Unfashionable
by Tullian Tchivdjian
What is the church’s relationship to the world supposed to be? Are we supposed to stand apart from the world and refuse to let it in? Are we supposed to be in the world, making it better? Are we supposed to learn from the world or run from it? In this book, Tulian tackles what the church should be. He claims that the church makes the best changes in the world by being different – by being, well, unfashionable. We can only make a difference by being different. And the only way to be different is to be what we are: Sinners saved by grace, children of God chosen by his pleasure and mercy. And to be strengthened to do that, we must be in the Word.
Tullian has “fallen from grace” in many circles because of what appear to be true allegations concerning his conduct and refusal to repent. I won’t defend the author of this work – assuming the allegations are true, Tullian must repent, and should he repent, I pray he is shown true grace.
That said, even with those allegations, Tullian wrote several books that spoke Law and Gospel so well that I still pick up his books when I find them available. (His excellent Jesus+Nothing=Everything still receives my highest recommendation!)
Unfashionable can sit right next to the other books I’ve read by Tullian. It speaks of some great practical things a church can do, but unlike Every Man’s Battle he ties every practical aspect back to the Gospel. He continually returns to Jesus’s sacrifice for me for not only the reason to be different from the world, but to show that I am already different. I have died to sin and live in Christ – that makes me different!
He speaks of the necessity for the church to not only listen to the Word, though, but also listen to the world, but for very different reasons: “The Bible makes it clear that Christians need to be people of double listening – listening to both the questions of the world and the answers of the Word.” He speaks strongly that while, yes, we need to be in God’s Word to see what he has already accomplished for and in us, but we must listen to the world to figure out how to communicate these unchanging truths to changing people. “Contextualization means giving people God’s answers (which they may not want) to the questions they’re really asking and in ways they can understand.” (Emphasis in original)
Tullian walks the line between telling the church to be isolated and telling the church to just join into the world, and he keeps his thoughts always centered on Christ. He reminds the reader that we are already Christ’s, and that makes us different already. I recommend this book, but I would still point to Jesus+Nothing=Everything as a better volume of Tullian’s writing and a much better exposition of the Gospel. On the other hand, if you’re looking for ways that the church has failed, and how the Gospel is the treasure the church shall keep and share – this book is valuable. Look it up.
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