Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance [Paperback]

Os Guinness (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2005

The buzz among evangelicals today is about relevance and reinvention, about new ways of ''doing church'' through revising, innovating, borrowing, mixing, and experimenting. Yet, says Os Guinness, in our uncritical pursuit of relevance, Christians have actually become irrelevant. By our determined efforts to redefine ourselves in ways that are more in line with the modern world than are faithful to Christ, we have lost not only our identity but our authority and significance. Prophetic Untimeliness addresses this issue by giving practical, constructive solutions for living with integrity in the midst of modern pressures. Guinness explores what it means to be both faithful and relevant, and how to be truly relevant without being trivial or trendy. Readers will be challenged to develop ''resistance thinking,'' an approach inspired by C. S. Lewis that balances the uncomfortable truths of the gospel with the pursuit of relevance. Only by being true to Christ and living with integrity and wisdom will we meet the needs of a world that is hungry for some really good news.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

ìAn immensely thoughtful and provocative book, challenging some trends in our Christian culture and inviting us to reconsider and rediscover. A powerful read.î --Alister McGrath

ìProphetic Untimeliness brings a timely warning. The temptation to dress the faith in todayís fashion guarantees that it will look out-of-style tomorrow only the eternal can reach every time and culture.î --Frederica Mathewes-Green

Never have Christians tried to be so relevant. But never have Christians ended up so irrelevant. How can this be? The problem, says Os Guinness, is that our views of relevance and our efforts to redefine ourselves are captive to the seductions and pressures of our modern clock culture. Ironically, we end up as neither relevant nor faithful. And in the process we are in danger of losing not only our identity but our authority, our significance, and even our very soul.

Prophetic Untimeliness is a hard-hitting critique written with deep love for the church. It offers constructive suggestions for living with integrity in the midst of modern pressures and explores how to be truly relevant without being trivial or trendy. Inspired by C. S. Lewis, Guinness outlines a creative approach-îresistance thinkingî-through which the pursuit of relevance is balanced by the disturbing truths of the gospel. Only by such prophetic untimeliness can we be faithful to Christ and speak with integrity and wisdom in a world that is hungry for some truly good news.

Os Guinness is an internationally renowned speaker and author of numerous books, including Time for Truth, The Call, and Long Journey Home. An Englishman, he was born in China, graduated from the universities of London and Oxford, and currently lives in Washington, D.C., where he is Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Baker Books (June 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801065607
• ISBN-13: 978-0801065606
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #714,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

OS GUINNESS (DPhil, Oxford University) was born in China, raised and educated in England, and moved to the United States in 1984. He directs the Trinity Forum and is a former fellow at the East-West Institute in New York. His books include The American Hour, No God But God, and The Dust of Death.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Timely!, March 25, 2004

By 

David T. Wayne "aka The 'JollyBlogger'" (Glen Burnie, MD United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance (Hardcover)

This book has an interesting way of making its point. The flaps and back jacket of the book advertise this as a critique of the modern church's mad rush to be relevant. However, he begins with an interesting description of our slavery to time - he calls watches "the gods on our wrists." This obsession with time has translated itself into an obsession with being "timely," i.e. current and up to date and relevant to the culture around us. And the downside is that in our obsession to be relevant, we have become irrelevant. He says this:

"After two hundred years of earnest dedication to reinventing the faith and the church and to being more relevant in the world, we are confronted with an embarassing fact: Never have Christians pursued relevance more strenuously; never have Christians been more irrelevant."

He is correct - even in this era of the megachurch, where the advocates of relevance champion their methods because of the size of their churches, the fact of the matter is that the church is, and has been, losing its saltiness. Most church growth is the result of professing Christians transferring churches. Also, because of the watered down "relevant" gospel that is preached in our day, most of those who profess faith probably don't possess it.

Guiness makes a case, and I think a good case, that true progress doesn't come from accomodating to the culture, but through resisting the culture. He quotes C. S. Lewis who says that "progress is made only into resisting material."

Among other things he points out that our quest for relevance is fueled by our fascination with futurism. We are always trying to construct a church for the next generation. However, as Orwell says "futurism is the major mental disease of our time." Guiness points out that futurism is "a quack science, it picks up current trends, projects them into the future, and then pretends that results are predictions."

In fact, history is a better guide to our future than relying on the study of current trends. History gives a broader understanding of humanity than does science, so it behooves us to pay greater attention the past than to the current.

It has often been said, and Guiness reiterates it here, that the only way to be always timely, is to always focus on the eternal. One of the things I have noticed about those on the mad quest for relevance is that they are constantly having to re-invent themselves with every changing wind of the culture. It seems to me that this would wear you out. It also seems to me to be patently obvious from Scripture, that this world is hostile to the things of Christ - culture is not neutral. Therefore, trying to stay current with the culture may mean we are accomodating our persecutors. As John MacArthur said in a recent sermon - "unbelievers have become the number one church consultants in our world today." Or, as Guiness quoted in a prior book "He who sups with the devil had better use a long spoon."

I can't recommend this book too highly. Guiness is not calling for irrelevance, he is just saying that the gospel is eternally relevant, it doesn't have to be "made relevant." The Biblical view is that the gospel evaluates and critiques culture, it doesn't accomodate itself to culture. This book is a welcome defense of that notion.

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Dominance of Sola Cultura, October 24, 2003

By 

rodboomboom (Dearborn, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance (Hardcover)

This is easily one of the best books read in awhile, and I read many. Guinness is profound in his penetrating analysis of the current state of Western Christianiy.

Thinking the dire need to be more relevant, the church has made themselves irrelevant. Caused by cuddling up to modernity's false notions of time, the church is off course and missing the target. Not caring about the past, they concentrate on the future. Read for yourself the latest and greatest on the New Apostolic Reformation and see what he's talking about. The focus is not even on the present but on the future! How arrogant to assume they know what's coming.

Guinness has so many tight sayings which if truly sorted through using the Word of God will cause each and every humble, believing Christian to stop and take stock. Time is uncontrollable. Redeeming the time is what it's all about, and this book shows what that entails, and what it does not.

Frank, provocative, astute. Marvelous addition to the growing controversy and one that needs to be widely read, discussed and followed.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Relevant!, July 13, 2005

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Eric W. Zeller "bob's your uncle" (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance (Hardcover)

This little (119 pg.) book is a broadside against the church of today. Guinness is more focused on theory than on naming names, but it is not too difficult to think of examples of who these words apply to:

Never have Christians pursued relevance more strenuously; never have Christians been more irrelevant. (pg. 9)

The book is basically an exposition of that statement - concluding that in its pursuit of the culture's approval, the church has lost sight of what truly makes it distinctive, and thus becomes irrelevant in its pursuit of relevance. I agree with Guiness, which is one of the reasons this site is called "Foolishblog" - we proclaim a message that the world regards as foolishness, but in reality there is nothing more wise and more relevant. We need to return to clear proclamation of truth after the mold of the prophets, which is what Guiness is calling for when he writes:

In an age when comfort and convenience are unspoken articles of our modern bill of rights, the Christian faith is not a license to entitlement, a prescription for an easy-going spirituality, or a how-to manual for self-improvement. The cross of Jesus runs crosswise to all our human ways of thinking. A rediscovery of the hard and the unpopular themes of the gospel will therefore be such a rediscovery of the whole gospel that the result may lead to reformation and revival.

My one criticism of the book is that at times it seems that he is trying too hard to be eloquent, but that may be just a stylistic thing. Overall I highly recommend that you read this book. It is short and easy to read, yet will stimulate your thinking to your encouragement and benefit.