I've just read Tullian Tchividjian's new book, Unfashionable, and I enjoyed it immensely. Tchividjian (pronounced cha-vi-jin) is the new pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, FL.  (Recently Tchividjian's church plant, New City Church, merged with Coral Ridge Presbyterian and the two are now one body.) Tchividjian integrated his training in theology with the works of sophisticated social theorists, and he has poured this sparkling blend of intellectual streams through his personal experience of a being a prodigal redeemed.

The result? In my estimation Tchividjian offers a book that challenges comfortable but diffident Christians first to live vibrantly and joyfully as Christ-followers and, second, to be different for the right reasons so that the Church can make a difference in the world in the right ways.  Unfashionable's sub-title sums up the book well: "making a difference in the world by being different."

Why is Tchividjian's  Unfashionable helpful? In our moment, many American Christians fall on one  side of a divide or the other, and many castigate those on the other side. This divide is a perspective or stance about the Church's role vis-à-vis cultures in the US.  While what follows is much-tread ground, it bears brief mention: many American Christians capitulate to cool, morphing into whatever trends are "hot" in society at the moment. Likewise many other believers pull up the drawbridge and seek hermetically-sealed enclaves away from society. While Tchividjian writes piercing commentary about each side of the divide, he also offers constructive ways of thinking and living that will hopefully entice Christians on both sides of the divide to adjust their ways to a prudential, loving counter-cultural interactions with cultures.

For example…

I loved Tchividjian's third chapter, "Seduced By Cool." With pinpoint accuracy Tchividjian detonates the notions of many Christians, including many Christian leaders, that up is the way up, that worldly power is real power, that money is true riches. Quoting liberally from Jesus, with some trenchant words from Tim Keller, Tchividjian makes the case that the poor in spirit, the meek, those that mourn, the peacemakers and the weak are what are esteemed in the Kingdom of God. Neatly Tchividjian demonstrates the inversions; where the world values one thing, the Kingdom values its opposite.

Particularly helpful was the use of C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters, in which the older demon trains the apprentice in distracting Christians with "Christianity And…" The American evangelical churches are awash in the "And" today. The sufficiency of Christ and His Spirit and His Word are functionally disdained by some pastors who struggle with trinkets to attract those who are increasingly "so over" or "done with" Christianity.

Another example…

I also loved Tchividjian's depiction of the Kingdom of God and Jesus as our King as the centerpiece of God's renewing work in the world. In chapters 5, 6 & 7 ("Purpose-Driven Death," "Redeemed to Renew," "The Presence of the Future"), Tchividjian brings Scripture and master theologians to bear to show that Jesus' work on the Cross and Resurrection was not merely focused on individual salvation from sin, but also on beginning the process of restoring all things.

Tchividjian put a target on his back; I'm wondering whether certain prominent Reformed Baptist leaders, if they get wind of  Unfashionable, will dismiss him or worse because he challenged their individual salvation-centric understanding of the Scripture. The cumulative weight of Tchividjian's work rejects the notion that restoring all things—including societal structures—is merely "implications of the gospel," as one contemporary Reformed Baptist pastor has put it. Instead, Tchividjian writes that redeeming individual souls is one essential part of an overall work of redeeming the whole of Creation.  As images of God given the cultural mandate at the beginning, and especially now that we are redeemed, Christ-followers have the joyful and serious responsibility to be about Jesus' Kingdom mission of renewing all things.

Tchividjian writes as one who has read many of the good books dealing with Church and cultures, but he digests and re-presents the thinking of these writers in prose that engages everyday people. The chapters are brief, reflecting that this is not an academic book, but it is a book chock full of thought-through and lived-out academic insights.

Who would I recommend this book for? Certainly for non-Christian friends who think the Church is a cheesy copy of their world with lots of intolerance thrown in. While my life and that of my community needs to be my non-Christian friends' primary portal for understanding Jesus and His Kingdom, I think Tchividjian's book can help convey these in ways that will hopefully compel my friends to embrace Jesus and the adventure He calls us to.

I also recommend  Unfashionable for young-in-their-faith Christians. These folks are my special concern. Ben Young and I wrote Common Grounds for them and I will now also be recommending  Unfashionable. Tchividjian gives young-in-their-faith believers an excellent map of the King and His Kingdom—and the opportunity for a life of sorrows and joy in following our King.  Unfashionable has its focus and thus its limits; this book alone is not enough to do all the work that young-in-their-faith believers will need to study and live out theology. But Tchividjian gets them in the game and, to switch metaphors, on the road to learning and living the Christian story.

Lastly, I recommend  Unfashionable to Christian leaders—lead pastors and senior pastors, associate pastors, elders, deacons, and lay leaders of all stripes. The difference they ostensibly long to make in the world will occur as they are "against the world, for the world." Tchividjian helps by unpacking in brief, punchy prose how we can re-orient our churches in this way. Let's walk with Tchividjian and Jesus in this unfashionable, joyful path.
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