Don't Retreat To Your Pew

In last week’s podcast I briefly mentioned the four reasons I selected this book, "The Year Of Living Biblically" by A.J. Jacobs.  I think they deserve a little more attention so that you can make an informed decision about whether to join us or not.

This book is culturally relevant.  This is also a goal of AGOG.  We seek to make your faith relevant to the world you live in.  This is why we look at things like movies and music and now books.  Nothing irritates me more than Christians who isolate themselves in their narrow Christian worlds, surrounded by other like-thinking people.  How does that work?  How do we change and grow if we simply insolate ourselves from anything that challenges us?  How do we impact others with our faith if we only ever hang out with each other?  Did Jesus do that? Did He pick the 12 most like Him and ignore the rest?  NO!!!  He sought out those that didn’t have the same experience as He did..sinners, lame, and broken.  Yet most Christians in America only hang out with each other.  Oh, and we go a step beyond that.  We only hang out with our own brand too, Catholics with Catholics, Baptists with Baptists.  This drives me crazy!

I want others to make me think and challenge what I think I have all figured out.  This book does just that.  It examines what it would be like to be in modern-day Manhatten trying to live a strictly Biblical life.  Following EVERY rule.  It is written by an agnostic.  Oh don’t gasp at me!  There just might be some things we can learn from someone who doesn’t begin to think he has the God thing figured out.

We can learn these things by living IN the world.  Not by hiding from it.  I didn’t say we should agree with everything or become LIKE the world.  But we can have a more effective witness in the midst of it.  Please don’t bother to write to me to tell me the book is too “worldly.”  I already know it and it is why I picked it.  It is relevant and I want us to be too.

Another reason I chose this book is to expose the myth that some of us buy into: that we live and read the Bible literally.  We do not!  It is impossible.  This book shows us this truth with honesty and humor.  We are all guilty of picking and choosing which parts we want to follow.  Jacobs shows us how each sect lives out their own version of the truth.  It is very informative.

So, if you are a Christian who has it all figured out, don’t join us.  If you are a Christian who shuns culture because it doesn’t line up with your beliefs, don’t join us.  If you a Christian who feels that you follow the Bible literally, don’t join us.  You will only get more offended, stop reading the book and retreat to your pew.  But if you aren’t…if you like to have your thinking challenged, if you like to have your mind stretched, if you think our culture can actually help you define your faith, or if you just want to read a good book…join us.  Order your copy today.

Let’s make faith relevant by bringing it into the world, not by isolating ourselves from it!