As I have learned more and more about being the church over the past ten years of this blog, and as I have written about church, one book that really confirmed much of what I was thinking and feeling is the book Pagan Christianity? by Frank Viola and George Barna.

Now there is a new interview with George Barna and Frank Viola on Pagan Christianity?

In the interview, they talk about how the book was received by Christians, and what changes they have seen in the church since the book was released. They also talk about what they believe are some of the biggest challenges facing the church today, and what sorts of changes they expect for the future.

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Far too many people think of God as a God of “No.”

We go to him, shaking in our shoes, wringing our hands, begging for a better life, or for things to work out, or simply for Him to hear our prayers.

Mike Glenn has written a book which turns our view of God on its head, and tells us that God is more about saying “Yes” to us and our dreams, than about saying “No.” The book is called The Gospel of Yes, and while the title indicates that the book is about the Gospel, the biblical Gospel is rooted in the nature and character of God, and so the book is also about the God who says “Yes” to each one of us.

I enjoyed reading the book, since it reinforced much of what I have been trying to say for years. God and the Gospel are not about checklists and rules for what we cannot do in life and how God is trying to squelch our joy in life. To the contrary, God and His Gospel are about giving us greater freedom, greater joy, greater satisfaction, and greater fulfillment in this life; not less. It is sin that seeks to enslave and destroy our life, not God.

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I work with people from many different religions, and have read books about all of these religions from the Christian perspective. I have also read books about Christianity from the perspective of these other religions.

My usual impression of these books–whether written by Christians about another religion, or written about Christians from the perspective of another religions–is that they are harsh, overly critical, and tend to unfairly treat and quote the religion that is being critiqued.

So it was with a sense of relief and surprise that I recently read The Mormon Faith: A Theological Assessment by William W. Wells. Here is why I appreciated this book:

First, of all, it is not a long book. Only 75 pages. William Wells knew what he wanted to say, and he said it.

Second, the book is written with truth AND love. William shows that while Christians can — and must! — point out the differences between Christianity and Mormonism, we can do so with love. This book was written with love and grace, which is so rare in books of this kind.

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One of the keys to understanding Scripture and the role of the church today is to understand the Kingdom of Heaven.

However, far too many Christians think of the Kingdom of heaven as the equivalent of “heaven.” As a result, when they read in Scripture what Jesus has to say about the Kingdom, they completely misunderstand what He was teaching because they think He was only talking about something that will affect us after we die.

As Ed Stetzer points out in his new book, Subversive Kingdom, nothing could be further from the truth.

The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand

One of Jesus’ favorite saying was that “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” By this, Jesus meant it was as close to us as our hand. In other words, the kingdom is here. It is now. It is present. It has been inaugurated.

Yes, I know… You read about the peace and happiness that is supposed to characterize the Kingdom, and then you look around at the mess our world is in, and say to yourself, “If this is the Kingdom, then Scripture must be wrong. Since Scripture cannot be wrong, this cannot be the kingdom.”

But there is a big difference between inauguration and consummation.

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Have you ever heard of Jack Kerouac and his book, On the Road?

Maybe I’ve been living in a hole, or maybe I am too young, but until I read Mark Sayers’ new book, The Road Trip that Changed the World I had never heard of Kerouac. Since I had never heard of him, I often found myself wishing for a road map as I read The Road Trip that Changed the World, because I felt lost.

Mark Sayers posits the unlikely theory (his words, not mine) that Jack Kerouac’s book changed American culture, the church, and the way we all live and view life. Calling this an “unlikely theory” is an understatement.

Ultimately, I agree with what Mark Sayers has written. He wants to argue that during the past fifty years, American culture and church culture has radically changed. I couldn’t agree more.

But to blame Jack Kerouac and his books for this change is to give Kerouac way too much credit.

Mark Sayers would have been better off using Kerouac as an example of the changes that were taking place in culture than to give Kerouac the credit for being the genesis and originator of these changes. In other words, it is much more probable that culture was changing — and with it the church — and one person who exemplified these cultural shifts was Jack Kerouac. He lived out the changes that were occurring, but was not himself the catalyst and creator of these changes. Taking this approach, would have made Mark’s book much stronger.

But what about the changes themselves? I think Mark does a pretty good job describing and analyzing many of the changes that have occurred. To name just a few, Mark writes about how nothing is sacred (p. 107), how feelings have become more important than faith (p. 114), and how society worship idols of self-satisfaction and consumerism (p. 203).

For the most part, I think Mark has correctly analyzed some of the dangers and pitfalls of our contemporary culture. He has a good read on the pulse of our society. I just wish he had left Kerouac out of it. My favorite chapters in the book were the few where Kerouac was barely mentioned (if at all). Chapters 17, 18, and 19 were three of the best chapters in the book, and these chapters were focused more on gleaning insights from the Scriptural accounts of Adam and Abraham. I found Mark’s insights into these biblical texts to be insightful and helpful. I wish he had done more of this type of writing.
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