Recommended reading but please also see our comments.
The Barbarian Way: Unleash the Untamed Faith Within
by Erwin Raphael McManus
Two thousand years later the call to follow Christ has been repackaged to be smooth and trouble-free, filled with opportunity and promise but lacking risk, passion, and sacrifice. Is this really what Jesus died for? If He chose the way of the cross, where would He hesitate leading us? Is it possible that to follow Jesus is to choose the barbarian way?
Jesus never made a pristine call to a proper or safe religion. Jesus beckons His followers to a path that is far from the easy road. It is a path filled with adventure, uncertainty, and unlimited possibilities―the only path that can fulfill the deepest longings and desires of your heart.
This is the barbarian way: to give your heart to the only One who can make you fully alive. To love Him with simplicity and intensity. To unleash the untamed faith within. To be consumed by the presence of a passionate and compassionate God. To go where He sends you, no matter the cost.
Comments by Maverick Christians…
We find this book of good encouragement to follow the Lord in passionate desire for Him as true disciples. In the Scriptures, Jesus is quite clear about the cost of living life as a true disciple of Christ. Still, we find that this understanding has often been lost in the modern church of Jesus Christ. We are, therefore, glad for this book.
Please note, however, that the book’s author is a leader within the Emergent Church movement. The Emergent movement has the tendency to water down the gospel by contextualizing which we find is not being rooted and ground in the faith that was once for all delivered to the believers in Jesus.
As Maverick Christians, it is not our pursuit to cling to error or to favor one error over another. We should not adhere to undue conservative attitudes. Yet still, we should not seek for mere modern contextualizing of the gospel in relativism. We believe that proper emphasis of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, which are taught in the Holy Bible, comes about as a result from true and bold passion for Christ. This passion is not found in or resulting in an exploration of mysticism nor of post-modern thought.
If we have true passion for the true God, we will be faithful to Christ’s teachings not wishy-washy about them in either our faith or our conduct. Christian faith is founded in the truth of Christ. Neither liberalism nor conservatism can rightly replace Bible fundamentalism and should never be used as substitutes for God’s Holy Word. Jesus is the Rock of our salvation. Yes! Unleash untamed faith in Jesus Christ! Be sure to do so in Spirit and in Truth.
For an exposé on the Emergent Movement, please see this video…Emergent / Emerging Church Documentary.
