Book Review: "The Next Christians: The Good News about the End of Christian America, How a New Generation Is Restoring the Faith." By Gabe Lyons, Doubleday, NY, 2010

“The Next Christians” is a provocative read that is sure to push buttons while providing positive theoretical and practical content that will help the reader develop a richer more deliberate concept of Christian ministry (no matter the level of involvement in ministry or Church background).  For that I gave the book four stars.  I almost gave the book three stars because of an apparent weak “historical memory” and an apparent hyperbolic overstatement of the “The Next Christians” unique place in history. 

In Part I of “The Next Christians” Lyons describes the undeniable cultural shifts that have lead to what is now commonly referred to as “Post-Christian America” (ch. 1& 2).  From there, Lyons outlines six “parodies” of how Christians tend to respond to culture (ch. 3).  His six “parodies” somewhat resemble H. Richard Niebuhr’s five categories of how Christians engage culture in his seminal work “Christ and Culture”.  Those Niebuhr categorizes as “Christ against Culture” and “Christ in Paradox with Culture” Lyons seems to divide into three groups: 1) Insiders, 2) Culture Warriors, and 3) Evangelizers.  Those Niebuhr categorizes as “Christ above Culture” and “Christ of Culture” loosely resemble Lyons’ two classifications dubbed 1) Blenders and 2) Philanthropists.  And, those Niebuhr categorizes as “Christ the Transformer of Culture” Lyons calls Restorers.  It is the Restorers whom Lyons champions through the rest of the book.  In chapter four, Lyons asserts that the Restorers have rediscovered the full and complete plot line of the Gospel – a Gospel with four major movements: a) creation, b) fall, c) redemption, d) glorification/consummation.  Lyons contrasts this full orbed Gospel understanding with a “truncated gospel” that begins with the fall in order to press home the urgency of redemption, all the while forgetting to frame Gods redemptive plan in terms of creation and re-creation.  Here Lyons calls for Christians to embrace a Gospel that looks forward to all things being made new as opposed to a “truncated gospel” that promises some sort of “eternal-life-escape-boat” from this doomed and sinking world.   A full orbed understanding of the Gospel (creation, fall, redemption, consummation) is what Lyons believes drives Restorers toward a more fruitful application of the Gospel (word and deed) to the whole of life.  (A Reformed or Presbyterian reader will cheer the next Christians at this point since a creation, fall, redemption, consummation understanding of the Gospel has always been a central component of Reformed theology – even if this component has been neglected from time to time.  In this section it is easy to see why Os Guinness, Chuck Colson, and Tim Keller have all praised this book.)

How is it that the Restorers are gaining meaningful traction living out their faith in the midst of our current cultural context?  Lyons lays out six ways in which the Restorers are bearing fruit in the post-Christian American cultural context:

1)      They are “Provoked, not Offended” (ch. 5)

2)      They are “Creators, not Critics” (ch. 6)

3)      They are “Called, not Employed” (ch. 7)

4)      They are “Grounded, not Distracted” (ch. 8)

5)      They are “In Community, not Alone” (ch. 9)

6)      They are “Countercultural, not ‘Relevant’” (ch. 10)

(I read this book soon after reading Tullian Tchividjian’s book “Unfashionable”, and I was very intrigued at how Tchividjian’s six characteristics of transformational cultural engagement compliment  Lyons six characteristics of transformational cultural engagement.  I will keep these two books together in my study on a shelf dedicated to Christianity and culture.)

Each one of these chapters is filled with compelling case studies and real-life examples of Christians who are effectively living out the Christian faith in the midst of places and contexts that many Christians have given up for lost.  A small group, discipleship group, Sunday school class, leadership team, or congregation that deliberately works through this book will surely come up with several ways in which they can penetrate their surrounding culture and transform it for the good of the Kingdom of God.  I would like to see small clutches of pastors meeting together to discuss the book and its practical applications.  Then, after working through the book, in turn, it would be neat to see those pastors work through this book with people in their churches who are eager to see the Kingdom of God permeate every arena of culture more fully. 

In the final section (“Part III: A New Era”) and final chapter of the book (“The Next Big Shift”), using the thesis that the Christian Church passes through a time of major transition every 500 years, with a hopeful positive outlook Lyons offers a motivational call to action. 

