Revolution | 
|  | | | Title: | Revolution | | Author: | George Barna | | Publisher: | BarnaBooks | | Type: | Book / Hardcover | | Publication Date: | 26 September, 2005 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 1414307586 / 9781414307589 | | List Price: | $17.99 | | You Save: | $5.76 | | Amazon Price: | $12.23 | |
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Product Description
World-renowned pollster George Barna has the numbers, and they indicate a revolution is already taking place within the Church--one that will impact every believer in America. Committed, born-again Christians are exiting the established church in massive numbers. Why are they leaving? Where are they going? And what does this mean for the future of the Church? Using years' worth of research data, and adhering to an unwavering biblical perspective, Barna predicts how this revolution will impact the organized church, how Christ's body of believers should react, and how individuals who are considering leaving (or those who have already left) can respond. For leaders working for positive change in the church and for believers struggling to find a spiritual community and worship experience that resonates, Revolution is here. Are you ready?
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Customer Reviews:
• Church Redefined? 15 June, 2008
Church's future status?
This was a scary read on some many levels. First I would like to say I'm mixed on my emotions of the context of this book. Barna says that to become larger Christians we must become smaller in size. I guess this would be the reversing of mega-church phenomenon. He goes on to say God did not send Jesus so we might be comfortable or complacent. That is something today's church is extremely guilty of. It goes on to say "Revolutionist" are dissatisfied with the status quo and they want to be a part of something larger than what institutional religion has to offer. Another aspect of the movement described is to take seriously influencing the world rather than be influenced a "take your faith in your hands" approach and not use the church as a crutch for your children or outreaching the nations.
On a cautious side if this "Revolution" if it fails stalls or stumbles it could be detrimental to churches existence. This revolution would be in a must succeed status.
There are some scary truths and a lot of questions that this books poses. Over all a good read that every pastor or church leader should read. Each one of us should look at the format of the church whether it is institutional or internal of one's self!
- Reviewed by customer ID: A234P3YK7GX3IV
• The Face Of The Church Is Changing 18 August, 2008
This is a groundbreaking book. George Barna, who is esteemed by the evangelical Christian world, lays it all on the line and the numbers reveal the sad truth that the present form of the traditional church is not getting the job done. It's failing to change lives and it's failing to influence the culture that surrounds it.
There is a revolution happening and it has to with the changing form of the church. Those Christians who are tied to the status quo will resist it. Those who want more of God, no matter what it costs or where it leads, will welcome it.
Barna does a great job building his case by showing how the present form of church is failing and why. He then discusses the key features of every revolution and explains that the Christian faith is experiencing one in our time. In the next 20 years, the face of the church will change in some major ways.
I recommend this book along with the follow up books, "Pagan Christianity?," where Barna traces how the traditional church got its present form and why it should be questioned, and "Reimagining Church," which presents a fresh vision of the church based on the Bible.
These three books make a great set for revolutionaries young and old.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AUFHJRHVYJW3G
• Doesn't Think It Through 08 July, 2008
Dear Dr. Barna:
Last night I finished your book, "Revolution." I realized in the reading of it that you were describing my childhood and explaining why my parents made many of the choices they did. They were early Revolutionaries, seeking to change a broken church system through various means. We had a home church for a while. My parents found spiritual growth in homeschooling, as you describe when discussing alternative faith communities. Eventually they banded together with others and implemented their revolutionary ideas in a small congregation where I spent most of my formative years. Consequently, I did not find your ideas new or shocking; and while I can see the strengths of the "revolution," I have a pretty good idea about the drawbacks of choosing that path. Your book mentions many potential objections. Mine are not among them.
The main weaknesses I have found to the 'revolution' are these:
* A self-centered attitude. Because they are creating their own spiritual journey, Revolutionaries must fight egocentric thinking more than other groups. It's easy to fall into a trap where you're looking for the spiritual things that will feed yourself, instead of looking for the good of other Christians. This is particularly true when Revolutionaries clash with older people. Older people can find change bewildering and the church system enriching and worshipful. Somebody's got to submit out of reverence for Christ -- and in my experience, no one does. Instead, there are ugly bickering fights, in which the Revolutionaries stop their ears to the needs of the older people. So yes, they may be creating their 'own path,' but it is often at the expense of other Christians who should be valued and cared for. This is not love, but selfishness.
* Lack of structure. You seem to believe this is a good thing. After twenty years of it, I beg to differ. While I agree that the present hierarchy seen in many churches is unbiblical, so too is free-floating Christianity without any leadership and accountability. Leadership provides structure, direction, a sounding board for heresy. You do mention heresy in your book, but you say it's equally prevalent within churches as without. True or not, you are side-stepping the question. Does not Paul direct Timothy to appoint elders for a reason? Or is that command not applicable to the revolution?
* Confusing "Revolutionary" with "Fighting the system." In my experience, Revolutionaries are people with great ideas - and also, naturally, people who like to challenge the system. This can be good, as the system needs to be challenged for its refinement. But what happens to a Revolutionary after the system is changed? Surprisingly, I found that the Revolutionaries stagnated. When there was nothing to fight, they became complacent and lackadaisical, just like the system against which they initially revolted. It's easy to entangle revolution with Christianity (as C. S. Lewis writes in Screwtape Letters, getting hooked on "Christianity and--" which in essence waters down the Christianity itself). This can be inherent to the "revolution," because it is an outgrowth of the attitude of revolt.
