A Difficult Read
In college, I was told by an English professor that if you started a book and were not thoroughly engulfed in it within the first few hours, you should put it aside. There are too many good books out there to justify wasting your time. I wish I had listened to his advice while reading The Next Christians by Gabe Lyons. While there are many good points made in the book, getting to them was a struggle for me. I found myself dreading my time set aside to read and have a difficult time pinpointing why I had that sense. I enjoyed the early description of how the church has lost its place in the physical and social landscape of our culture. The move from town-square-oriented communities to the business districts and strip malls has not left out the church. In the change of our community landscape, the status of the church is being changed from the visible stalwart of downtown to integration into the neighborhoods where people live. "The church has stealthily moved away from the center...