrupt and challenge my wasteful, extravagant, self-centered living?
Here are two quotes from his book that I’m currently chewing on:
“God forgive us for all those we have lost because we made the gospel boring. I am convinced that if we lose kids to the culture of drugs and materialism, of violence and war, it’s because we don’t dare them, not because we don’t entertain them. It’s because we make the gospel too easy, not because we make it too difficult. Kids want to do something heroic with their lives, which is why they play video games and join the army. But what are they to do with a church that teaches them to tiptoe through life so they can arrive safely at death” (p. 226).
Quoting Soren Kierkegaard, Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, p. 88 – “To want to admire, instead of follow, Christ is not an invention of bad people; no it is more an invention of those who spinelessly want to keep themselves detached at a safe distance from Jesus” (p. 226).
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