So my book Being the Bad Guys: How to Live for Jesus in a World That Says You Shouldn’t officially comes out in a month – Feb 1st. And I can’t wait. Hey, maybe you can’t wait either.
Not that you have to. From what I hear, anyone who pre-ordered it a month ago from The Good Book Company has received it already. Some have even read it. And remained my friends.
I think things are going well with pre-sales as Beth, the PR person in the US wrote to me to say
“You either have a LOT of friends, or pre-order sales are going well.“
To which I replied: “Why can’t it be both?” I mean, if you had to choose between book sales and friends, right …?
Anyway in the lead up to the offical launch, here are my top five reasons you SHOULD NOT buy my book:
- You SHOULD NOT buy my book if you want to get angrier about the state of the culture wars. True, I do talk about these matters and how they pertain to the church, especially around the issues of identity and the interminable Sexual Revolution. But while much of what I say is confronting, and challenging to the progressive narrative, the point of my book is to fuel your hope, not your anger. I do address issues such as trans ideology, but not in order to stoke hatred.
- You SHOULD NOT buy my book if you think it is going to tell you that the 1950s are coming back. They’re not. In fact we’re closer to 2050, so let’s forget about the 1950s. By the 1950s (in the West at least), we are talking about a time when the general framework of the culture aligned with the Christian framework. Not that the culture was Christian, but it was certainly slanted in its publicly affirmed values in a Christian direction. Sure, people didn’t go to church, but the God they didn’t bother to worship was solidly the Christian God. Those days are over baby, I should just let ’em go …!
- You SHOULD NOT buy my book if you expect me to say that the sexual ethics of the BIble can be swapped out for the progressive revisionist perspective, and that such a move will make the church relevant again, and enable it to get with the times, ensuring it makes the leap to the new utopian ideal of the progressive narrative. It won’t. We need to hold the line. Any move backwards will make the church recede even further from significance and make it less likely that anyone will take it seriously. Don’t believe me? Then have a look at this searing quote in The Spectator from a non-Christian commenting on celebrity pastor culture:
I am not religious, so it is not my place to dictate to Christians what they should and should not believe. Still, if someone has a faith worth following, I feel that their beliefs should make me feel uncomfortable for not doing so. If they share 90 percent of my lifestyle and values, then there is nothing especially inspiring about them. Instead of making me want to become more like them, it looks very much as if they want to become more like me.
And that goes for issues on the Left and on the Right btw. But let’s go on …
- You SHOULD NOT buy my book if you think equal and opposite strategy is the case: that we should hide away from the world in some sort of actual or virtual gated compound and “think of the children”. True, I think we do have to think of our children and we need to bring them up to reject the beautiful apocalypse of a culture that has lost its way. But this book is written for lay people getting up Monday morning to go to work in the office. It’s written for students facing hostility on campus. It’s written for workers in big firms which are increasingly celebrating lifestyles and sexual activities as part of their social agenda. It’s about engaging with the world, even as it becomes increasingly hostile. It’s about equipping the up and coming generations to live in the world – joyously live in the world – in the face of a hostility towards the gospel and its call for holiness of life.
- And finally, you SHOULD NOT buy my book if you don’t want some practical strategies in your life and in the life of your local congregation. Don’t touch this book if you don’t want Scripture to change you, challenge you, and call you to love bravely. If you want esoteric philosophical discussion that never touches the ground, about a world in which we are increasingly seen as the bad guys whose views about life, and life practices, range from plain weird to outright dangerous, then this is not the book for you. Don’t buy my book if you just want to have opinions about stuff. Only buy it if you want to be transformed to be more like Jesus in this “crooked and perverse generation”.
So there you have it. Five reasons you SHOULD NOT buy my book. Next time, five reasons you should!
Oh, and if you’re thinking of not buying my book, you can refuse to buy it from these following linked places:
The Good Book Company Australia