Unfashionable…

9781601420855mPastor Tullian Tchividjian’s new book UNFASHIONABLE, Making A Difference in the World by Being Different, is good reading so far. Let drop some quotes in the blog for you to chew on…

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…our culture is growing weary of slick production and whatever’s new and is growing hungry for authentic presence and historical rootedness. Younger generations don’t want trendy engagement from the church; in fact, they’re suspicious of it. Instead they want truthful engagement with historical and theological solidity that enables meaningful interaction with transcendent reality. They want desperately to invest their lives in something worth dying for, not some here-today-gone-tomorrow fad.

…Just when our culture is yearning for something different, many churches are developing creative ways to be the same. Just as many in our culture are beginning to search back in time, many churches are pronouncing the irrelevance of the past. Just as people are starting to seek after truth, many churches are turning away from it. As a result these churches are losing their distinct identity as a people set apart to reach the world.

Let’s recall what Jesus said (Luke 14:34-35),
“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Unfashionable? I hope so…

9781601420855mI’ve just begun a new book (hot of the press) by on of the grandsons of Billy Graham, a young pastor named Tullian Tchividijian (pronounced cha-vih-jin). The book is titled UNFASHIONABLE, Making A Difference in the World By Being Different.

It appears to decry the all-too-common trend seen in most modern churches of chasing what is “fashionable” as defined by the world. It reminds us of the fundamental call of Jesus to follow Him, even when it means being ‘counter-cultural’ — or, as Tchividjian would say, unfashionable. Good stuff I’d say.

On one front page he quotes Spurgeon:

“The great guide of the world is fashion and its god is respectability — two phantoms at which brave men laugh! How many of you look around on society to know what to do? You watch the general current and then float upon it! You study the popular breeze and shift your sails to suit it. True men do not so! You ask, ‘Is it fashionable? If it isfashionable, it must be done.’ Fashion is the law of multitudes, but it is nothing more than the common consent of fools.”
CHS (no source cited)

I’ll try to post more in the next couple of weeks (using the tag ‘unfashionable’). You can see a sample pdf from the book here, or order it most anywhere (WTS has a great price at present).

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