Worldview Church Book Review
By Jimmy Davis|Published Date: October 20, 2009
Knowing the author of a book you’re reading has its advantages.
For example, when I read a book by T. M. Moore, I can hear his voice as I read. I’m familiar with his intonations and inflections, and that makes the book more enjoyable.
 In the case of Unfashionable (read an excerpt), the passionate voice of its author, a friend and former colleague of mine, also rings in my head as I read him. And because I’ve spent some time around Tullian Tchividjian, I also get a kick out of the ironic title of his new book. You see, Tullian has a sense of style, something with which few of us pastors have been blessed. He is hardly “unfashionable” in the wardrobe sense of the word!
But that’s not the kind of fashion Tullian sets forth in this short but strong book:
My experience...convinced me that serious seekers today aren’t looking for something appealing and trendy. They’re looking for something deeper than what’s currently in fashion.
The point I want to drive home in this book is that Christians make a difference in this world by being different from this world; they don’t make a difference by being the same...
Only by being properly unfashionable can we engage our broken world with an embodied gospel that witnesses to God’s gracious promise of restoration, significance, and life...
I want to help you reimagine the potential impact of a radically unfashionable lifestyle. I want to show you what God-soaked, gospel-infused priorities look like in relationships, community, work, finances, and culture—and how those priorities can change the world. (pages 9-10)
The broader outline of the book covers four topics:
The Call explores the church’s struggle with cultural engagement in three quick chapters. Have we gone too far in our efforts to be relevant in our culture? Tullian agrees with Os Guiness: “’The ultimate factor in the church’s engagement with society,’ Guiness says, ‘is the church’s engagement with God,’ not the church’s engagement with the latest intellectual or corporate fashion” (page 15).
In The Commission, Tullian uses the largest section of the book (7 chapters spanning about 80 pages) to unpack his premise that “Christians have always been called by God to be people of the Book, regardless of how outmoded that rule might seem to others. The Bible is God’s manual on how to live unfashionably. We’re to be constantly asking, ‘What does the Bible say?’ and then living and choosing accordingly” (page 34). Worldview Church readers will be happy to know that Tullian appeals to the overarching storyline of Scripture, Creation, Fall, and Redemption (he collapses the often-cited fourth phase of Restoration or Consummation into the Redemption category), as the source of an unfashionable worldview. He goes on to give a brief but effective explanation of the Bible’s teaching on the “already, but not yet” Kingdom of God and the persuasive and pervasive impact that it is meant to have on individuals, families, communities, and cultures right now.
In an evangelical atmosphere that I believe tends to emphasize the “not yet” of the God’s Kingdom to the exclusion of the “already,” Tullian’s vision is a breath of fresh eschatological air. He concludes this important section of the book by arguing that the ministry of “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” is one that Christians must do together. God’s plan has always been to create a community that will embody his Gospel-driven Kingdom.
The third section, The Community, is the second major portion of the book. Here Tullian unpacks the Ephesians 4 and 5 vision of how an unfashionable community of Christians might live as a counter culture “against the world for the sake of the world.” Each of the chapters in this section briefly and realistically paint a picture of what it might look like for a Christian community to:
- Put off lying and put on truthfulness,
- Put off self-centered anger and put on God-centered anger,
- Put off stealing and put on generosity,
- Put off hurtful speech and put on redemptive speech,
- Put off bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and malice and put on kindness,
- Put off sexual immorality and put on love.(page 150).
The final section consists of one chapter followed by a list of recommended reading for further study and a Study Guide for each chapter of the book (great for small group study or book clubs). The Charge is Tullian’s last shot to convince us that “both the Bible and history bear witness to the fact that it’s not so much big churches or big ministries that have the most important impact in our world; it’s big Christians...those whose spiritual stature resembles that of Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna in the second century...who was a God-intoxicated man who lived his life coram Deo (before the face of God) and who was therefore unafraid of anything this world could do to him” (pages 161 and 167).
Here are some of the reasons why I believe pastors and church leaders will want to read and share this book with the folks they disciple:
Unfashionable is a primer on Christian engagement with culture. Tullian admits that “fifteen thinkers in particular have shaped my understanding of the relationship between Christianity and culture: Os Guinness, John Seel, James Davison Hunter, Peter Berger, John Frame, David Wells, Stanley Hauerwas, Francis Schaeffer, Abraham Kuyper, William Willimon, Michael Horton, Tim Keller, Chuck Colson, Cornelius Plantinga, and most recently, Andy Crouch” (page 188). Tullian has done us a great service by distilling the Biblical worldviews of these men and other men and women (I counted more than 25 thinkers quoted in this book) to create an introduction to Christ/Culture issues that will encourage both pastors and people in the pew.
The book is positive, punctual, and pithy. The resounding tone of Tullian’s approach to our engagement with culture is hopeful, not despairing. The book is a timely reminder that we must remain grounded in the Word as we go into the world. Tullian has a gift for putting things simply, but soundly. His writing is accessible and memorable, ancient depth and modern delivery. (You’ll also be happy to know that the book is small and short!)
Finally, Unfashionable puts the emphasis on people, not programs. While this may frustrate those who want to buy into some curriculum or church marketing method that will make their churches unfashionable in five easy steps, it will thrill many with a plan that is low-budget and doesn’t involve a new volunteer recruitment drive. No, an unfashionable church is about being a transformed people, not doing “tried-and-true” programs. The bad news for many of us is that though this way of being church is low-budget, the kingdom call to be a Christ-centered community who lives “against the world for the world” will cost us everything.
Jimmy Davis is associate editor of Worldview Church and is associate pastor at Metrocrest Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas.
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