I have been (for the last few months… ok 6 months) reading a book co-authored by Gabe Lyons and David Kinnaman.
It raises a number of confronting questions for Christian in the 21st Century’s post - post modern context.
The writing is a response to research that the author (Kinnaman) (part of the Barner research group) conduced at the request of Lyons.
While it is directed at the USA (both the research and commentary is exclusively pointed this way) there are important and relevant ‘take-a-ways’ that we can reflect on and apply to ourselves and church practice in Australia. It is, however, really important to acknowledge the strong differences that there are between Australian and American cultures - especially when it comes to religion and politics.
From my perspective I think (up to this point) the most interesting aspect of the discussion has been the discussion around the response of the church (and christians) to the most appropriate (and perhaps effective) ways to live out faith in a post-post-modern environment.
The book is written around the top responses to the research that was conducted, with each chapter given to discussing the findings and presenting a response. These chapters include: Hypocritical, Get Saved, Anti-homosexual, Sheltered, Too Political and Judgemental.
The writing is quite candid and offers a means for the church to look at itself in the way that it is perceived by the wider community. It does not present this in a way that would suggest that the church should change to alter these perceptions, but does ask whether these perceptions are based on the behaviours of the church and christians that in actually incongruent with what the christian life should look like (thus the title of the book).
I’ll finish reading it soon and post some final thoughts.
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