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Revise Us Again: Living from a Renewed Christian Script [Hardcover]

Frank Viola
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)

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Book Description

April 1, 2011
What do you do when God doesn't appear to fulfill His promises in your life? How do you cope with not feeling God's presence and what do you do when He seems to have walked off the stage of your life? What is the main destroyer of Christian relationships that no one talks about and how can you avoid it? What's the truth behind spiritual gifts? How can you be set free from religious apathy on the one hand and performance-based legalism on the other? What are the three distinct ways that God speaks today and how can we recognize His voice when He speaks through them? What is Christian code language and Christianeze, and how can we rid ourselves of them? Why do so many mentors end up turning on their apprentices? What are the three spiritual conversational styles that Christians use which cause believers to assume they disagree with one another when they really don't? This book offers solutions to these problems and more. Encouraging, insightful, and inspiring. A short, powerful, and easy-to-read work on spiritual transformation.

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Revise Us Again: Living from a Renewed Christian Script + Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity + The Untold Story of the New Testament Church: An Extraordinary Guide to Understanding the New Testament
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Editorial Reviews

Review

From the publisher of "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan comes a new book by bestselling author Frank Viola. In "Revise Us Again," Viola offers a deep and profound look at revising the Christian life in line with the script given by Jesus. Viola writes with captivating candor and infectious wit as he discusses the need for "rescripting" our spiritual lives. Serious Christians will find this compelling new book to be an eye-opener on many levels. It covers such things as the Christianeze of "Let me pray about it" and "The Lord told me," to the deeper meaning of suffering and the "dark night" in the Christian journey, to the different conversational styles that explain why Christians often disagree on theological issues. Viola delivers a powerful portrait of "the three gospels" comparing legalism, libertinism, with lordship and liberty and explores something he calls "being captured by the same spirit you oppose." "Revise Us Again" is a unique and profound contribution to the genre of books like "Radical" and "Crazy Love" which challenge Christians in light of biblical teaching. --Christian Book Reviews

About the Author

FRANK VIOLA is a frequent conference speaker and author of numerous books on the deeper Christian life and church restoration, including Jesus Manifesto, coauthored with Leonard Sweet, Reimagining Church, the best-selling From Eternity to Here, Finding Organic Church and Pagan Christianity (coauthored with George Barna).

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 176 pages
  • Publisher: David C. Cook; New edition (April 1, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1434768651
  • ISBN-13: 978-1434768650
  • Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #710,159 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

FRANK VIOLA has helped thousands of people around the world to deepen their relationship with Jesus Christ and enter into a more vibrant and authentic experience of church. He has written many books on these themes, including "From Eternity to Here," "Reimagining Church," "Pagan Christianity?," "Jesus Manifesto," "Jesus: A Theography," "Revise Us Again," and "Finding Organic Church." He blogs regularly at frankviola.org, which is rated in the top 10 of all Christian blogs on the Web today.

Customer Reviews

I found this book interesting and easy to read. Wyn  |  28 reviewers made a similar statement
We will know Christ's identity in our Christian life and we will make right. W. Timmers  |  19 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I finished reading "Revise Us Again: Living From A Renewed Christian Script" by Frank Viola. What a great book! I highly recommend every Christian to read it! "Revises Us Again" is refreshing book that takes a thoughtful but candid look at and a fresh perspective of how brothers and sisters gather together, sharing life together. The problem is our "religious script" as Frank calls it. "As Christians, we can safely assume that some of the script we have been handed matches the heart and mind of our Master. But typically, much of it doesn't." So begins a very revealing look at how typically the body of Christ relates according to the each others "script" and how to view our life as one in Christ, and to be "revised and re-visioned to match His heart and mind."

