“These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also.” – Acts 17:6 That was the startled cry, circa 50 AD, from a hastily assembled mob in Thessalonica. Paul and Silas had been arrested for preaching the gospel. They were viewed as revolutionaries, dangerous men who were upsetting the status quo and inciting riots. But they were just two ordinary men, walking in the power of God, sharing a simple message of his love and grace. It’s been a while since we’ve seen the likes of this. If you ever find church boring or you believe something is missing from our churches today, you aren’t alone. Mark Buchanan believes there is a visible gap between the life Jesus offered to us and the life we’re living, between the church Jesus envisioned and the church we see today. When Jesus announced that the Kingdom was at hand, this can’t be what he meant. Instead of counting everything loss to be found in Christ, we’ve made it our priority to be safe instead of dangerous, nice instead of holy. Author and pastor Mark Buchanan believes that we need to recover a simple idea: that God meant his church to be both good news and bad news, an aroma and a stench – a disruptive force to whoever or whatever opposes the Kingdom of God and a healing, liberating power to those who seek it. Mark Buchanan is a professor and award-winning author. He and his wife, Cheryl, live in Cochrane, Alberta. He is the author of eight books, including Your God Is Too Safe , The Rest of God , and Spiritual Rhythm . Your Church is Too Safe Why Following Christ Turns the World Upside-Down By Mark Buchanan ZONDERVAN Copyright © 2012 Mark Buchanan All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-310-52328-4 Contents Introduction: What Are You Arguing About?, 9, 1. SINGING HEAVEN'S LOVE SONG, 15, 2. SONS OF THUNDER (OR HOW THE SON MAKES ALL THINGS NEW), 29, 3. WHAT LURKS ON THE EAST SIDE, 39, 4. PUT THIS TO WORK, 53, 5. GOING TO MORDOR, 59, 6. WE BELIEVE AND WE KNOW, 67, 7. IT TAKES A VILLAGE, 79, 8. EAT WHATEVER, 95, 9. IN-BETWEEN PLACES, 105, 10. A TALE OF TWO COMMUNITIES, 113, 11. WORDS MADE FLESH AND DWELLING AMONG US, 119, 12. WHEN CLEAN AND UNCLEAN TOUCH, 127, 13. JESUS AND THE THREE SPIRITS, 141, 14. WRECK THE ROOF, 151, 15. UNITY FOR THE SAKE OF THE WORLD, 165, 16. HEALING IN OUR WINGS, 173, 17. BREAK WALLS AND BUILD THEM, 187, 18. EVEN THE SPARROWS, 205, Conclusion: These That Turn the World on Its Head, 217, Acknowledgments, 227, Appendix: The A to H Scale, 229, Notes, 231, CHAPTER 1 SINGING HEAVEN'S LOVE SONG Should the church be relevant to the world? We've spilled a lot of ink over that question. We've exchanged many words, both exhortatory and accusatory, trying to resolve it. It vexes us sorely. There are those who decry the church's stodginess, its veneration of old wineskins, its adherence to outmoded cultural forms. They seek a church that nimbly adapts to the world's music and dress and causes. And there are those who lament the church's trendiness, its fetish for new wineskins, its pursuit of faddish cultural novelties. They seek a church gloriously indifferent to the world's latest fashions. We tote out Jesus' warning to be in the world but not of it, but then have endless and exhausting debates about what constitutes which. We have those who think the kingdom's come because we've preserved ancient songs and starchy vestments and Latin-strewn liturgies, and we have those who think it's come because we smoke Cuban cigars and drink Belgian beer and treat Starbucks as sacred space. If I wear torn jeans and a ratty T-shirt to church, am I of the world or in it? If our church worships to hip-hop music, which preposition are we falling under, in or of ? If our liturgy hasn't changed since 1633 or 1952, or 1979, is that because we refuse to be of this world, or because we're failing to be in it? And now I will resolve the matter for all time. It doesn't matter. The kingdom is not about any of this. The kingdom of God is not about eating or drinking or music styles or how up-to-date or out-of-date we are. The kingdom of God is a republic of love. Not the sentimental or sensual thing the world calls love, but the 1 Corinthians 13 kind: fierce, wild, huge, feisty, pure. The unbounded extravagance at the heart of the heart of God. This love is the song God sings over us, and calls us to sing loudly. What makes the church both a mystery and a magnet to the world is when we love in this way, God's way. This love makes us relevant. Its absence makes us irrelevant, regardless of whatever else we're doing. Question: is the love in your church such that people in the world and of the world would be willing to forsake all other loves just to know this love? Would they give up their addictions, their diversions, their compromises, their resentments, because the love your church has is better and truer and deeper than anything they've found anywhere else? If yes, your church is rel