Friday, November 20, 2015

Forget the club. Be the Church

Another call to live the gospel, the whole gospel, to truly pick up our cross and follow, not just to pick and choose the convenient parts .  That's the message from Gregg Matte's  recent book, Unstoppable Gospel : Living Out the World-Changing Vision of Jesus's First Followers ( Baker Books, 2015).
Somehow over the years the Church  has morphed from a way of life to a building that people visit one or more times a month, and more if there is a wedding or a funeral.  That's not what Jesus had in mind; Matte calls the Christian community to return to its roots, to remember the Great Commission and the Great Commandment
You'll find nuggets such as "…we seem to be drifting to building relevant communities short on biblical truth." That's a club, not a church" (page 60)
Or this, found on page 68: "The goal of the church is not to make earth a nicer waiting room at the door to hell. The church exists to route us to heaven by way of Jesus."
Matte talks about the Great Commission,  he talks about spiritual disciplines like prayer and fasting. He mentions money, and he talks about following Jesus. Not necessarily in the way you may have heard about while you were growing up in church, but the way the fist disciples had to learn to follow. 
Lots of personal examples make for an enjoyable read .
Gotta say this: The publisher gave me a copy of the book in exchange for a review (not required to post anything except the disclaimer).

I rank it 5/5. 

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