In YOUR CHURCH IS TOO SAFE Mark Buchanan calls churches to live and spread the life-altering message of Jesus in the spirit of the very first Christ followers. Buchanan makes the case that many churches are both too safe and not safe enough. Too safe in their willingness to become comfortable with a religious spirit that doesn’t engage a dying world with the gospel. Not safe enough in not being a refuge that the lost run to find the love of God most clearly expressed.
Buchanan has a great way with words as he paints a picture of several very relevant and applicable stories from the Bible. I loved his handling of the story of the woman at the well and her encounter with Jesus. Her past doesn’t matter once she encounters him. Suddenly, she has to tell people about Jesus, the people she was previously ashamed to be around and desperately tried to avoid.
In one part of the book he talks about naming evil for what it is and overcoming evil. The safe thing to do is to not do anything about evil. But I loved the story he told to illustrate that our call is to defeat evil by absorbing the evil. That’s what Jesus did. He didn’t pretend evil didn’t exist or ignore it; he absorbed the evil, and it changed everything.
A church that is dangerous loves people radically and relentlessly. People who the world typically gives up on. I love the idea of a church that embraces risk by trusting God alone and experiencing the end result of their faith.
YOUR CHURCH IS TOO SAFE is a beautifully written book with an incredible call for believers to live as fully devoted disciples of Christ.
I received this book for free for review from Zondervan
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