Book Review: The Next Christians by Gabe Lyons

I heard Gabe Lyons speak at a youth ministry conference several years ago right around the time that “UnChristian” came out, and he began outlining what he saw as the solutions to the problem of Christianity’s negative branding. From what I can tell, this book contains much of what he had to say then in more detail.

Lyons obviously knows what he’s talking about as he recounts his experiences with Christianity and his observations of the kind of Christian people that he terms the “next Christians.” He makes a great case for the incomplete gospel that is often communicated by Christianity in America. The Bible outlines the redemptive story in four stages: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. However, most Christians focus only on Fall and Redemption by telling people that they’re evil and need Jesus to save them. This is incomplete because people need to understand the Creation and Restoration aspects. People weren’t created evil. God created everything perfect and humanity in his image. It was all very good. But something very bad happened in the Fall. Jesus died to redeem us, but the Restoration part of the story is the hope that Christians are supposed to strive for. The complete gospel tells people that God created them, loves them, wants to rescue them, and wants to make everything perfect again. The incomplete gospel gives an incomplete picture of God.

Lyons observes that when it comes to culture Christians typically either become separatists or they try to blend into the culture. Neither is what the Scriptures call Christians to. Instead, Lyons describes a third response to culture, that of the Restorers. These are the next Christians who understand that in order to truly change culture you must create culture. These people are dedicated to making the world a better place and creating a culture that points people in the direction of God.

The Restorers’ responses to culture are contrasted with the typical Christian responses. Restorers are:
• Provoked, not Offended
• Creators, not Critics
• Called, not Employed
• Grounded, not Distracted
• In Community, Not Alone
• Countercultural, Not “Relevant”

The book gives some solid biblical advice on how Christians can and should respond to the culture they find themselves a part of. The only critique I would have is that Lyons often sounded like he was downgrading the purpose of God to influence people into a relationship with God, though I don’t think that’s what he intended. He was merely pointing out that evangelism isn’t the only thing that Christians are called to do.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

Book Review: The Chasm by Randy Alcorn

"The Chasm" is a parable about humanity's separation from and desperate need for God. The story takes place in a world where spiritual realities take the form of physical manifestations. The main character Nick Seagrave has been plunged into this world after a broken past as a result of his betrayal of the people he loves most. In this world he knows he's on a journey, and there are many guides offering suggestions about what he's searching for most. But he soon discovers what he wants most is a city in the distance called Charis where a great King lives. But on his journey there he finds a deep and haunting Chasm that no man can cross.

The Chasm is a perfect illustration for what it means to be "dead in our transgressions and sins" (Eph 2:1)." Humanity has betrayed God, and there's nothing we can do to fix it. It's created a chasm between us and God that will only destroy us in our attempts to cross it by our own efforts. A deep longing for God and for his dwelling place exists in everyone, but, as Alcorn has illustrated, we can do nothing to undo what we've created.

Alcorn's story captures the need of every person for the One we've betrayed to create a way back to him. And that way comes at great sacrifice to him because someone has to pay for what we've done if he's not going to make us do it.

Alcorn did a great job of showing the antagonism the human heart often feels against God for "blaming" us for the chasm, as well as the dissatisfaction people feel in their pursuit of everything but God.

Several incredible drawings were included throughout the story to give us a visual of what the main character is experiencing.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to really understand what our sin has done, but even more what Christ has done to undo what we've done.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

Book Review: Desiring God by John Piper

Imagine a world where we glorify God most by seeking the most pleasure out life that we can. Though it sounds contradictory, this is the premise of John Piper’s book *Desiring God*. He summarizes his premise by saying, “The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever,” and his call to those who follow Christ is to rise about just being believers in name only to become “Christian Hedonists.”

Piper doesn’t call people to seek pleasure for pleasure’s sake, however, but to instead seek pleasure in the One for whom we were created by grasping God as our ultimate treasure. Piper uses a strong biblical foundation to make his case, quoting the many Bible passages that liken God to a treasure hidden in a field, the one our soul pants after like the deer pants after the water, the One whom we are to delight in, and many others. Piper makes it clear that the Bible calls us to enjoy God, and by enjoying God and finding in Him our greatest joy, we glorify him most greatly.

The chapters of the book look at how a Christian Hedonist views the world through things such as prayer, Bible reading, marriage, money, and suffering, and his thoughts on each are insightful and challenging.

*Desiring God* is a serious challenge to passionless pursuit of Christ that often characterizes Christians in the American Church culture. Piper’s call is to more than a casual test drive of biblical Christianity, but a call to pursue the heart of God with everything in us, or as the back cover says, “with the hedonist’s abandon.”

Overall, the book’s message is much needed and inspiring. The one drawback I had with it was the author’s approach to define God’s sovereignty from a clearly Calvinist perspective, not making clear how God could predetermine everything without being the author of evil. However, if a reader can get past this controversial theological point, the book is overall a solid biblical look at God’s desire for his people.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

Thoughts on Church Membership

Hebrews 13:17 tells believers to “Obey your leaders and submit to them,” but how do you decide who your leaders are? 1 Peter 5:2 tells church leaders to “shepherd the flock that is among you,” but how do church leaders decide who they're supposed to shepherd?

