The church whined and moaned when President Obama declared America to "no longer be a Christian nation," so the catchy tag line on the jacket cover caught my eye: The Good News about the end of Christian America. And Good News there is!
The Good News is that the church in America is being forced to return to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that's the core of the book. Forced to take a serious look at what is our primary calling and not get caught up in secondary issues. Time is too short for secondary issues.
The final chapter was the best chapter to read. Lyons writes, "No longer embarrassed to claim the label (Christian), these Christians (Next Christians) have finally recovered what many who have gone before them always understood about the faith: namely, that the Christian view of the world informs everything, that the Gospel runs deep, and that the way of Jesus demands we give our lives in service to others. Jesus's atonement was not only meant to be a simple ticket to heaven - it carried consequence for how Christians live their lives on earth today."
The Good News is that Christians are viewing the Gospel of Jesus Christ as all encompassing, another words it effects all of life. It requires the Christian to move outside the "safe zone" and move into a world that is skeptical and even hostile to the church. The Good News is that this is what the early church faced and because of her commitment to the "whole" Gospel the world was changed.
Lyons writes, "The bottom line is that the Christian has a calling and a responsibility to think, work, and live in terms of how the world ought to be in contrast to reacting to how it really is." The "power of ought" that flows from the heart of Jesus and invigorates the heart of Christians drives us to take the Gospel to the Market, to the arena, to the schools, to the slums, to the women and children sold as sex slaves, to caring for our world. It challenges us not just to hoard the Gospel but to embody the Gospel and give it away to those who need it the most, simply because they are greatly loved and valued by God. Jesus described his mission in Luke 4:18-19 and it is incarnational and touches all areas of society.
I highly recommend The Next Christians if you want to have your present view of Christianity and the role of the church challenged and your worldview turned upside down.
(I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.)
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