Revise Us Again: A Review

My latest offering from the Speak Easy bloggers network was "Revise Us Again" by Frank Viola.  In this book Viola is seeking to look at a few thoughts and behaviors of those in the church and encourage us to put them under revision.  I do not feel that this is written in a malicious way or in a way that seeks to prop Viola up as holier than thou.  Instead I feel that through this work Viola is wanting the church to fully examine all that they do and ask how what we do and think brings glory to Christ and supports our mission.  Here are the issues that he brings up in this book.

• Revising our awareness of the Divine
• Revising Christian code language
• Revising the Holy Spirit's Ministry
• Revising Christianeze
• Revising the Lord's voice
• Revising Our Spiritual Expectations
• Revising Our Attitudes
• Revising Our Chief Pursuit
• Revising Our Message
• Revising Our Semantics

Most of these issues are approached in a tongue in cheek manner that reminded me a little of reading a post from "Stuff Christians Like."  But Viola moves past the humor and gets to an honest look at what harm or damage is produced from these areas that need revising.  If you have read any of Viola's work recently, you know that he is very concerned about how we are lifting up Jesus and many of these revisions will lead to the church lifting up Jesus in a more complete way than before.  One of the strengths of this work is the personal experience that Viola has had in being a part of many different denominations and Christian groups.  He does not discount the work that God is doing in each group in light of these needed revisions, but still celebrates the things that he learned from each group.

All in all I found this to be a very easy read that also challenged me to rethink some of my own thoughts and behaviors around those in church.  I think this book would best be digested in a small group setting as it definitely lends itself toward good dialogue.  What would be more interesting is to read this in an interdenominational setting as different backgrounds would take the revisions in their own unique way.

Lastly, I want to give credit to the graphics department for the design of the cover of this book.  I know it is simple but for some reason I love the idea of having a yellow legal pad as the design for this book.  I guess that comes from one too many meetings at church where ideas are made and then revised or scrapped based on the collaboration from those in the meeting.  Anyways, for what it is worth I love the cover.

A faith that needs to be Unleashed

My latest BookSneeze offering is "Unleashed" by Erwin McManus.  In this book McManus is spreading the message that God desires for his people to live with an untamed faith.  By this he means a faith that is not civilized and scared but instead one that is bold and willing to take risks.  Throughout the book he weaves in personal stories of his family and how they have set out on what he calls the barbarian way.  He mostly takes cues from his daughter and wife, but throws in stories about his son and himself as well.  His main point is that too often we have been bound to what is supposedly the "correct" way to live a Christian life, but in truth trying to follow this way has caused many people to lose their ability to recognize the promptings of the Spirit.  Here's a sample quote on this thought.  "Perhaps the tragedy of our time is that such an overwhelming number of us who declare Jesus as Lord have become domesticated - or, if you will, civilized.  We have lost the simplicity of our early faith.  Beyond that, we have lost the passion and power of that raw, untamed, and primal faith."

All in all I think this is a great book and would recommend it to anyone.  The writing is very engaging and accessible.  In fact I almost felt like the four chapters were four sermons in a series.  You can tell that McManus is that type of communicator and it works well.