"Unfashionable" is a book written by Tullian Tchividijian. He breaks down the book into four parts: The Call; The Commission; The Community; and The Charge. Within this post, I will only highlight portions of the book that are within 'The Call.'
Tullian begins the book by describing how he lead a rebellious life, turned from God and ran after the world to satisfy him.
"The more I pursued those things, the more lost I felt. The more I drank from the well of worldly acceptance, the thirstier I became; the faster I ran toward godless pleasure, the farther I felt from true fulfillment; the more I pursued freedom, the ore enslaved I became. At twenty-one I found myself hungering for belonging more than ever.
The wold hadn't satisfied me the way it had promised, the way I'd anticipated. The word's message and methods had, in fact, hung me out to dry. I felt betrayed. Lied to. I desperately needed to be rescued by something-or Someone-out of this world" (7).
Tullian continued how God began to move in his life and bring him to a point of total desperation. But what brought him back to God was not trendy, seeker sensitive message but seeing God on full display.
"Christians make a difference in this world by being different from this world; they don't make a difference by being the same" (9).
Tullian proceeds by defining what our current culture looks like and is looking for. He argues that, "our main problem isn't that we're culturally out of touch; it's that we're theologically out of tune. We need to remember that God has established his church as an alternative society, not to compete with or copy this world, but to offer alternative society, not to compete with or copy this world, but to offer a refreshing alternative to it. When we forget this, we inadvertently communicate to our culture that we have nothing unique to offer, nothing deeply spiritual or profoundly transforming" (15).
Part one, "The Call", is a fresh reminder that our kingdom values are not that of the world's but opposite. He challenges our matrix of thinking by calling Christians to remember "the antithesis between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God" (24). Tullian concludes by defining worldliness.
"If we Christians live unaware of the subtle ways in which worldliness seeps into how we think, feel, and live, we'll never exhibit the beautiful, refreshing, unfashionable difference this world desperately needs to see" (27).
(Highlights from part two to follow shortly).
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