When I learned this author was the same guy who wrote "unchristian" I was very excited to able to read his follow-up book. I was expecting a great book that demonstrated who the Christians of the future will be and also how the 18-35 crowd fits into the New Christianity.
The author explains how every 500 years, since Jesus, there has been a major shift in Christianity. 500AD was the fall of the Roman Empire and Constantinian Christianity. In 1000AD Roman Catholics and Orthodox split. In 1500AD, the Protestant Reformation occurred. Now at 2000AD, are we posed for a New Christianity? It seems likely, with the severe dis-interest in Christian churches by the next generation of 18-35ers.
This book falls flat and is slow, a bit boring, drags on, and never gives a good view of the future for Christianity. It's like the author had enough material for a short 5 page paper and he blew it into a book to make some dough. I was quite disappointed. This book goes into who the author thinks are the Next Christians. (Well, if he's right, I think, Christianity is in for more bad news, because I think this author misses the mark on this one). The author thinks the Next Christians are those who don't pull away from the world and live in a Christian-only world (like listening to Christian music only, no smoking, no tattoos, Christian-school, Christian-t-shirts) and don't lose themselves in the world as Cultural Christians (adopting the world's ways) but the New Christians are those who seek to restore the world to the beauty of the Garden of Eden and engage the world with beauty, grace and love. He defines the New Christian Restorers as having 6 characteristics: Being provoked, not offended; being creators, not critics; being called, not employed; being grounded, not distracted; being in community, not alone; being countercultural, not "relevant". I disagree with this author.
Being one of the 18-35, I feel like I understand very closely what my fellow 18-35ers are feeling and believing. I see Christianity moving away from organized religion and its human power struggles and corruption and towards a personal spiritual relationship with God. More and more Christians are ashamed of being called "Christian" and we are instead adopting the label "Spiritual" in preference because we can't stand to be associated with those judgmental hypocrites we meet at church. We are staying home and still very willing to be friends with and help our fellow non-Christians. I was disappointed with the author's conclusions and also that he wasted 6 boring chapters going into each of the 6 characteristics that he defines New Christians as holding. I believe the 18-35ers want to KNOW GOD above all else and want that spiritual relationship and everything else is just salad dressing. :)
I won't say the book was bad, because there is a place for this material, it's just not very inspiration or all THAT educational. I think most Christians could skip this book and do much better reading Skye Jethani's book "With" about living WITH God in a personal relationship, rather than living FOR God (achieving great deeds in God's name to give you self-importance). Also books by Frank Viola are very good for understanding why the new Christian generation cannot stand Christians. Also the book: "Why Men Hate Church" would be helpful for anyone interested in this subject matter.
I received this book free of charge from the publisher in exchange for this review but I did really give my honest opinion
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