The Jesus of Suburbia: Have We Tamed the Son of God to Fit Our Lifestyle?

Expect no sugar-coated sweetness about "felt needs" and in-church coffee bars from Erre, pastor of teaching at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa, Calif. Expect, instead, compelling discussion of how the Christian church has lost sight of the revolutionary teaching and love of Jesus. "Much of the message of American Christianity presents Jesus as the purveyor of the American Dream," he says. American Christians, he claims, have reduced Jesus to a study of risk management; we want him to be "predictable and safe." Erre also uses the adjectives "insecure, threatened, naive, simplistic, mean and shortsighted" to describe many of today's churches. He lambastes our love of theology instead of Jesus, our contentment with "simply knowing about him instead of knowing him." While this protest continues in the vein of other recent books that take a hard look at Jesus and the church (Jesus Mean and Wild ; Out of Your Comfort Zone ), it offers a fresh look at how the American church must begin "demonstrating the message of Christ," not merely explaining it. After all, says Erre, "if you follow Jesus, you follow the most radical man who ever existed." (Oct. 10)