As I read the book Frank comes across like a brother sitting in your house (over some coffee, :)) with a gathering of brothers and sisters and sharing his heart about living by Christ's life, reminiscent of the little book "Life Together" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. As stated in the back of the book "Frank Viola believes we need to revisit and revise what it means to live the Christian life." Dietrich Bonhoeffer finding himself amidst an institutional church that had become apostate determined to learn to live by Christ's life and to do so organically in community underground in Nazi Germany. Bonhoeffer's thoughts on the importance of living in community by the life of Christ, "our life together under the Word," is described in his excellent booklet "Life Together." I can sense Bonhoeffer sitting around with the brothers and sisters sharing many of these thoughts that were put together in his booklet so many years ago. I get the same feeling as I read Frank's book "Revise Us Again." Frank, himself a church planter, with an apostolic functioning, brings his hearts burden for the body of Christ, those things he has learned of Christ as he walks with brothers and sisters organically, to learn to live by the life of Christ, to live by the Spirit.

Below are some thoughts from each of the chapters from the book:

- Chapter 1 (God's Three-Fold Speaking) one word - wow! Frank keys in on recognizing the different ways God speaks through His people and the importance of seeking the mind of Christ together. Frank sees how God communicated with His people in three typical ways in the past to how He communicates with His people in the present. He describes them as "thinkers," "feelers," and "doers." "Three temperaments, three denominations, and three forms of God's speaking." The problem is we often view how God communicates through only one of His three ways.

- Chapter 2 (The Lord Told Me). Frank notes the disturbing consequences of using "God told me" in the "vocabulary of a number of Christian traditions" and gives warning to those who "choose to use...hyperspiritual language." "I've routinely watched God get credit for things that He never authored and blamed for things He never imagined." Frank points out to speak with your own words what you believe God has said without having to punctuate it with "The Lord told me."

- Chapter 3 (Let Me Pray About It). Frank gives some real to life examples of instances where some of God's people were asked for help but never followed through and Christ's life was not increased. "In short, 'Let me pray about it' is Christian code language for 'No.'" How important it is to walk in wisdom and do what God has empowered us to do to help and serve others in love in the everyday moments of life. I am reminded of Proverbs 3:27-28, "Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, 'God and come back, and tomorrow I will give it,' when you have it with you." (NASB). May we learn to walk in wisdom.

- Chapter 4 (Spiritual Conversational Styles). Frank describes what he calls "spiritual conversational styles" or SCSs. SGS is the religious script of how we generally communicate with each other either charismatic, quoter, or pragmatic. By the way I tend to be a "quoter" if you haven't realized that by now, :). He makes a point that if we know each others SGS then we can "make progress in how we hear and understand one another." It sounds similar to Gary Chapman's "Five Love Languages," which is also a great book by the way, lol. Frank notes that most of our differences in opinion "over spiritual matters" are really over "differences in communication style" and describes the importance of being "better listeners" towards one another in order to better "understand each other."

- Chapter 5 (What's Wrong With Our Gospel?). Frank gives five "vital elements of the gospel" that are "neglected" in "a large portion of the Christian world." They are from brief scriptural phrases: "Christ in you, the hope of glory...who is our life;" Christ who is "head over all things;" God's "eternal purpose...in Christ Jesus our Lord;" "our old self was crucified with Him;" as as Job spoke "naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return." If Christ is not "at its center (it) is doomed to fail."

- Chapter 6 (The Felt-Presence of God). What a wonderful chapter! Frank writes with sensitivity and a conscious goal to help brothers and sisters to realize that "God is always present in the life of a believer - whether one actively feels His presence or not" and "to be conscious of His presence is to be 'intentionally aware' that He is with you and in you." This made a big impact on me. After having read this chapter and going to work the next day I realized how often I was not "intentionally aware" that Christ was with me and in me. How important to learn to set our minds on Him. Perhaps the same can be said of when we gather together with brothers and sisters, do we intentionally set our minds on Him or some thing or some one?

- Chapter 7 (Captured By The Same Spirit You Oppose). This chapter was like wow, deja vu, how many times have I seen and done the same thing. How many heartaches we give one another, how many loss of relationships occur because of this mindset. As Frank says: "we are all susceptible to this spirit...Each of us needs a steady dose of God's infinite grace to avoid falling sway to it."

