The Next Christians: How a New Generation is Restoring the Faith by Gabe Lyons
Unless you’ve had your head in the sand for the last few years, you know all about the numerical decline in the Christian Church. My denomination has studied it just about every which way possible. We flail here and there trying to find the “answer” to reverse our downward trend. It has left denominational leaders, pastors and church members in a constant state of angst.
As a second career pastor who recently hit the big 4-0, some days I have to wonder if this is what I want to give the rest of my life to. But then I venture out into the world as the hands and feet of Christ and those institutional challenges seem to fade into the background. I see several church members serving “the least of these” and making a real difference and I almost forget the many that will never do anything more than show up a few Sundays a month. I see the transformation of a faithful few. I start to see the Kingdom slowly coming about on earth as it is in heaven and my angst over the survival of the institution no longer dominates my every thought.
Gabe Lyons new book, The Next Christians: How a New Generation is Restoring the Faith, gives voice to what many of us in the trenches of the modern church are discovering as the Spirit moves in new ways. We don’t have to fret because “Christian America” has died. Was it ever that great anyway? Is it possible that a refocused Church changes the world? Lyons gives a hopeful report from the frontlines.
Lyons is one of many modern authors to remind the Church of the comprehensive Gospel (creation, fall, redemption, restoration), a Gospel that doesn’t leave out the beginning or the end. The Gospel begins with humanity made in the image of God and finishes with humanity working towards restoration of that image. The Good News is more than just individual salvation from sin. We aren’t just saved from something, we are saved to something. Redemption is the beginning of our participation in God’s work of restoration in our lives and in the world.
One of the most valuable parts of the book is chapter three where Lyons groups modern Christians’ interaction with culture into three broad categories: Separatist, Cultural and Restorers. I think the groupings help Christians to look inward and see how we live out our faith in the world. Lyons says the Next Christians are Restorers. They envision the world as it was meant to be and they partner with God to work towards that vision. Restorers combine the best of both Separatists and Cultural Christians and add the new dynamic of restoration.
Most of the book covers the six characteristics that set apart the next Christians:
Provoked, not offended
Creators, not critics
Called, not employed
Grounded, not distracted
In community, not alone
Countercultural, not “relevant”
I highly recommend this book. It gave language to so much of what I am experiencing in my ministry as I try to answer God’s call to be about the work of the Kingdom in my community. I plan to use it with the leaders in my mainline, traditional church.
(I received this book free to review from WaterBrook Multnomah)
The Next Christians by Gabe Lyons (Chapter 1)
