Revolution

Saturday night a friend gave me a "preview" copy of George Barna's new book Revolution. I believe the book is now available in stores, but since it was free, I took it. Also got a cd of Barna reading an abridged version of the book as well. I've been listening to the cd on my iPod while I've been working out. I can't wait to dive into the book!!! He nails it in so many ways. Of course, he's also probably going to lose a lot of his traditional support base as well. This book definitely places him in the "emerging" crowd. I've heard it said that there are no intellectuals in Emergent (the US version, anyway). I don't really know how "intellectual" is defined. Scot McKnight, a prof at North Park, has produced a share of "intellectual" material, as well as stuff geared toward the layman. Dallas Willard is one of the most popular authors amongst Emergent, as was NT Wright. Hey, even Tony Jones, the national coordinator for Emergent is a research fellow at Princeton Seminary. From what I understand, you don't get into Princeton by playing dumb. Now Barna is producing a book that is very attractive in that crowd. Does this mean he'll now be an outcast among the traditional evangelicals? I hope not. What I've been hearing thus far needs to be said. There are an awful lot of people who love God and have put their faith in Jesus, but they are not showing up at church on Sunday morning (or Saturday night, or Friday night...). These people haven't lost their faith, in fact, many are actively living and growing in it. They just aren't doing it in the context of a church home. We have remade the Body into something loaded down with rules and expectations that people who come in from the outside just aren't ready to meet. Some stay anyway, and are slowly transformed. Others want to believe, but they just don't see those expectations as being consistent with Scripture. When its all said and done, it comes down to the issue of relationships, and since fewer than one in six Christians are in an accountable relationship with other believers, its tough to believe that someone from the outside would have much of a chance at one either.