The Irresistible Revolution, Updated and Expanded: Living as an Ordinary Radical

One of the most life changing books I've ever read. Shane's vision of what Christianity could become if we just followed Jesus is beyond words. The movement of the Holy Spirit slaps you in the face on every page. By far a classic in the making of christian literature.

This book will make you question your actions and also make you open your eyes to the true meaning of being the hands and feet of Jesus! Highly recommend!

No matter what you believe about the role of Christians in society and culture, especially in regard to social issues like hunger, poverty, and war, Shane's book will challenge you to think and act differently. It is the story of how he and some friends entered into one of the worst areas of Philadelphia to live out the love of Jesus among the people who were there. Shane gives plenty of examples about the things they have done and the lessons they have learned along the way.For example, their community developed a statement of beliefs to show people that they were not a cult, but they also developed a statement of practices to show they were not just believers (p. 125). I would love to see this sort of thing adopted in churches everywhere. We have doctrinal statements, but how many of us have practical statements? If what you believe isn't leading you to do something for others, what good is it? (That sounds a lot like James 2.) And of course, their community in Philly didn't just write a statement of practices, they actually practice them. That's important too.Here are some of the other ideas that challenged me:-The greatest tragedy in the church today is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor (p. 113, 127, 157).-We don't need more churches. What we need is a church (p. 145).-We lose our children to the culture of drugs and materialism, violence and war, not because we did not entertain them, but because we did not challenge them to actually live the gospel in difficult and heroic ways (p. 226).-If we believe terrorists are beyond redemption, we should rip out half our New Testament, since it was written by a converted terrorist who became an extremist for grace (p. 272).-Violence is for those who have lost their imagination (p. 279).-We should no longer talk about "issues" and "needs." We need to talk about and get to know people. For example, it's easy to talk about "ending world hunger," but such theoretical discussions cease when we discover that Jim lost his job and doesn't have any money to put food on the table for his wife and three kids. Stop talking about issues and needs, and get out there and find someone who is dealing with such things, and then help them (p. 292).-Bigger is not better. We do not need million-dollar mansions for God to accomplish His will for the world. In fact, those megabuildings might only get in the way (p. 322ff). We need to grow smaller and smaller until we take over the world (p. 340).Not everyone is going to agree with Shane, his beliefs, or his practices. There were several things he said and did in the book that made me quite uncomfortable. Like the time they went and threw $10,000 worth of coins onto the sidewalks of Wall Street to make a point about greed (pp. 188-189). I'm still not sure what was accomplished, and it seemed a somewhat wasteful way of using $10,000.I highly recommend this book. And I, for one, am going to do more than just read it. I am going to start trying to live the Kingdom of God ideas it contains. Read this book. Let Shane challenge you to change.

This book makes me want to not only make some small changes, but change my whole life. There aren't many book I would read a second time, but this is one of them. While reading this book, I decided one morning to take a one year challenge. It's a small step, but you have to start somewhere.I bought the domain name trashsociety.com a while back, with many different intentions of what I could do with it. We have so much waste in our American culture. We are raised to do anything and everything that will make our lives easier and more comfortable. Well I am finally uncomfortable with comfort and irritated with ease. There is so much suffering in the world and we can all make a difference by intentionally choosing to make some simple changes in the way we live.A few months ago, I was channel flipping on my TV (my nice flat screen TV that I just really needed to buy with the monthly satellite TV package that everyone needs in order to live because we must be entertained if we're awake, right?) and came across a show called Hoarders. If you haven't seen this show, check it out. It's a little bit like watching a wreck. It's awful, quite disturbing and yet you want to look at it. I've watched many episodes of it and came to one conclusion. The only difference between these hoarders that are being showcased for reality show entertainment and the rest of us watching is that the rest of us don't have a problem getting rid of our stuff. We buy stuff, lots of stuff and when we are tired of it, we give it away or worse yet, throw it away.What's the challenge? The challenge is no new stuff for one year. This means no shopping in retail stores, with the exception of groceries and toiletries. (I don't want CPS taking my kids away for my radicalness) Groceries and toiletries are the only new things we will buy and will, in the process, learn better ways to make those purchases. The only places we will shop is thrift stores or resale shops. No major purchases either. Now the one small issue here is that sometimes I have to buy things at work for stage sets or marketing. I will still have to make those purchases because I need my job. (Or do I? Okay, a subject for another time)I will be blogging this challenge at trashsociety.com. I can't say enough about this book, but it's a MUST READ. I wish I could buy one for every person I know! Yeah, I know, I can't for a year. LOL

This is the kind of book that shakes you awake. Life changing.

Un livre passionant sans détour qui nous aide à voir la réalité en face.

It's hard to know how to serve God in modern times. This book provides some marvelous insights into what can be done by any person, no matter where they find themselves. Worth reading if you want to inspire yourself to follow Jesus in the midst of modern capitalism.

Great read. Every page challenges you to get up, get out and get moving on doing.

es la segunda vez que lo leo!realmente es excelente. sencillo pero con un mensaje profundo.un desafío para vivir nuestra mejor versión.