- Chapter 8 (The God of Unseen Endings). This was an incredibly written chapter that looks at the mystery of Christ. Frank describes parallels in the Old and New Testament scriptures to show that "God takes away to establish, and what He establishes is always better than what He takes away" and "God's beginnings are our nights." Christ not the God of our expectations.

- Chapter 9 (Stripping Down to Christ Alone). I so appreciate Frank's candidness in this chapter. He describes what he is against, leery of, skeptical, opposed to, and critical of regarding the fleshly abuses in church gatherings. But how he is so much for "the centrality, supremacy, sovereignty, and exaltation of the Lord Jesus. Period."

- Chapter 10 (Your Christ Is Too Small). Frank describes his personal journey into the community of brothers and sisters in Christ. "I live by the Lord who lives in me, and I live by the Lord who lives in my fellow brethren (in whom Christ also dwells)." The body of Christ is a shared life. We know Christ through His body. Frank also gives warning about not moving forward in Christ together, not receiving Christ when he comes to us unexpected and the importance of diversity in the body of Christ.

- Afterword (The Three Gospels). Frank has mentioned these before but think the are still so relevant to be brought up as reminders and that is the gospel of libertinism and the gospel of legalism which are in reality not gospels, or good news, at all, they only "tether you to the flesh." Only Paul's gospel that he preached, the same as that of Christ Jesus is real, "the gospel of the new creation." This is perhaps one section above all others a must read, as institutionalism, whether in a house or a 'church" building, no matter the form, corrupts Christ to either libertinism or legalism.

So Frank ends his little book. I feel like I have sat around some brothers and sisters, those whom I love, those whom I have offended, and realize how dead the flesh is and how alive Christ wants to be expressed in me, in us, and I cry "Christ you are our life, may we so live by your life, come quickly, may it be so." How we need to remember these words about the Christian life: "For Paul, the Christian life is becoming what you already are." "Revise us Again" helps us to learn to live life together.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A very good read! April 12, 2011
Format:Hardcover
Taking a break from a heavier theological work, I picked up Frank Viola's most recent book, Revise Us Again: Living from a Renewed Christian Script.

It was like turning aside from the steak to the potatoes and gravy.

Revise Us Again is a relatively light and quick read: ten chapters, just over 160 pages, smaller hardback - but no pictures (darn!). I was actually just intending to sample, but Viola drew me into his musings about various aspect of the "Christian script" we in our Christian culture tend to work from. His observations range from what was for me more humorous poking at ourselves to some very helpful thoughts on deeper levels.

An example of the former is our common tendency to answer queries for help from others with the "I'll have to pray about that" response. In case you were wondering, that always means "no" (just as when parents say to their kids "I'll have to think about that"). At least that's Viola's experience without fail. Not only do we not take responsibility for a yes or no answer, we put it "on the Lord" and then dismiss the person and then (again, according to Viola) never get back to them with a final answer even if we said we would. Reading this chapter I realized that I had just done this myself within the past month.

Thanks, Frank.

Among the "meatier" (for me) observations and musings was one concerning Christians' "spiritual conversation styles" (SCS). Viola outlines three SCS Christians frequently employ that essentially amount to different languages, each style connecting with the form of divine revelation most valued by the user/speaker. There's the "quoter SCS" that is immersed in the written word. "God says it, that settles it, so I believe it - so what's your problem?" Text and proof-texts abound - just quoting the text should be enough - no need for discussion, right, it's right there in black and white! I'm personally very familiar with this SCS - and with what happens when you match up a "quoter" with a "charismatic SCS." The "charismatic" uses phrases like "the Lord told me" and tends to regard the "quoter" as a bit legalistic and out of touch with what God is currently saying or doing. The "quoter," of course, thinks the "charismatic" simply has no real respect for God and his Word (otherwise he would certainly listen to his texts!). And watching the whole exchange is the "pragmatic" who has her own "SCS" as she looks at the bigger picture and marvels at how both "quoter" and "charismatic" just don't seem to get it.

Watching Viola unfold his thoughts about these "conversation styles" and his emphasis on the importance of the body of Christ embracing and recognizing all three of them was a wonderful "connect-the-dots" moment for me. How easy it is to talk right past each other and then to write you off because you obviously aren't getting it. And how this is compounded by our impersonal emailing, facebooking and blogging ways.

