Customer Reviews

Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Os Guinness has written an amazing work on the concept of "Time" Guinness states that we live in a world that is run by the clock, we have been described as a people with "gods on their wrists" We do not have enough time for anyone but ourselves, and even that time is running ourselves thin. Therefore it's time to turn back the clock. Perhaps one of my favorite parts of the book is when Os Guinness steps out and calls for a reformation. He notes some of the greatest minds in history, the examples they shared, and how we need reform badly. I loved this book almost as much as Time For Truth. Because of the purpose of this book was something that I believe to have been met, I will gladly give the book 5-Stars. Os Guinness wrote the book no one had written, and everyones been asking for. Great work!

Prophetic Untimeliness is a clarion call to the church, and one that will hopefully be heard and heeded. Guinness examines the current condition of the church and concludes that the church is pursuing a wrong goal: relevance. His claim is that the timeless truth of the Word of God is always relevant to the condition and nature of man; therefore, the church need not pursue relevance, it should be acting from a position of relevance. But, unfortunately, many churches today are missing that point and are spending countless hours, energy and untold resources to appear relevant, rather than being relevant!

Guinness writes that Christians today need to practice what C.S. Lewis called "resistance thinking" - or counter-culture thinking. He notes how Christianity is unique in that it is both world-affirming (loving what God has created and died for) and also world-denying (hating sin and the fallen nature of this world). Obviously Christ taught that His followers were to be in the world, but not of it and that is the point that Guinness is reiterating as well. But that world-denying part isn't easy, today or ever - Guinness examines the lives of various Old Testament prophets who spoke the truth of God's word to a deaf and stubborn people, similar to the condition of those speaking God's truth can expect today as well.

While not easy, the call to be set apart for the service of the Lord is the calling for all followers of Christ. Christians need to begin to take practical steps to develop their resistance thinking - reading old books is the first suggestion that Guinness makes! He also warns that the Christian should not examine his life, ministry and calling in light of his own day, but realize that only truth and eternity will give relevance to "relevance."

This is an outstanding book, but if the reader is unfamiliar with the style and other writings of Guinness, they may not appreciate his critical analysis of the American church and culture. While Guinness is critical, he is not without his redeeming and constructive suggestions for change - in fact, redemption is the cornerstone of the Christian faith - the ability to examine one's life in light of the work of Christ and allow Him to live through you...for in your weaknesses, He is made strong! Guinness suggests that this is the only way for the church to really be relevant to the ever-changing conditions of the world - to allow the unchanging Author and Perfector of our faith live though us each and every day!

Never have Christians tried to be so relevant, and yet never have they been so terribly irrelevant. How could this happen? It is this question that Os Guinness addresses in Prophetic Untimeliness, which claims to be "A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance." Guinness says that the goal of the book is to explore how the stupidity of relevance has come about. "How on earth have we Christians become so irrelevant when we have tried so hard to be relevant?...Never have Christians pursued relevance more strenuously; never have Christians been more relevant" (page 11, 12).

Before beginning the study in earnest, the author is careful to define relevance, which he says is "the quality of relating to a matter in hand with pertinence and appropriateness" (page 12). He says that relevance is the very heart of the gospel, for there can be no message more relevant than that of sin and salvation. But this is not the relevance that the evangelical church has sought, and thus they have missed out on true relevance. The true question the church needs to face is how to be both faithful and relevant.

Here is the thesis of the book: "By our uncritical pursuit of relevance we have actually courted irrelevance; by our breathless chase after relevance without a matching committment to faithfulness, we have become not only unfaithful, but irrelevant; by our determined efforts to redefine outselves in ways that are more compelling to the modern world than are faithful to Christ, we have lost not only our identity but our authority and our relevance. Our crying need is to be faithful as well as relevant" (page 15).

It came as a surprise that following this introduction challenging the church's assumptions about relevance, the first section of the book is dedicated to the Western world's obsession with time and timeliness. There are three features of modern clock time that shape our lives and our thinking: precision, coordination and pressure. This overbearing emphasis on time is driving our lives. Guinness refers to the clock as "the tool that turned into a tyrant" (page 25). In the next chapter he writes about the tyrannies of time - the deeper features of a clock-driven society that effect our lives. All of this leads to the conclusion that because of our obsession with time, we regard what is contemporary as inherently better than what is from the past, and we regard what is future as better than what is present. In short, the latest is the greatest. We assume that progress is change, and change is progress, yet history shows clearly that this is not always the case. Having examined how the pressures of modern time have shaped our lives, he is now able to examine relevance.