I must admit to some surprise that you didn't address these questions, as they came quite readily to my mind. Then again, perhaps I have an uncommon experience that you have not encountered. Again, I see many strengths to the 'revolution' you describe, but anyone who reads your book should be alerted to these drawbacks before deciding to pursue that road.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A306UPU8DXIAXC
• Possible To Grow Outside The Church Walls? 29 June, 2008
Revolution was recommended to me by someone I respect, and I wouldn't have read it otherwise. Where I thought it would be a rah-rah, "just get out there and be different...somehow", all-fluff-no-stuff book, it was scarily different. I could never make the connection of how Barna, a Christian Gallup-type pollster, could put out a vision-casting, fiery call to the people, but it's because he _does_ see the numbers that lit the fire for him and this call. The statistics on pp 30 - 36 alone are worth the price of the book. I haven't been so convicted about the reality of my spiritual condition in many, many years. How much am I worshiping, serving, giving, witnessing, reading the bible, leading my family's spiritual growth? Do these activities have to be cordoned or the responsibility of the church. It's the same issue of parent who see the school system responsible for their child's education, rather than the parent responsible and the school as a vehicle and help to that goal. And the paradigm shift Barna begs we make, and the weight of most of the book, is that our focus is not that church is enough, but that Jesus is. Leaders I love and respect say "The church is the hope of the world," and in the past I repeated it. Not I see that Jesus is the hope of the world, and we make a difference for Him in every way _we_ can, not limited to every way that church can, for we ourselves _are_ the Church. If nothing else, read the book to see the reality of the abysmal state of the average Christian and the statistics of some phenomenal success and growth of Christian work occurring outside the traditional church walls.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1ZOB6R0BDLXSP
• Church & Church 27 July, 2008
First, by way of introduction, let me say that I have almost everything George Barna has written, and I stay up-to-date on his research by receiving mailings from his email list. Mr Barna's work is a revolution, and if the Church universal isn't listening, then it will continue to be in the doldrums as he describes it.
I come from an areligious background. That has been advantageous in that I don't have emotional baggage that keeps me bonded and protective of a certain theological model of the church local or Church universal. I am pretty free to evolve with G-d's plan for planet earth. But I do have certain Biblical convictions that I think that Mr Barna is missing in this book.
I'm not sure of Mr Barna's theological studies and background, but this text seems to major in Biblical references to explicit passages about what the church is and isn't. There's a whole lot of implicit teaching that leads down a different path in describing church polity.
In Mr Barna's vision of how the "revolution" is unfolding, he sees the majority of the "revolutionaries" operating outside of the historical church structure. Yet, much of the New Testament teaching on that structure is taught based on an understanding of what it already was in Jewish tradition. And that tradition was the synagogue.
Next, Paul teaches about deacons and elders. Jesus taught in Matthew 18 about how to handle the sinfully rebellious. None of that teaching is possible in Mr Barna's "open structure" of the local church.
Letters from Paul and the other New Covenant writers don't make sense with Mr Barna's lack of any structure in his vision of what the church should be. All of life has organization and rules. The local church is no different.
I'm sympathetic with Barna's vision of what the church is and should be. I can't argue with his thesis in any way when we examine where we are, and where we need to be. I agree that present church denominational setup and control can militate against the evolution he prophesies. But I don't agree with throwing the baby out with the bath water.
How can I be accountable to other brethren unless there are those who are officially recognized as having the giftings who can disciple me? Where are the elders who can lay hands on those they recognize are called to certain ministries as the elders laid hands on Paul and sent him out? Where are those who have a depth of Scriptural knowledge that can keep His people from straying into cultish behavior?
Stepping outside the established church may in some cases be the right thing to do. It's very difficult to "build on someone else's foundation." If my local congregation isn't operating in a Biblical manner to achieve the objectives that Barna is advocating, the I would suggest it's time to move, but I would stop short of moving to a group of people that don't have the structures in place to to effect the Scriptural model of a local congregation.
If I had any recommendations for George Barna, it would be to examine what I call the "missing theology." What is missing in the local congregation is COMMUNITY LIFE. Much of what George Barna is describing is that which can't possibly be accomplished unless an intimacy between believers is established that is much more than "hello's" and "good-bye's" that are built around the Sunday morning services. Little in the New Testament can be operationally applied and lived without a serious community life that forces believers to be accountable to one another. Without community life, I can't confess my sins "one to another," and find the healing that James suggests is available in the Body dynamic.
A simplistic viewpoint? Yes. But relationships are not simple. Relationship is the basic Biblical teaching on which all other theologies depend. Relationship on the vertical and the horizontal is why G-d sent His Messiah to save us, so to reconcile us to one another, and to Him. Only a return to the realities of relationship will accomplish what George Barna is looking for. Barna has the right answers, but it appears that his questions need to be reframed.
With these caveats in place, I heartily recommend this book.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A9OUSM0947JT0
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