Here's a name I'll bet you haven't heard: Tullian Tchividjian. And I'm sure you can't pronounce it. He's a pastor, and he's got a pedigree: his grandfather is Billy Graham.
"Unfashionable" is best summed up with this line: "Christians make a difference in the world by being different from this world; they don't make a difference by being the same."
Tchividjian cuts through our emphasis on relevance, trendiness, using the latest technology--in short, being fashionable in the world's eyes. "Just when our culture is yearning for something different, many churches are developing creative ways to be the same....Churches are losing their distinct identity as a people set apart to reach the world."
He's a young guy, an innovative pastor, not some old fellow criticizing Gen Xers.
If you think he's gonna start taking shots at Saddleback and Willow Creek and Lifechurch--well, he doesn't. But he does raise a lot of good questions...in the first few chapters, and in the concluding chapters. In between is a lot of stuff written, I'm afraid, to produce a full-length book. Stuff I've heard in countless sermons. But those opening and closing chapters were worth reading.
Some excerpts:
"To be truly relevant, you have to say things that are unfashionably eternal, not trendy. It's the timeless things that are most relevant to most people, and we dare not forget this fact in our pursuit of relevance."
"Daily Christian living means daily Christian dying--dying to our fascination with the sizzle of this world and living for something bigger, something thicker, something eternal.
"Almost everything Jesus said about the nature of Christian discipleship is precisely the opposite of what our culture exalts.....What do we see more of--conferences on serving, or conferences on leading?
He critiques how we've built an alternative Christian culture which is based on popular culture--our own T-shirts, music, books, TV shows, movies, etc. But our model is the world; that's where we take our cues.
"I want to possess the backbone to dig in and be unfashionable. I'm ashamed of those moments when I'm afraid to be a fool for Christ because the world might think I'm strange....Christians who try to convince the world around them that they're really no different at all, hoping they'll be accepted on the world's terms and on the world's turf, should be embarrassed. It's time for Christians to embrace the fact that we're peculiar people."
This is an important message. The book "The Fine Line" also struck these chords. I didn't find either book totally satisfying. But it's still stuff we need to be thinking about.
Career-wise, I've been hanging around and writing about and cheering on churches and pastors for the past 25 years as my denomination's Communications Director.
Leave a comment