With these positives, I have one negative critique and one caution about the use of “The Next Christians”.  First, it seemed to me that Lyons has a bit of a weak “historical memory”.  Lyons does say that the next Christians who are engaged in the work of restoration “are relearning . . . rediscovering the depth and breath of the most critical, orthodox teaching of our faith – the Gospel message” (pg. 50; see also pg. 192).  And Lyons does say, “The people of God will continue forward as they’ve been doing for two millennia so long as we keep the foundations of our faith grounded in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is of first importance” (pg. 189).  And, Lyons even acknowledges that “The perspective they [the next Christians] exhibit is not a new Christian idea; it’s actually quite old” (pg. 48).  Yet, in a slightly inconsistent way, Lyons claims that “Restorers exhibit the mind-set, humility and commitment that seem destined to rejuvenate the momentum of the faith. They have a peculiar way of thinking, being, and doing that is radically different from previous generations” (pg. 47).  This last statement comes off like a teenager exiting a movie theater exclaiming, “Harry Potter movies are the best movies ever!”  It is true that every generation and age has unique contextual differences; nevertheless, good, solid, sound, vibrant, beautiful Christianity is timeless and consistent.  Faithful and fruitful Christians don’t look to create or to be something new, they are always returning to the ancient paths that have been laid our for them once and for all (Jeremiah 6:16).  Lyons' work is not so ground breaking, after all, H. Richard Niebuhr addressed similar issues 50 years ago.  Abraham Kuyper (the Father of Transformationalism) modeled this over 100 years ago.  As Lyons recognizes, 200 years ago William Wilberforce, John Newton, and the relatively small Clapham Circle community restored an entire nation’s moral standing.  The people Lyons describes as Restorers, in many ways, are not all that new or unique; each and every generation has had restorative or transformational Christians (without exception).  I can think of a multitude of senior-citizens in the sunset years of their life who fit Gabe Lyon’s description of “The Next Christians.” It just so happens that in this current age, the Restorers or Transformers are becoming more visible as they gain significant ground and produce noticeably sweet fruit within their cultural context.  Are we witnessing a refining process that is drawing out a purer solid Christianity while burning away the dross of superficial Christianity that has flourished in recent years?  I will grant Lyons this, if Restorative or Transformational Christians would have been more common in the past century, then we would not have so much superficial Christianity today and a deterioration of Christianity’s standing in the culture at large. 

Along these lines, I would like to see a subsequent edition of this book with a chapter dealing with the reality that the best of Christians will still be despised by the culture even when they live the faith extremely well.  During this read, I wanted to hear Lyons address the difference between Christians creating un-due or inappropriate offence and the inevitable offence that the Christian Gospel will always create (c.f. the relationship between I Cor. 1:23 & II Cor. 6:3).  After all, the majority of Christians around the world suffer derision, rejection, and persecution within their cultural context despite their best efforts to live out the faith.

As to the caution, one could read this book and turn being a Restorer into a form of Phariseeism.  This book needs to be read with a heart of grace toward non-Christians and toward Christians with whom you may disagree (i.e. those Lyons rightly negatively classifies as Insiders, Culture Warriors, Evangelizers, Blenders, and Philanthropists).  Please avoid the temptation of defining what it means to be a Restorer too narrowly.  A narrow understanding of what it means to be a Restorer, could lead someone to become wrongly disappointed with those whom you may perceive not to be transformational enough. 

OK, with those pointed critiques, I benefited deeply from reading this book.  I benefited because it caused me to wrestle and struggle with the finer points of how I approach living the Christian life – a few times, I woke in the middle of the night to jot down thoughts that were rattling around in my head on account of this book.  There are points in this book that will surgically cut each and every reader (this is a great quality in any book that seeks to lead people to improve in the Christian life).  You will think long and hard about what it means to live out your faith in this day and age.  This book offers hope and a positive outlook for the future of the Church along with concrete practical approaches that will help groups of Christians confidently live out their faith with an expectant eye to the future. 

(I received this book free for the purposes of review from Mulnomah/Waterbrook Books.)