I found myself wishing for more chapters by the time I finished - but Viola had accomplished his purpose: he has me looking again with fresh eyes at my own "script" and asking just where it might need to be revised, for only the script of fools never needs changing.

Take and read.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Revise ME Again May 18, 2011
Format:Hardcover
I believe that Frank Viola is one of the more critical thinkers in western Christian thought. His website "Beyond Evangelical" ([...]) is one of my must read blogs. His books (especially Jesus Manifesto, which he wrote with Leonard Sweet) are among what I consider to be the most important contemporary writing for the western church.

Viola's newest book: Revise Us Again: Living From a Renewed Christian Script, asserts the Christians need revising, specifically as it relates to certain areas vital to our life in Christ, issue Viola suggests are seldom address today. Christians believe that the scriptures give us a script for experiencing the life God desires. The problem is that this biblical script is often distorted by our religious, socio-economic, and political traditions. In other words, we read into the Bible the scripts of our traditions - and then assert that they are holy writ.

Viola's challenge is that we continually revise our scripts to rescue them from these distortions and bring them back in line with scripture. Specifically Viola says we need to revise things like how we speak of God, our Christian code language, our semantics, our messages, Christianeze, our understanding of the Holy Spirit's work, and our chief pursuit as Christ-followers.

As with Viola's blog and previous books, I highly recommend that every Christian read "Revises Us Again."
In his intro, Viola writes: "As Christians, we can safely assume that some of the script we have been handed matches the heart and mind of our Master. But typically, much of it doesn't."

If you are willing to have the part of your script challenged which DOES NOT match the heart and mind of the Master, then this is an important read. Just be aware that what you think might match the Master's heart, may in fact be a false script. Read with an open heart and mind so that the Holy Spirit might "revise" you again.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars makes so much sense
So many things to like about this book. It reveals some of the bondage to which Christians have been exposed in churches, then helps you know how to be free from that bondage. Read more
Published 14 days ago by SheriEllen
5.0 out of 5 stars Yes, Lord Jesus revise us again!
In easy to understand format Mr. Viola takes us into deeper thinking. Maturity only happens when we allow God permeate us. Read more
Published 22 days ago by vabeachboricua
5.0 out of 5 stars Like Cleaning Dirty eyeglasses
This book is like cleaning the dust, dirt, and smudges off your eyeglasses and seeing clearly what you knew was there, but had been clouded! Read it! You need it!
Published 1 month ago by Marion L Arbuckle
3.0 out of 5 stars This book sheds lights on acting "religious"
I gave this book a 3 because it did exactly its purpose and brought up a lot of points about Christianity today that are apart of the Christian culture and not necessarily from... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Britt Hennings
5.0 out of 5 stars Back to the basics
I have read several of Frank Viola's books and appreciate the consistent move away from the superfluous additions to our relationship with the Lord. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Luke L Laffin
5.0 out of 5 stars I'll be reading it again!
I wasn't sure what to expect as I'm not always totally on board with all that Frank Viola teaches on the subject of the church. Read more
Published 1 month ago by TravelTune
5.0 out of 5 stars GETTING BACK TO BASICS
Frank Viola brought out 'Revise Us Again' as a follow-up to his earlier book, 'Pagan Christianity', co-authored with George Barna, Whereas the former book created a bit of a shock... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Ms A. Johnstone
5.0 out of 5 stars AMAZING! from a 29 year old mommy & wife
I thought From Eternity to Here was my fave... and then I thought Jesus Manifesto was my favorite.... I decide that I just can't have a favorite of Viola's books. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Randi J. Rooks
4.0 out of 5 stars Needed corrective for contemporary charismatic churches
This book is a collection of mini-writings along the themes that Viola has learned over the course of his faith journey. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Jung Lee
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent service
Book arrived as expected and is an excellent work. Thankful for the fast service and soon arrival. Always good to deal with such fine people.
Published 2 months ago by Jack R. Jackson
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