Revolution…or Not?
So, I just finished this book by George Barna called Revolution. The whole book is built around the premise that there is a growing group of people who are reducing their affiliation with a local church and growing their faith elsewhere – through house churches, service groups, parachurch organizations, or accountability groups. Some of them have left their churches entirely – others still attend with some degree of regularity. Barna calls these people “revolutionaries” and asserts that they will radically change the landscape of religion in America over the next 30 years. Knowing Barna, he’s probably right. To make things perfectly clear, these are people committed to Christ, just not to a local church. To call them disgruntled with the church is probably not accurate – a more apt description might be dissatisfied.
I identify with their dissatisfaction – I “get it.” I am so there. 100%. But I finished the book feeling even more dissatisfied. And I’m not sure why.
Maybe it’s that I’m not sure these people can truly be called “revolutionaries.” For someone following Christ, is it “revolutionary” to want to know him more deeply? To feel great compassion? To work to right injustice and inequality? To be concerned with the disenfranchised? To live in community? To worship with other believers? To not want a status quo life? Aren’t those things what Christ called us to in the first place?
Granted, these folks are waging a revolt against the local church in America, NOT against living out Christ’s example. So many churches are marketed, sanitized, politically correct (as long as you vote Republican), and well…comfortable. That’s what Barna’s “revolutionaries” are fleeing. Comfort. Safety. Security. The “known.”
It still leaves me a little cold. Maybe it’s that Barna, once the champion of the church growth movement, is now on the other side of the fence – not just tracking a trend, but joining the “revolution” himself and trying to convince others to do the same. Seems like a little self-promotion here. Or rationalization. Maybe it’s my overexposure to marketing – do we really need a book about this? What’s the point? To sell more books? To “warn” church leaders of the exodus from their congregations? Maybe what’s bugging me is deeper than that. Maybe it’s that people are “fleeing” rather than “fixing” – running instead of rolling up their sleeves and doing the hard work of reformation.
Anyway, I guess you could call this a bit of a rant with a dash of cynicism thrown in. I’m not as angry as I sound. Really. But I am frustrated. And I’m not quite sure why.
peace,
j
yo.
I understand the frustration. I haven’t read the entire book, but I have read parts. I used to help support the paper that I was writing on the mission of the church. I agree with Barna, and I mean, the statistics are pretty clear that the church is not “doing the job” it was intended to do (whatever that means). Basically by that I am saying that the church has become less about love. While the concept of living a life based entirely around love should not be all that revolutionary, sadly, living the life that Jesus called us to has become exactly that, revolutionary. It is revolutionary because there are very few people in the world that actually live this way. Jesus was a revolutionary; if Christians are truly striving to follow Jesus then in turn our acts will end up being revolutionary (to the world around us).
I agree with you on the point that I do not understand why this book was necessarily written. Was it to show Christians everything that they are doing wrong? Because that in itself is not necessarily a very Christian act. That is why I think that I relate more with Irresistible Revolution (Shane Claiborne). At the beginning of the book, he kind of does the same thing…just not in as extreme of a manner. The thing that Claiborne does that I love is that he does call us to something greater. He is not calling us to get up and walk away from the Church, because that is not what Jesus did. Jesus tried to change slash define the Church by acting in outrageous love. That is what Claiborne says is the ultimate Christianity, and once you hear about it, it becomes the Irresistible Revolution. He calls it a revolution because, like I said before, it is revolutionary to America. Shane changed his entire lifestyle in order to live more like Jesus. He lives with the poor, oppressed, and needy, and shares with them all that he has. While I do not think that this is necessarily the life for everybody, it definitely gives a good example of how to live out this lifestyle. It may seem like he’s bragging about how great he is, but I never got that impression.
And by the way, yes, he wants to sell books. But he gets none of the profit. Charity does…in case that helps. : ]
I’ll bring the book home this summer…maybe it will help with the idea of this “revolution.”
Sorry that this comment was so long and extreme.
I’m sure that Claire will laugh at me as soon as she sees it. But, since I just wrote an 11 page research paper on it, I figured I’d give me input.
Love you mom!
:girlywirly
Posted 1 year, 7 months agops. I did not proof read that. so sorry for any errors.
Posted 1 year, 7 months agoI too struggled with parts of the book, although I’m very attracted to the concept of organic or house churches. My point of struggle was mostly that I felt he was exalting this concept of “leaving” the church almost to a point of piety. It’s sort of like, if you’re really revolutionary (meaning full-on, sold-out Christian) then you’ll most likely end up leaving the church too. Not sure I can support that as a viable expression of my revolutionary status. In the words of Simon Cowell, “Sorry!”
Posted 1 year, 6 months ago