The Role of Books in Shaping Conviction, Character and Community

By Byron Borger

Here is another article by Byron Borger for Urbana 09 on the role of books for a missional way of life.  Byron wrote this piece not knowing that Steve Garber was speaking at Urbana, so the inclusion of Steve in his article was especially appreciated.

In Fabric of Faithfulness, by IVP author Steve Garber, he describes three things that kept young adults involved in their radical Christian lifestyles as they moved beyond their college years.  Garber observes that the most vibrant Kingdom people sustained life-long commitments by being clear about truth, by having mentors who showed how a Christian worldview is to be embodied in a missional way of life, and by being involved in committed relationships with those who helped sustain Christian social engagement.  We can't live out this history-making, transforming vision alone.

As a bookseller, I regularly see how books can play a helpful role in forming these practices of conviction, character, and community.  Those who understand that reading is a spiritual discipline, who read and talk about books, have their commitments strengthened and reinforced.  Taking home books written by conference authors or those presented on stage is an essential strategy for your post-Urbana journey of wholistic discipleship. 

Garber not only shares stories of robust followers of Jesus who have sustained on-going faith, telling us how they kept on, but he calls us to a particular sort of faith---a morally serious perspective of missional Christian living in all of life.  He calls us to take up our callings in what we know is God's good creation, knowing it is deeply scarred and being reclaimed by the Triune God.  We are to be "in but not of" the post-Christian world which is increasingly complex, globalized and often horrifically violent.

Jesus sends us to the nations.  We are called to be salt and leaven.  God's redemptive story teaches us that His Kingdom comes in every zone of life. We are agents of peace, justice, creation-care, and the common good, sharing gospel news anywhere we can.  Through God's great grace, we live coherently, in private and in public, at home and in the public square. 

But what does that look like in our various majors, careers and callings?  Especially for those not called to front-line missionary work, how do we embrace Christ's Kingdom in our ordinary lives, in our own places?

Reading widely -- especially about themes of vocation, calling, developing the Christian mind, cultural engagement, work, public life-- is increasingly becoming a habit of young evangelicals.  Unlike an older generation that sequestered faith into the confines of personal piety, recent leaders (like those at Urbana) see all of life as a mission field; we serve God 24/7 with all that we do and all that we are.  All of us are called by God to be well-informed, to be like the "sons of Isachaar" (1 Chronicles 12:32) who "knew the times and knew what God's people should do."  We dare not segregate our cultural involvements, our entertainment, shopping, or voting, away from our deepest convictions.  Missional discipleship brings a Christian perspective to bear on everything we do.  This takes some serious reading and some serious learning; and some serious conversations with life-long friends.

We must become bi-lingual, speaking fluently the language shaped by the Bible and our experiences of God and the language(s) of our contemporary culture(s).  We need not embrace the secularity and distortions of the contemporary corporate culture, art world, political ideologies, or scientific communities to be fluent within them.  Like Daniel---who in exile studied all kinds of literature, earning the right to be heard amongst the elite in Babylon---we must read with discernment, and work to translate God's ways to our surrounding sub-cultures. We who desire to be world-changers, God's ambassadors in all of life, must read more than our non-Christian peers.  We must become those who know God's ways---rooted in a solid familiarity with Bible, theology, church history, spirituality, Christian ethics---and who have an equally prodigious awareness of cultural trends, social theories, secular ideologies, current debates.  Like Daniel, we will be able to navigate fidelity in a pagan environment because we've studied the poets and prophets.  (Daniel, no doubt, knew the poetic prophet Jeremiah back in Jerusalem before he was deported.)  We must, "read the Word and read the world."

God is surely pleased that there is a renaissance of books about forming a coherent Christian worldview, strengthening the Godly mind, being involved in the issues of the day, engaging the cultures in which we find ourselves.  Recent books like The Mind of God by James Emory White stand alongside older classics by James Sire or Mark Noll in joyfully holding up the call to read and think for God's sake. The Outrageous Idea of Academic Faithfulness by Donald Opitz and Derek Melleby is a must-have handbook for Christian students who want to honor God in the classroom.  Andy Crouch has written one of the most discussed evangelical books in years, offering extraordinary insight into our calling to make the world a better place by small, local initiatives (Culture-making: Embracing Our Creative Calling.)  In Heaven Is Not My Home: Living in the Now of God's Creation Paul Marshall tells exciting stories with rare wisdom and unfolds how to think about art, technology, education, politics, economics, play, work, rest, worship--- there is nothing similar about learning to live Christianly in every area of life.  We thank God for new Christian voices (like, for instance, Mako Fujimaro) writing faithfully in the arts.  Many of our most popular young writers are reminding us of the centrality of social justice, peacemaking, and being God's agents for meaningful social change.  Ronald Sider and John Perkins have been a mentor and inspiration to many of the newer voices for radical action, and many prize their books as their most helpful allies in the journey into Kingdom living.  The Urbana book display is a gold mine of helpful resources.  Make book buying, reading, and discussing a part of your spiritual formation, learning to think and act faithfully in the world God so loves.

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