Monday, June 18, 2007

Representin' book nerds


So a few months ago my buddy Rob gave me this book at a conference at his church. Here's a couple excerpts from Myth of a Christian Nation by Gregory Boyd:

Instead of living out the radically counter cultural mandate of the kingdom of God, this myth has inclined us to Christianize many pagan aspects of our culture. Instead of providing the culture with a radically alternative way of life, we largely present it with a religious version of what it already is.

This, in a nutshell, is the primary thing God is up to in our world. He's not primarily about getting people to pray a magical "sinner's prayer" or to confess certain magical truths as a means of escaping hell. He's not about gathering together a group who happen to believe all the right things. Rather, he's about getting together a group of people who embody the kingdom-who individually and corporately manifest the reality of the reign of God on the earth. And he's about growing this new kingdom through his body to take over the world. This vision of what God is about lies at the heart of Jesus' ministry, and it couldn't contrast with the kingdom of the world more sharply.

However right we may be, without love we are simply displaying a religious version of the world, not the kingdom of God.

And that's only 50 pages in...word!!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Put that section in quotes or indent or the plagiarizing gnome will steal your breath while you sleep.

Unknown said...

Yes!!!!
so how about we stop complaining about the church we see, and set our hearts to becoming the church we always dreamed of?
Rock n Roll.
-daley