How does Merriam-Webster dictionary define Christianity? Harmonizing to the definition, Christianity is a monotheistic system of beliefs and patterns based on the Old Testament and the instructions of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament and stressing the function of Jesus as savior. As being taught, every Christian must follow a good Christianity life. Good Christian life includes obeisance to God s bids ; worship God at church, and relationship with other people. However, Shane Claiborne states that Christianity frequently has offered little to the universe, other than the hope that things will be better in Eden. ” This is on the first page and indicates that most of Christians live in comfy lives and bury about missional activities. Church is a sacred topographic point and is known as the life temple of the true God. Of class, the church is non merely a edifice, it is a denomination and a meeting topographic point, where people gather and worship God. However, Shane s memory of the church during his childhood is a topographic point where there were cunning misss, free debris nutrient, and inexpensive snowboarding trips. He even calls people in church ordinary groups to indicate out that Christians are going so normal and reasonably much live like everybody else. Human nature is avaricious and causes the church to misdirecting the Gospel. The church becomes a distribution topographic point, where the hapless go to acquire things and the rich semen to dump materials. Both sides satisfy that the hapless get apparels and nutrients and the rich addition credits. Shane besides emphasizes he does non desire to be another ace Christian like Jerry Falwell or Al Sharpton, who can prophesy Gospel and donate to charities. For him, charity can non be estimated based on how much money or stuff Christian donates, but how much Christians are willing to give up their wealth to direct others the message of love. The message of love we send to people should be like the message of love we receive from God. The love of Christ and the breath of the Holy Spirit radiance through this book that we can non see God but we can see His Love expressed through us.

The manner of populating under a Christian life that Shane describes in his book is hard at first. He challenges Christians to halt mensurating ourselves and our religion by life in The Simple Way and halt seeking to be popular or well-known work forces by giving to charity. He challenges Christian to acquire to the root of their religion: love God means nil if we do non genuinely love hapless people. During the book, Shane references many times that Jesus did non merely donate money to assist the hapless, but He was out to cognize hapless people personally. In order to pattern love and hope in the manner of Jesus, Shane calls upon people to take earnestly Jesus message to travel out and remain with the hapless to understand how they live. The writer s thesis is good supported by some fables in the Bibles to explicate the manner that Jesus wanted us to populate our lives. More than that, Shane tells his ain narratives about what he experienced, such as remaining with the homeless people in Philadelphia, traveling abroad to assist Mother Teresa, going to Iraq to understand suffering lives.

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This book is non written by a theological professor or an award winning writer. It is written by a regular individual, who wants to supply readers the religious strength to make missional work. The strength of the book is disputing Christians to believe and move sing to societal issues like hungriness, war, and poorness no affair whether they believe it is true undertaking or non. Shane provides many of illustrations about the things he has done and lessons he has learned to name people to rethink the significance of church, transition and Christianity. My favourite quotation mark is:

God forgive us for all those we have lost because we made the Gospel drilling. I am convinced that if we lose our kids to the civilization of drugs and philistinism, force and war, non because we did non entertain them, but because we did non dispute them to really populate the Gospel in hard and epic ways ( p. 226 ) . – For me, this is the most power message that the writer attempts to convey Gospel into pattern in today ‘s civilization.

Not everyone is traveling to hold with Shane about the disapprobation of churches. Here is what he what he writes:

My surveies taught me that the higher a individual s frequence of church attending, the more likely they are to be sexist, racialist, anti-gay, promilitary, and committed to their local church. And I figured if that s what it means to be a Christian, I wasn t certain I wanted to be one, or whether even Jesus would desire to be one, for that affair. I wondered why Jesus didn Ts take back his faith. ( p.269 )

In fact, Shane merely mentions to his church during his childhood and he is non into church growing. He even accuses church of being tempted to make large and marvelous things so people might believe. For him, he thinks one church should better than 50, which means churches should acquire smaller and be less seeable. After reading the book, I wonder if the writer does non like the church that much. As I said above, church is the Holy topographic point, where the Body of Christ and Holy Spirit stay in. Church is the most joyful, peaceable, faithful, soft, and secured topographic point that every Christian hides save when worship God. When we are in church, we should love and esteem our brothers and sisters even we disagree with them in some points. However, Shane makes me experience uncomfortable when he criticizes Christianity frequently has offered little to the universe Most Christian creative persons and sermonizers have remained queerly distant from human enduring. It is excessively overdone when he says Most Christian creative persons and sermonizers along with Often has offered, which condemns the whole churches and Christian community.

Overall I think this book is one of the best books I have of all time read and it changed my attitude toward Christian missionary. The book is easy to read but it contains many profoundly meaningful messages. At first, the book wants to direct its message to immature Christians, who have learned adequate sermon messages in church and acquire ready to pattern in the existent universe. Shane reminds that the church is a missional bureau and Christianity is meant to travel to the hapless and the hungry, non wait for them to come to. He suggests a really extremist thought: traveling to church or being a good individual is non adequate, but give all to the hapless and be the hapless, so our life is non isolated from the hapless. Besides functioning the hapless, Shane call people to truly unrecorded in Christian religion and battle against consumerism. He besides criticizes the merchandising of music, bumper spines, Jerseies and books to Christians it is because they are merchandises of the Christian industrial composite. He accuses our civilization today of misapplying Jesus Christ in many ways in life. I think, non all of us can populate as Shane does, but this is the best book to do us believe about what Jesus calls us to make in the existent universe of civilization today.

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