Christianity Beyond Belief
Following Jesus for the Sake of Others
Todd D. Hunter
(Intervarsity, 199pgs, $22h)
Early in the book, "Christianity Beyond Belief" (author, Todd Hunter), I read something that stuck with me. I've paged back to try and find it but I can't. The essence of what he said (as I recall) is: The only things worth living for are those things worth dying for. That nugget has wedged somewhere in my psyche. I thought: I would die for God and country, family and friends, love and liberty, stuff like that, but not for an uptown brick home or a new SUV with all the gadgets, nor would I die for my job or my church's doctrine or some morsel of biblical minutiae like where did Cain get his wife that I sometimes spend hours haggling about with colleagues. Yet, ironically, it is those things for which I would not sacrifice a drop of blood to preserve that consumes so much of my energy. So, now, when my blood boils over some mix-up, I find myself wondering if what I believe is worth giving up my life for. If not, maybe I just need to trash it and refocus on those things that are really important. In a way, this is the heart of Hunter's book, subtitled, "Following Jesus for the Sake of Others."
In recent years I have noticed that a lot of the forms of Christianity I grew up with are changing, or maybe I should say "emerging," from entrenched older methods to more savvy styles, most noticeable to me in contemporary approaches to evangelism. Take, for example, the familiar old "Do-I-see-a-hand-yes-God-bless-you-do-I-see-another" approach to mass evangelism. This late-19th-century adaptation to gospel preaching appears to be fading away as Billy Graham retires from public view. Fewer and fewer evangelicals rely anymore on this method of tallying "conversions" realizing that getting people forgiven does not necessarily produce transformed lives. In other words, Christianity is not just about getting people "saved" — it's not thy kingdom come later, but thy kingdom come now; about living the kingdom today, not just getting heaven later. Hunter argues, "What if we changed the question from 'Do you know what would happen to you if you died tomorrow?' to 'Do you know what would happen to you if you decided to live today?'" The goal of Christianity, he proposes, is spiritual transformation into Christlikeness in the here-and-now. Heaven, for him, is not so much a future hazy destination as it is a practical lifestyle. Maybe, he suggests, we should revise the "Four Spiritual Laws" to read: Becoming a Christian means 1) Being a cooperative friend of Jesus, 2) living in creative goodness 3) for the sake of others, 4) through the power of the Holy Spirit.
To help us grasp this concept, Hunter divides his book into two parts: First, "A New Understanding of What It Means to Be a Christian" in which he carefully lays the foundation and then offers Part 2, "A New Way to Live," in which he connects the abstract and hypothetical to the concrete and practical by showing how we can live out the kingdom through the revised "spiritual laws." Finally, he wraps it all up by showing how we can invite others to live out the new life.
Reviewed by Jim Miller, Vineyard Church Nacogdoches.
