God is the Issue: Recapturing the Cultural Initiative, a book by Brad Bright just recently revised and set for re-release next week (and being mailed to thousands of pastors across America), is available in advance for bloggers, for review on your blogs. (See the end of this blog post for information on how to obtain your copy.)
The book has two crucial messages, especially during election season here in the U.S. It’s not just for here and now, though, but for any time of cultural questioning or confrontation. First, no matter what questions may arise at the surface, God is always at the root of the issue. Second, followers of Christ can (and must) be far more effective in managing the “playing field” of cultural issues, not yielding to the “rules” set by those who have opposing agendas—thereby keeping the focus where it belongs. From the book’s introduction:
Since the nation’s founding, many churches across America have preached consistently about the person of Jesus Christ. That history has been punctuated by several periods of preaching on various and sundry social ills. During the decades since the moral upheaval of the 1960s, we have seen an increase in that kind of preaching again. And yet, despite our preaching, as we begin the new millennium we are confronted with a society that is shamelessly attempting to shake off all remaining vestiges of decency and morality. Society has removed God from His place at the center of everything and given Him a seat on the sidelines. And we as the church have acquiesced to their agenda, and have joined the debate over symptomatic issues instead of clarifying that God is the logical and necessary starting point for all cultural debates.
The church in America today generally communicates with the culture in one of two ways. Either we preach the straight gospel without regard to the cultural and personal context, or we simply react defensively to the symptomatic cultural ills— such as homosexual behavior, abortion, racism, or pornography. Unlike Jesus, we have a difficult time using the cultural context as a relevant platform for making the God of the Bible the issue. Therefore, God comes across as largely irrelevant to the everyday life of the average American. Consequently, the culture ends up regarding us (along with the God of the Bible) as out of touch or, worse, dangerous.
The book not only analyzes culture in terms of its relationship to God, but also offers fresh new ways to think about engaging fruitfully with our culture, with multiple examples to illustrate.
Brad Bright is the president of Bright Media Foundation, and a colleague and friend of mine. Because I believe in the message of this book so strongly, I’m helping him get the word out about it. Bloggers who wish to review this book may use the form below to request an advance copy. You’ll receive an email with a PDF link within 24 hours (probably sooner).
The book will be available for general sale in mid-October. Come back here then for more information on where you can order it.