The second section of the book begins the examination of relevance. Guinness outlines four steps to irrelevance, which should be self-explanatory. They are: Assumption, Abandonment, Adaptation and Assimilation. We need to be shaped by our faith rather than the world, yet we have allowed the world to shape our faith in the name of relevance. In so-doing we have lost the most relevant message in the world. We have bowed before the forces of cultural captivity - conformity, popularity and fashionability.

All of this leads to the author's call for prophetic untimeliness; a call for people who will stand on the relevance of the gospel message even at the expense of perceived cultural relevance. This may lead to us feeling maladjusted, impatient or even feeling like failures, yet we do not need to worry about how people perceive us or even about the legacy we will leave behind. We need to be faithful and obedience above all. In the end, all that matters is the eternal, and only the gospel message carries an eternal impact. If we downplay this message, we have become unfaithful and irrelevant. To go forward, the church must go back and learn how to be fresh and creative, while maintaining faithfulness.

This book is a timely and faithful call to the church and one we would all do well to read and consider. It stands as a forceful critique of the idol of relevance and a loving call to the church to recover the only message that can truly make her relevant. I give this one a wholehearted recommendation.

Ever since the 1960s, when he worked with Francis Schaeffer in Switzerland, Os has been writing life changing and enhancing books. Once again he does not let us down - let this book transform you as all this author's books have done since the Gravedigger File and Doubt. Go for it! Christopher Catherwood, author of CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS AND ISLAMIC RAGE (Zondervan, 2003)

Os shares some awesome commentary on the state of relevence in the church. He also brings the plight of the ancient prophets into the modern world and compares them to the "untimely" people today. His comments on the history of time were also very interesting, as some of the other reviewers point out.

Overall I think this small book is a wonderful addition to any Christian library.

"Never have Christians pursued relevance more strenuously; never have Christians been more irrelevant."

Os Guinness is a good writer because he was first a good reader. His vast learning - especially from older sources - enables him perceive the presuppositions and values of our era which we tend to absorb unconsciously. His books, then, are less concerned with giving readers specific plans of action than they are with conveying a wider, more historical perspective on a certain issue.

In Prophetic Untimeliness, Guinness examines the issue of Christian relevance. He notes that the church, more than ever before, conforms itself to the expectations of our culture:

"Some have spent the last decades reinventing churches furiously according to the dictates of the baby boomers. Others are now pronouncing that passé and are tackling the task with the same enthusiasm to court the younger generations."

And we've become irrelevant.

Guinness believes the church has given up far too much in this pursuit, with more concessions to come.

"Signs are that, unless some drastic rethinking takes place soon, the corruptions in evangelicalism will worsen and show through in theology, not just in practice."

His conclusion: relevance is not a thing that the church can achieve by looking to culture; it is not even a thing that can be pursued as an end in itself. Being relevant is a side-effect of clinging to Scripture, which is inherently relevant because it contains exclusive, perfect truth that speaks to eternal human needs, as well as an unchanging, all-satisfying Creator-God.

In this refreshingly insightful book, Guinness exposes how the Church has bowed to the idol of relevance and its relationship to time (trendiness). The Church is too busy trying to keep up, constantly conforming itself to what the world says it needs to in order to relevant. Too much is given to being fresh, new, up-to-date, attunded, appealking, seeker-sensitive, audience-friendly (p. 76) The Church is too often looking to become "future-savvy", producing futurism, which is a quack-science that picks up current trends, and projects them into the future, and then pretends the results are predictions (p. 77) Leaders who have such a mind set ought to be called down as false prophets.

In having such a mentality, the Church actually becomes irrelevant. Guinness teaches us the only way the Church can actually be relevant is through being faithful to the gospel, for "in itself the good news of Jesus is utterly relevant or it is not the good news it claims to be." (p. 13) Guinness calls the Church to stop being "obsessed with the new" (p. 77) and rather to learn from the past, and most importantly, the eternal.

On a personal note, like the one reviewer mentioned, I agree this book shows the errors of the "New Apostolic Reformation" (the neo-charismatic apostolic/prophetic movement) in their constant stream of prophecies of the "coming" Church. They constantly threaten "Join us or be left behind" (p. 76)

I also would highly recommend an equally insigthful (and much more thorough) book by Philip Kenneson's called "Life on the Vine."