Christian Nice

The title of this entry is a play off of "Minnesota Nice" (watch Fargo or go to Minnesota). I've noticed (not by myself) that Christians in America are too nice. We're not bold enough. Now, I'm not telling people to go out and become Turlington preachers. That's not bold, that's stupid. We're still called to speak the truth in love. But sometimes love hurts. And the reason I can't stand Turlington preachers is not just because their theology is whack, yo (and they won't listen to a Calvin attack, right Sarahmisu?). And it's not just because they yell. It's because their time would be much better spent feeding the poor or building wheelchair ramps. At least then people would take them seriously.

I think I've decided that next year every time I see a Turlington preacher, I'm going to hold up a sign that says "Jesus loves the outcast." And then I'm going to tell them to go feed the poor instead of yammering to a crowd that isn't listening.

Anyway, today I read a book called "The Barbarian Way" by Erwin McManus (it's pretty short). I'd call McManus the Christian motivational speaker version of Emeril - I expected him to say "BAM!" at any minute. It's pretty good, encouraging Christians to step up and live a life that is dangerous. God didn't call us to a life of comfort or security. God didn't call us to be "civilized." If you read or listen to Piper a lot, this might sound familiar. In fact, I didn't learn much from this guy that I haven't heard Piper talk about with regard to missions. That's part of two things that left me dissatisfied with the book:

1. McManus doesn't ever propose WHY Christians are too civilized and nice at any meaningful level (I don't even know if he was restricting this claim to America or the West or whatever). He doesn't bother with history or sociology to try to explain himself or prove his point. Only cute anecdotes.
2. McManus doesn't talk a bit about WHAT this life is supposed to look like. He doesn't talk about doing missions. Your average person could read that book and think that just not cleaning up his desk made him a "barbarian Christian," so long as he believes God told him to do it. McManus talks a lot about some sort of global revolution for Jesus taking place - doing whatever Jesus tells us to do - without actually saying what that looks like.

So those are my two complaints. If you think Christianity is about being safe, happy, and healthy, you need to read this book. But if you've already figured out that God wants us to live a more meaningful life, than just consider McManus a team player. Just don't ask him for any sort of historical analysis or sociological insights as to the current state of the Church.

Peace,
Sam