Take Heart

This was a short sharp book about how we are to live as Christians today. My guess, from other Chandler books, was that this was a sermon series and then the co-author (this time David Roark) took them and made those talks into a book.

The thrust of this book is that now is a good time to be a Christian. Leaning on Stewart Murry's book Post-Christendom (I actually had this book and I found it on my shelf with a bookmark 75% of the way in, hence no review of the book on this blog) Chandler argues that Christendom had ended, that is the idea that Christianity has the political/social majority with all of its assumptions, and that this is actually a good thing for the Church. This means the Church can actually live counter-culturally, they can stand out to the world and when the Church is pushed to the margins, historically and paradoxically the Church has grown.

First stepping back, the book spends two chapters on God and how He is sovereign over all things. This includes culture. God's plan was not frustrated when some government passed a same-sex marriage bill. The sky is not falling, God is still in control of all things, ruling. And God is even a fighter. He fights for His people, and sometimes against His own people. God's plans are going to happen, He is going to call all of His people home and Jesus wins in the end, regardless of what we think of our current cultural climate.

But as Christians who are starting to feel like they are being pushed to the sidelines (or treated equally alongside other ideas we may not agree with), we are to live as exiles living holy and courageous lives. These lives live with integrity, does good to others and is willing to speak the truth to all people.

The book then zones in on the area of hospitality and argues that this is the best way we can love God and others around us. In showing hospitality we are to welcome everyone, engage with people, make dinner a priority and love the outsiders. This sounded like a new book The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield - that I haven't read.

This book has enough in it to lay it's a foundation, give an observation and example and then move on. This can be read in two or three sittings. This is a good book for those who look at the broader sweep of culture and make some doomsday predictions about culture and the West and the Church. Instead of focusing on wider national issues, we should be loving the person in front of us, knowing that God is sovereign over the big and the small - including you. This should give us some courage to love others and to speak truthfully.