It's true I haven't had a whole lot of to write for enjoyment at college, but I have been doing a lot of reading. (and a lot of writing about reading)
Here's a little bit from a book review on The Next Evangelicalism by Soong-Chan Rah:
Content:
Soong-Chan
Rah addresses a rather sensitive topic about how to free the Church
from western cultural captivity. He tears the veil off of the white
church, revealing exactly what is, has been, and how it is affecting
other churches and cultures across the world. Rah contends that the
next big evangelicalism will be the rise of multi-ethnic churches as
immigrants flood the United States and Churches grow in other
countries. As the white church conforms with society, it shrinks,
becoming less and less like the Church God intended it to be. The
question is whether or not the white-church will wake up and embrace
this new change.
My
Reaction:
I
greatly appreciated the above points that Rah made, especially about
materialism, consumerism, and individualism. It is so prevalent in
our society, yet we are so blind to how it affects our churches. I
also greatly appreciated that when Rah speaks of western cultural
captivity, he is not just speaking about racism, but a much broader
range of problems. My eyes were opened to just how culturally trapped
we are in our churches in so many aspects, even in the content of our
songs and the architecture of our buildings. It was also very
convicting how he pointed out that we try to reach for
multi-ethnicity in our churches, but we do not change our
leaderships.
Near the
middle of the book, I began to get a little bogged down. Rah began to
get a little repetitive, and I began to feel like he was attacking
the white church, and fitting all white churches into this category.
However, in all honesty, I think I was just being convicted. I appreciated that at the end
he drew lessons we could learn from multi-ethnic and immigrant
churches. It does appear that we have a lot to learn from them, even
in attitudes of more joy and praise in our music instead of
self-focus. In summary, I felt like this book was well-thought out
and convicting despite the difficulty I had in getting through it.
Four Stars, Ages 16 and up (based on difficulty of read)
