Book Review: Real Christianity


When I graduated high school I joined the Marine Corps three weeks later, and went off to boot camp in Beaufort, South Carolina on a base called Parris Island. After a year of military training there and in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina I returned to the Island as a Marine Bandsman, playing saxophone and serving my country for my remaining enlistment as a professional musician, with my primary responsibilities being in the public eye as a recruiter through hundreds of formal military ceremonies, parades, and small town appearances with the band. Traveling around much of the East Coast, primarily in the Southern States was my first experience with the Bible belt and cultural Christianity.

After my military career was completed, my wife and I decided to stay in the Carolinas, and moved to the Blue Ridge Mountains region of the state in Greenville, SC. As began to work and serve in the region as a worship leader an student pastor, I found myself more and more disenchanted with the way people used their church involvement, or even their family’s historical sway in the church as descriptives in regards to their own spiritual walk. What could be the defining characteristics of a “Real” Christian?

William Wilberforce addressed this issue incredibly well all the way in 1797 in his book Real Christianity. Bob Beltz revised and updated the book for the modern reader in 2006, and it is wealth of insight on professing Christians in contrast with Real Christianity. The author acknowledges right from the start that his word are intended not to “convince skeptics or answer the questions that unbelievers ask, but rather point out some of the problems with the beliefs and actions of those who claim to be Christians.” It is a refreshing read, when I turn the pages and direct my thoughts to all the other people in my life who I have pinpointed as cultural Christians. This is where I get on my high horse and look down on the rest of the world. Then I read these words by Wiberforce, “Cultural Christians might verbalize the need for love and benevolence, but their bondage to pride and self-importance keeps them from exercising these virtues and leads them to the pursuit of personal and professional success.”

It was here that my own tendency to focus all my efforts, all my time, all my desires on leading our church toward the culture around it became overwhelmingly evident. Was I really trying to reach the lost with the Gospel for Christ? Or was my desire to assimilate the church into the landscape of the region as another institution that has lost its spiritual distinction. Will our church be a place that boldly goes out into the darkness, or will we be another generation of church people, with a slightly adjusted ethos, but very little measurable impact on the world? I want to last! I pray that Wilberforce’s words will ring true in my life:  “As we grow in spiritual maturity, we will also grow in humility. To the degree that humility grows, so does our vitality.”

1 comment:

  1. "Will our church be a place that boldly goes out into the darkness, or will we be another generation of church people, with a slightly adjusted ethos, but very little measurable impact on the world?"

    Well written, Milo! This makes me want to read the book.

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