Hope for The Next Christians (a Book Review)

As a youth pastor, I'm always interested in and intrigued by writings about the state of Christianity, what people feel about Christians, and what Christians can and should be doing about it. A couple of years ago I read three books around the same time that basically were people pouring out their hearts to the church about the current state of the church and the perceptions the world has about the church and Christians. Among those was Unchristian, by Gabe Lyons and David Kinnamon. It blew me away, honestly. So when I heard that Lyons has a new book, The Next Christians, I was excited. I tried to go into reading it without any real preconceptions as to what it was going to be about, and mostly succeeded as the book blew away my expectations.

Lyons begins by unpacking current perceptions of Christianity and how times have radically changed, likely in permanent ways. He creates the case that a "Christian America" is a definite thing of the past, and that there is a new normal in our society, where church and God and culture are no longer central to most people's lives and skepticism and uncertainty abounds. We as believers can respond in three general ways, as cultural separatists, cultural conformers or cultural restorers. It is this last group that Lyons spends the remainder of the book promoting, using general principles and specific real-world examples, as the true 'next Christians' who can still make an impact and swing the tide for our faith in the world around us as restorers.

The restorers are provoked to engage culture with grace without being so offended as to condemn it judgmentally. They are creators who use their creativity in positive ways instead of being overly critical of the negative uses of people's God-given creativity. They are called by God to do something to impact the world, not merely employed by a job or vocation simply to make ends meet. They are grounded in Christ without being distracted and pulled into sinful lifestyles while engaging culture. They live in the strength of community and relational intimacy rather than being loners. They are countercultural for the common good without being separatists, antagonistic or so overly concerned with relevance as to be absorbed by the culture.

He ends the book talking about the new era for Christianity. Historically, there have been huge historic changes, shifts, transformations, every 500 years or so, and this correlates to today's cultural changes. We must keep first things first...we must recover the Gospel and fall in love with it all over again. We must hold tightly to this 'first thing' and allow everything else to take care of itself, according to Lyons. There is a new hope as the followers of Christ fully engage culture while fully holding onto the core of our doctrine and use our lives, our gifts, our talents, and our faith to help restore and redeem and love the world to Christ.

(NOTE: I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review)