The Jesus of Suburbia: Have We Tamed the Son of God to Fit Our Lifestyle?

Like the first-century Pharisees weve reduced Christianity to a set of propositional beliefs. Truth is weve gotten away from what it really means to be a Christian. In The Jesus of Suburbia Mike Erre reveals that weve created a Jesus in our own image. In a fresh startling manner Erre helps us understand that the real Jesus is calling us to live act and think in ways that overturn the status quo. Expect no sugar-coated sweetness about felt needs and in-church coffee bars from Erre pastor of teaching at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa Calif. Expect instead compelling discussion of how the Christian church has lost sight of the revolutionary teaching and love of Jesus. Much of the message of American Christianity presents Jesus as the purveyor of the American Dream he says. American Christians he claims have reduced Jesus to a study of risk management; we want him to be predictable and safe. Erre also uses the adjectives insecure threatened naive simplistic mean and shortsighted to describe many of todays churches. He lambastes our love of theology instead of Jesus our contentment with simply knowing about him instead of knowing him. While this protest continues in the vein of other recent books that take a hard look at Jesus and the church (Jesus Mean and Wild; Out of Your Comfort Zone) it offers a fresh look at how the American church must begin demonstrating the message of Christ not merely explaining it. After all says Erre if you follow Jesus you follow the most radical man who ever existed.--Publishers Weekly