The Next Christians?

With the subtitle of “The Good News About the End of Christian America,” I was excited to read this book. I was looking forward to new insights into where Christianity is headed. Instead, I was introduced to all of the reasons why current Christians (lumped into five subcategories) are getting it wrong.

Gabe Lyons contends in The Next Christians  that the new group of Christians are those who submerge themselves in society and have the right idea, even though their mission is not to lead people to salvation. There is even a warning about this kind of Christianity: “The next Christians must be aware that operating in the center of the world requires a deep anchoring in Christ, a grounding that’s achieved only through means unbecoming to most. Otherwise, it hardly ever works.” The author even mentions his research but shares very little of the actual findings.

While I was disappointed with where Lyons was going with the book overall, he does share several practices that are instrumental to anyone who is pursuing the Christina walk. These include being immersed in Scripture, being postured by prayer and fasting for simplicity. All good lessons for any Christian to be reminded of.

I pray the next Christians don’t immerse themselves in cultural America just to say they did so. Hopefully, they lead a few of the people around them to Christ, just as the Great Commission calls us to do.