Radical Reformission

In the spirit of the previous post, I'm going to share about what I've been reading. A friend of mine has lent me several books and has a strict do-not-return-until-you-are-done-reading-it policy, and it really bugs me to have someone else's books here if I'm not reading them, so I decided to knock them out systematically. The first is Radical Reformission by Mark Driscoll.

I have to confess that before I had gotten done with the introduction I was ready to throw the book across the room. In the intro, Driscoll shares his testimony and it was rife with dry wit almost to the point that I couldnt even wade through the sarcasm to make out what actually he did or experienced. Some jokes and witty remarks help, but at some point he crossed the line into distracting. Thankfully, the rest of the book is not so obnoxious.

So far, I have enjoyed the book. It has a lot of good things to say. His thoughts on culture are very helpful, and he draws on many interesting sources to explain his points. I think the only issues I would have are minor. I think he overuses the idea of differing cultures in America. Every time we meet someone unlike ourselves, we do not need to go on a scouting expedition into this person's 'culture'. To say that the person across the street is immersed in a different culture than myself may be a bit of a stretch. In fact, we are very much in the same culture, the only problem is that we are just different people. We have different interests, opinions, and experiences, but that is not all it takes to make up a cultural identity. What he really means, I guess is that we are all individuals. If we are waiting to share the gospel with someone just like ourselves, we'll never see any converts. We have to be able to stretch out of our own comfortable web of social contacts and make new relationships with people. The talk of culture is more about making meaningful relationships based on other things than mutual background or interests. Like the fact that we are all people living in the same space who need Jesus. Is that enough? It should be.

Rather than share lengthy paragraphs about ideas that I really appreciated in Radical Reformission, I think I'll just sum them up in list form:

• his treatment of the story of the woman at the well and of Jonah.
  
• his questions for reflection at the end of each chapter. I have to say that I'm thankful I'm not reading this in a small group because my answers to a few of them would be painful to say out loud and would make me accountable to what I've read. Yikes. :)
• his constant insistence that staying away from sinners does not protect us from sin, only sticking close to Jesus does.
  
• discussion of the two dangers that churches can fall into: traditionalism and innovation.
  
• that an 'outreach' implies that you are keeping those you mean to minister to at an arm's length.
  
• his cultural explanation of the evangelism methods like 'The Four Spiritual Laws' and 'Steps to Peace With God'. In context, it explains a lot. And why the Spiritual Laws approach never resonated with me.
  
• a discussion of our culture and approaches to evaluate it.
  
• 'We are all Jonah.'
• the discussion of Christian myths surrounding engaging our culture.
• remembering that each of us are the weaker brother in areas and the stronger brother in others.
  
• the discussion of sectarianism and syncretism.
• ...more to come as I finish the book.

I did say I was still reading it, didnt I? I'm sure I might have different opinions about the book when I finally finish it, but for now these are my thoughts.