There are certain books which are fun to read. They are light and merely for entertainment. This is not one of those books. Make no mistake, this book should be read. I'm talking about The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne.
The subtitle pretty much sums it up. 'Living as an ordinary radical.' Everybody is looking for something extreme and radical to stand for. Perhaps living as Jesus called us to is that extreme.
Shane Claiborne has written a call to the Church to rise up and be what God created her to be. As he shares story after story, showing us the reality of his dream, one starts to believe it can be done. He tells of how, in a setting where his group of college friends were helping the homeless, a church group brought microwave popcorn to them. They barely had electricity and the church showed her lack of knowledge of real need. Then another group, the mafia, brought bicycles for all the children. "I guess God can use the mafia, but I would lke God to use the Church" (page 63).
This book is over 300 pages of Shane attempting to show an alternative to the trappings of the modern day church. It can at times be very difficult to see this happening where we live. But in many ways, that is the challenge we have before us. We have our eyes on another world while we still live in this one.
In the end, we have to choose what we will do with this book and the ideas presented. It is much like our decision with God and His Son, Jesus. We have to decide what we will do with the life and the challenge presented. Perhaps the best advice comes from one of Shane's college professors.
The subtitle pretty much sums it up. 'Living as an ordinary radical.' Everybody is looking for something extreme and radical to stand for. Perhaps living as Jesus called us to is that extreme.
Shane Claiborne has written a call to the Church to rise up and be what God created her to be. As he shares story after story, showing us the reality of his dream, one starts to believe it can be done. He tells of how, in a setting where his group of college friends were helping the homeless, a church group brought microwave popcorn to them. They barely had electricity and the church showed her lack of knowledge of real need. Then another group, the mafia, brought bicycles for all the children. "I guess God can use the mafia, but I would lke God to use the Church" (page 63).
This book is over 300 pages of Shane attempting to show an alternative to the trappings of the modern day church. It can at times be very difficult to see this happening where we live. But in many ways, that is the challenge we have before us. We have our eyes on another world while we still live in this one.
In the end, we have to choose what we will do with this book and the ideas presented. It is much like our decision with God and His Son, Jesus. We have to decide what we will do with the life and the challenge presented. Perhaps the best advice comes from one of Shane's college professors.
"All around you, people will be tiptoeing through life, just to arrive at
death safely. But dear children, do not tiptoe. Run, hop, skip, or dance,
just
don't tiptoe" (pg 225).
You can learn more about the challenege at The Simple Way.
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