Extreme is a word that used to be reserved for people who
would fly planes into the World Trade Center or strap a bomb onto themselves
and detonate it in a bus full of school children. Those people are extremists, aren’t
they? Would it surprise you that a growing
number of people in our society have lumped faithful Christians in that
category as well? In increasing measure,
biblical Christianity, especially as it runs counter-cultural to the direction
of society, is being labeled as extreme.
In addition,
more and more people are convinced that Christianity is also irrelevant. While they might believe that spirituality
could be comforting, spirituality based on a 2000 year old book is considered
to be completely out of touch. They have
no inkling how Christianity matters or that it could matter to them. Thus, Christians and their faith are
irrelevant.
How do we
respond to those cultural trends? To
seek to answer that question, authors Gabe Lyons and David Kinnamon have
written Good Faith: Being a Christian when Society Thinks You’re Irrelevant
and Extreme. While staying true to
Scriptural teaching, Lyon and Kinnamon seek to help believers navigate the
trick waters of being a faithful Christian in a hostile society, while continuing
to seek and take advantage of opportunities to impact that same society for
good.
The authors
begin by spending the opening chapters analyzing today’s cultural attitudes and
perceptions regarding faith, especially the Christian faith. The picture is rather depressing. But their goal is not to depress the reader,
but to issue a wake-up call. This is not
your grandmother’s world, or even your parent’s world anymore. Their goal is to call believers to what they
label as “good faith.” Good faith
Christians seek to hold true to Scripture, but also seek impact and engage the
world through love and compassion. Good
faith Christians seek to be people who, rather than being defined only by what
they are against, are also defined by what they are for. Good faith boils down to three essential
ingredients: love for God and others,
belief in biblical orthodoxy and translating our love and belief into everyday
life.
With those
key ingredients, Lyons and Kinnamon direct the reader toward some of the hot
button issues of the day. Politics. Marriage.
Sexuality. Religious Freedom. These are the issues where Christians are
increasingly taking a stand. And these
are the issues where believers are increasingly being labelled irrelevant and
extreme. As they journey through these
issues, the authors continually prompt the reader to think about how a good
faith Christian could and should respond.
Their own responses are not exhaustive – this is not a how-to book to
cover every situation. And they are very
clear that different Christians will have very different, biblically-educated
responses to these issues. But all in all,
this is a valuable tool for Christians to have to think through and ponder how
we can love, believe and live in the midst of a society that is increasingly
negative toward faithful belief.
The authors
end the book by focusing an even more direct gaze on the challenges of the
church and Christian faith. The chapter
on societal trends in faith is especially good, pointing out why the Christian
faith itself seems to be in decline.
They encourage churches to be both inwardly focused on growth and
discipleship, as well as outwardly focused on being ambassadors of Christ to
the world.
The book
concludes with this thought: “We believe
our faith community today faces an emerging social context that demands we
learn to be Christian in a new way, described best as being ‘faithful in exile.’”
(pg. 254) Drawing lessons from the book
of Daniel, the authors leave the reader with a challenge. God is still sovereign. He is still purposeful. And the Christian church may face some sort
of exile in today’s society. But exile
for God’s people was ultimately a good thing.
It was an opportunity for purification and reorientation toward
God. And it can be the same for us, as
we look at new ways to love, believe and live out our faith in Jesus Christ in
today’s world.
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