The New Testament never clearly describes what we today understand as church membership, but it’s clearly implied. Peter told the elders “shepherd the flock that is among you.” They aren’t to shepherd every Christian they ever come across. Peter assumes that the elders know exactly who they are responsible for and who they will have to give an account to God about. The elders know who they are responsible for because they know exactly what people have committed themselves to their leadership. To fulfill their responsibility, the elders of a church must be a part of a church that has a clear membership list of people he is responsible to provide spiritual leadership for.

Peter tells the believers to shepherd the flock that is among them. God doesn’t envision Christians submitting to the leadership of one church on a Sunday morning one week, then another church on Wednesday night of that week, then another church the next Sunday morning. God calls us to commit ourselves to one body of believers and the leadership of that body of believers. If you’re a member of this church, the leaders of this church are responsible for you. If a believer is a member of one church, but they’re also regularly attending another church, that believer is making it difficult for the leadership of their church to be obedient in watching over their soul if they’re not fully committed to that church alone. This doesn’t mean that God gets angry at you if you visit another church with a friend every once in awhile. It simply means that you are committed to your church and not another.

Spiritual leaders care for the spiritual health of the members they are responsible for. They have to give an account to God for how well they’ve done this. Obeying and submitting to leaders means that you live lives that honor God, and if the leader is a genuine God-appointed leader, how to do that will be reflected in his teaching. Your leaders help you to understand what God is trying to communicate to you about your life. They don’t dictate God’s will to you, but they help you to understand how to hear and communicate with God yourself. Obeying and submitting also means that you understand and devote yourself to the vision God has given the leader of your church.

In Ephesians 4:16 Paul says that a church can’t grow the way it is supposed to if each member isn’t working properly. Every church member is important and serves a role in their church that the church suffers for if that member doesn’t fulfill their role. Church members cannot be only halfway committed to their church because both they and the church suffer if they do.

Although the New Testament never outlines the concept of church membership, the whole of the New Testament assumes that believers will commit themselves to one body of believers and exercise their gifts there. God has placed spiritual leaders over specific churches so that people will submit to the leadership of that church.

Book Review: Isolation by Travis Thrasher

ISOLATION is the story of a missionary family on furlough from serving in Papua New Guinea. As the back cover mentions, what they experienced while on the mission field left their faith challenged and barely hanging on. As the story progresses we learn that the demons of their past have literally followed them to the mountains of North Carolina where they have settled down for their furlough.

The highlight of the story is 8 year old Zachary who doesn't seem to struggle with his faith the way his parents do. The house family lives in is massive, and it features many secret passageways for Zachary to explore. In fact, there is one whole side of the house that is blocked off from the family that holds many dark secrets that will challenge the family's faith even further.

ISOLATION is obviously reminiscent of Stephen King's THE SHINING, and Thrasher does a great job of amping up the fright factor in a novel that could be described as Christian horror. The story deals with demon possession and reveals the nature of things unseen, but ultimately the light of Jesus shines through.

ISOLATION was very well-written. The characters were well developed and easy to identify with. The story is most fun to read at night in the dark to really get the fright factor from it.

It's a great message of hope in the midst of a struggle against very real evil.

Book Review: Nightmare by Robin Parrish

Pealing Back The Veil Of This World

Nightmare is the fifth Robin Parrish novel I've read, and his talent for creating a compelling story that taps into the spiritual realm inside of us keeps me coming back for more. Nightmare is the story of Maia Peters, the daughter of two well-known paranormal investigators. In an attempt to create a life of her own away from the world of paranormal investigation, Maia accepts an offer by Jordin Cole to take her on several paranormal investigations during school breaks from Columbia University. In return, Jordin pays Maia more than enough to fund her education so that she can pave the way to a career in law enforcement. However, Jordin has gone missing, and her fiance Derek, an aspiring pastor, seeks Maia's help to find her.

The story alternates between the present day where Derek and Maia are searching for Jordin and flashbacks of the year before when Maia and Jordin were going on their paranormal investigation trips. The alternation between the present and flashbacks seems slightly reminiscent of LOST, but I think it works really well.

I loved the characters. Especially Maia, since we spend the entire story inside of her head, so we really get to know her well. Jordin is interesting as well, as we're trying to figure out why she's trying to tap into the spiritual realm. Finally, Derek seemed like he was going to be a stereotypical Christian at the beginning, but as the story progresses, we see a character deeply grounded in his faith and his love for Jordin.

One of my favorite parts of the story was near the end when we see a very visible evidence of the Holy Spirit in the life of some of the characters. I don't want to spoil the ending, however.

Although some Christians will find the subject matter of paranormal investigation uncomfortable, I think Robin Parrish did a very good job with it. In the end, I think the story pointed to God very well.