The Irresistible Revolution

This book has totally rocked my world. Along the same lines as how "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan and "They Like Jesus But Not the Church" by Dan Kimball rocked my world. Its causing me to read my Bible more and seek out what God wants. It made me reflect on the parts of my life that are not in line with that of a follower of Jesus, which I claim to be. The book itself was derived from Shane Claiborne's own reflections of what does and does not make up a Christian. He tackles many tough subjects in this book: tithing, missionary work, church expansions, the American Dream. And on each of them he makes valid points and gives Biblical examples to back up his claims. There is so much to unpack from the book, I had no idea how to break it down into a "review". All I can really do is just HIGHLY recommend reading it if you call yourself a follower of Christ. It will make you uncomfortable. And it will hold you accountable.

I just want to write down a few of my "take-away" quotes from the book.

"If we remove the cross (from church buildings), we are in danger of promoting a very cheap grace. Perhaps it should make us uncomfortable. After all, it wasn't so comfy getting nailed there." (Page 107, I added the part in parenthesis)

"God comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable. In my suburban comfort, I increasingly felt disturbed by God. I became very uncomfortable in the comfortable suburbs. The beautiful thing was my discomfort arose not from cynical judgmentalism but from a longing for something more." (Page 107)

"What the world really needs is not more churches, but a Church." (Page 146)

"One soldier returned from Iraq deeply disturbed. He said,"I risked my life for the American dream, and I am not even sure I believe in it anymore. And I am pretty sure the world cannot afford it." (Pages 221-222)

"The world has seen Christian extremists who will blow up abortion clinics and dance on the doctors' graves. We have seen Christian extremists who hold up signs that say 'God hates fags'. The world has seen Christians declare war in the name of the Lamb. But where are the Christian extremists for love and grace?" (Pages 270-271)

"As we build our buildings, human temples are being destroyed by hunger and homelessness. The early prophets would say that a church the spends millions of dollars on buildings while her children are starving are guilty of murder." (Page 329)

"One of the underlying assumptions is that money from the offering or tithe belongs to the church. But the Scriptures consistently teach that the offering is God's instrument of redistribution and that it belongs to the poor." (Page 330)