Customer Reviews

What on Earth Are We Doing?: Finding Our Place As Christians in the World

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This is the most powerful work that I have read since Philip Yancey's What's So Amazing About Grace. It spoke volumes of truth to me. Fischer believes that the evangelical community in America has, in the past 25 years or so, developed what can only be described as a Christian sub-culture; one which has had more negative than positive effects. He states that we're raised to believe that if we only act differently from the world then the world will see us and think "man, I wanna be like you." But that hasn't really happened. Instead, in large part to the WAY we act differently, the world views us and sees hypocracy, piousness, and a lack of love. They're not seeing Jesus. Just look at the way Christians are portrayed by the media: intolerant, not full of love. Also, instead of being salt and light to the world, we are in effect no longer even in the world. We have retreated in an effort to avoid being touched by the sinfulness that we see.

Fischer believes that our little sub-culture has totally failed. The church is called to love our neighbors, which requires actually engaging them. The church is not called to impose our morality upon someone who doesn't believe as we do. We are not here to spread Christian conservative principles throughout America. We're here to spread the Gospel of Jesus to people who are without it and lost.

One of the problems is that we so often view others as the enemy. Conservatives look at liberals and think "enemy." Fundamentalists look at homosexuals and pro-choice activists as "the enemy." Fischer says that is dead wrong. The world (the unsaved) is not our enemy. The world is LOST. When we quit looking at the world as something we must struggle and fight against and begin looking at the world through the eyes of Christ and see them as lost, that totally changes our approach. When our attitude changes, we no longer try to set the sinner straight or fix their moral problems. Instead, we try to bring her/him home safely. We don't focus on their sinfulness, we focus on their need for a savior.

Our entire approach must change. To do so, we need to reach the world where it's at. We need to examine their culture: the things that are important to them and the things they spend their time doing. By reaching out to the world with our walls of judgement breeched, and doing it in love, by realizing that none of us are perfect and that world is full of sinners, and I am the worst of them (as Paul himself readily admited), our efforts to reach these people will take on a totally new face and effectiveness. Buy this book. Search for it, if you have to (you may have to order it). It's a great read -- fast paced, due to his writing style -- and you'll finish it quickly. The message here is challenging, no-holds-barred, and urgent; it must be heard and applied. Five Stars.

John Fischer's books always make me think. This one is no exception. In fact, it's his best. While examining the current state of contemporary Christianity, he does us a tremendous service. He prods us, disturbs us, and makes us laugh at ourselves while examining where on earth we actually are; somewhere, it seems, locked away in our own little Christian Ghetto. Here is a trumpet call to break out and think about what it means to be in the world but not of it. In light of current events, it is critical we examine our most cherished understandings. Not for those who have already decided they know and are right

I have thought for years that the subculture we have created is thwarted and needs to be re-examined. Thankfully, I have found someone who wrote what I was feeling. Today we are teaching our children to be neither in the world NOR of it. Fischer gives us a close and logical explanation of why this is, and why it should not be. Our irrational, extrabiblical methods are peeled away and he shows us the bigger picture of the world--what we have not seen. Helping us to step into "their" shoes for a moment, Fischer finally answers the faddish question "what would Jesus do?" in a passionate and enlightening way.

THIS BOOK IS A MUST-READ FOR ALL CLERGY, ESPECIALLY PASTORS AND YOUTH PASTORS.

I heard John Fisher speak at my school and was amazed at how directly he spoke about problems I had perceived in the church but had never been able to put into words. His book "What on Earth Are We Doing?" is no different. As someone who grew up in the Christian subculture, I can relate to everything he says about it, and as someone who has always felt a bit uncomfortable with the theology behind the Christian subculture, his book was a breath of fresh air. It was as if he had heard all the little nagging doubts in the back of my mind and finally dragged them to the surface, gave them form, and helped me think through them in a logical manner. It was a life-changing experience, to say the least. So many Christians seem happier having their thinking done for them by the mainstream church; such people will find this book disturbing and offensive. It is not for them. This book is for people who are driven to think about the theology behind what they do. For them it will be a wake-up call, a light in the darkness, an assurance that they are not alone. Whether you agree with everything John Fisher says or not, his book will change the way you approach the practice of your faith and is one of the books in this world that are most worth reading.

The premise of John Fischer's book, WHAT ON EARTH ARE WE DOING? is that the Church has abandoned the world and instead of being the salt and light of the Earth as Jesus called us to be, we have created our own little sub-culture, our own little ghetto of safety that the world totally ignores.

The Christian sub-culture is not necessarily a bad thing. We need fellowship with other believers, we need music that glorifies God, we need books written from a Christian perspective. However, we have created these things at the expense of being mediocre and with an attitude of self-righteousness. The world ignores the little ghetto we have created for ourselves because it has nothing to offer them except hypocrisy, condemnation, and mediocrity.

We as the Church have not forgotten we are at war, but we have mixed up who we are at war with. For the last thirty years, Christians have been fighting against the people of the world when those are the very individuals we are fighting to save. We are not at war with the lost, we are at war with the dark forces of the spiritual realm. We have forgotten this and instead of trying to help illuminate the world with the Gospel, we have condemned it with our own self-righteousness.

These are all points the Fischer raises and discusses in WHAT ON EARTH ARE WE DOING?. The book is a great read for every Christian and will probably prove to be an eye opener.

Fischer has always been a capable writer both of fiction and non-fiction, but "What On Earth Are We Doing" is his tour de force, a brilliant analysis of what is wrong in Christendom. Fischer shines a spotlight on all of the silly arguments that have kept committed Christians from impacting the wider world an culture.

This book deserves a wider audience than it has received so far. Tell a friend!