What if everything you've grown up knowing about Jesus is wrong? Mike Erre believes that we have lost the real Jesus right in the middle of Christian prayer meetings, Bible studies, and worship services. "We have never really embraced the message and movement of Jesus Christ as a call to revolution," he writes. "Instead, we have gotten comfortable with a watered-down, white-washed, religiously safe version of him."
The Jesus of Suburbia paints a disturbing picture of an imitation Jesus many have been taught to worship and one that little resembles the revolutionary, life-transforming Jesus of Nazareth. It asks whether we want to be swept up by the real Jesus into a culture-impacting movement of God, or are we satisfied with merely living for comfort and financial success in the status quo. But take notice---Jesus' real revolution isn't for the faint of heart or the middle of the road. It's not safe and certainly not comfortable.
Like the first-century Pharisees, we’ve reduced Christianity to a set of propositional beliefs. Truth is, we’ve gotten away from what it really means to be a Christian. In The Jesus of Suburbia, Mike Erre reveals that we’ve created a Jesus in our own image. In a fresh, startling manner, Erre helps us understand that the real Jesus is calling us to live, act, and think in ways that overturn the status quo.
"Expect no sugar-coated sweetness about ’felt needs’ and in-church coffee bars from Erre, pastor of teaching at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa, Calif. Expect instead compelling discussion of how the Christian church has lost sight of the revolutionary teaching and love of Jesus. ’Much of the message of American Christianity presents Jesus as the purveyor of the American Dream,’ he says. American Christians, he claims, have reduced Jesus to a study of risk management; we want him to be ’predictable and safe.’ Erre also uses the adjectives ’insecure, threatened, naive, simplistic, mean and shortsighted’ to describe many of today’s churches. He lambastes our love of theology instead of Jesus, our contentment with ’simply knowing about him instead of knowing him.’ While this protest continues in the vein of other recent books that take a hard look at Jesus and the church (Jesus Mean and Wild; Out of Your Comfort Zone), it offers a fresh look at how the American church must begin ’demonstrating the message of Christ,’ not merely explaining it. After all, says Erre, ’if you follow Jesus, you follow the most radical man who ever existed.’"--Publishers Weekly
Average Rating: 5 out of 5 stars(5 out of 5 stars)
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4.5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Bruce Stanley (Phoenix, AZ), July 18, 2009
Very good, serious look at the modern "church" of today. It will open your eyes to some things that perhaps you may have been sensing, but couldn't put a name to like me. Things like feeling unfulfilled or just plain bored with the so called modern "Christian life."
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Brad Whitmore (Valparaiso, IN), October 30, 2006
I loved this book...highly recommended!
It is honest talk about Christians and churchs today. If you believe that you are truly a new creation in Christ and that our walk is not based on performance I think you will find this book to be a great encouragement.
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