Coming Next: Action, Restoration, and Reconciliation

by Josh Sabo

December 14, 2010

*I love books and I love free things! In this crazy world, its possible get books like this for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group to review...I did that, this is the result.

I really appreciated the work of Gabe Lyons and Dave Kinnaman in unChristian which called the church in America to wake up to the culture around us and to understand the way Christians are perceived. The picture they painted was not pretty but its content is an important piece of the church in America moving forward. unChristian left me with an unsettled feeling, I agreed with much of what was said but the question that rattled around my mind was, “Where do we go from here?”

In The Next Christians, Gabe Lyons points to what could be next for the church in America. Lyons’ focus is on younger generations of Christians and how they are understanding and living out their faith in the midst of a seemingly difficult cultural climate to do so. He picks up where he left off in unChristian, recognizing the significance of cultural shifts that we have experienced happening around us and instead of throwing the church under the bus, Lyons doesn’t take lightly that it is understandable that the church has struggled to work through the magnitude of these shifts. At the same time, Lyons makes it very clear that much of what the church is doing right now is not connecting with younger generations of Christians. If the church really wants to engage younger Christians to plug in and to participate in the shaping of what the church could be it is going to take more than recognizing culture shifts, its going to take a willingness to act and to participate in God’s mission.

Ultimately I love the way thatThe Next Christians gives testimony to what could be if the church equips and empowers younger Christians to do the work of reconciliation and restoration in the world around them. What would happen if Christians of all ages fully grasped the gravity of where the church in America is today and where it could be if we all pursued the mission of restoration and reconciliation that God has for us in our families, neighborhoods, communities, and in the world at large? I believe with Lyons that there is hope for the church and further than that I believe that God is faithful to use his people’s obedience to do powerful things.

The question for me after reading The Next Christians (and for you if you choose to dig in) is how am I participating with God’s mission of restoration and reconciliation through the way I live my life on an everyday basis?