Your God is Too Safe thoughtfully explores why Christians get stuck in the place of complacency, dryness, and tedium and how to move on to new levels of spiritual passion! Buchanan shows how most Christians begin their spiritual journey with excitement and enthusiasm only to get bogged down in a "borderland"---an in-between space beyond the "old life" but short of the abundant, adventurous existence promised by Jesus. Citing Jonah, Buchanan examines the problem of "borderland living" where doubt, disappointment, guilt, and wonderlessness keep people in a quagmire of mediocrity. He then offers effective solutions to get unstuck and move into a bold, unpredictable, exhilarating walk with Christ.
Winner of the 2002 Word Guild's God Uses Ink Award in the Nonfiction category.
ISBN: 9780307565426 ISBN-13: 9780307565426 Availability: In Stock
Publisher's Weekly
Canadian pastor and first-time author Buchanan says that he "hit the ground
running" when he first became a Christian. He got involved in a church, taught
Sunday school and read his Bible regularly. Then things got rote. Buchanan was,
in a word, "stuck." But he had friends who weren't stuck: the elderly widow who
seemed full of spiritual joy, a multiple sclerosis patient with a broken body
but a strong faith. So Buchanan set out to write a book that would explain why
many Christians fail to progress spiritually and why only a few grow stronger
in faith. He concludes that believers reach a plateau when they think God is
too cuddly and (as the title suggests) safe. The literary conceit of this
narrative is all too familiar in evangelical Christian books: the church is
full of euphemism and afloat on pat answers, but this bold, new author is going
to be refreshingly honest about how difficult his own faith walk has been.
Buchanan may be honest, but the tactic is stale. Equally banal are Buchanan's
tips for "breaking free": Don't boast about your good deeds. Read the Bible.
Confess when you've sinned. Pray. Perhaps his only innovative advice is that
Christians take up fasting, a biblical activity that has become increasingly
popular among contemporary evangelicals. (Feb.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business
Information.