Suburbianity is an expose of modern American Christianity and the myths it is built around. It crossed the Atlantic to America and became a big business.” It traveled to Europe and became a culture. It moved to Rome and became an institution. As Robert Webber said, “The church started as a missionary movement in Jerusalem. If you can picture starving to death while stuffing yourself at an all you can eat buffet, you have an excellent image of the modern American church in your mind. You should buy this book, you should quit reading whatever you’re currently reading and read this book, and then you should buy a case of these books and give them to any Christian who will take one. You might even end up excited about the potential for the church in suburban America as you let the power of the Gospel fill you with hope. Thankfully, this book also left me encouraged because the solution to the problem is a simple one – let the gospel smash our “suburbianity” to bits and let gospel resonate in every area of our lives. This book quite often made me feel awkward and embarrassed as my own “suburbianity” was exposed. I can think of few books which have so effectively used Scripture to highlight both the problem being address as well as the solution. The contrast between the religion of the American suburbs and the message of the Bible described in this book is jarring, but I think few suburban Christians would be able to find grounds to disagree with Mr. In truth, this book will probably make you feel like a kid who got pushed out of the locker room in his underwear. ![]() This book won’t make you feel warm and fuzzy. In the last area the challenge is for the roots of the gospel to grow deep in the soil of our hearts, and to let gospel be the incessant proclamation of our words and deeds. Yawn works to press the importance of understanding that the Bible is all about Jesus, rather than all about me and my life. In the second area we are shown how the church fails miserably by assuming that people in the third world, those in urban centers, and those trapped in poverty need to hear the gospel, but not my neighbor with the three car garage and certainly not the people sitting in the pews. It is a complete misunderstanding of what we’ve been saved from and for what purpose we have been saved. In the first area the reader is made to realize that the problem griping the suburban church is so much more than mere consumerism. In the main body of the book Yawn addresses four specific areas: the effects of the suburbs on Christianity, the way we assume people know and embrace the gospel, the mess we’ve made of the Bible and its core message, and decluttering our concept of the church. Yawn writes, “…my target audience is the Christians wandering aimlessly out in the American suburbs, unaware that they are currently imbibing a designer religion that has no essential relationship to Christianity.” ![]() ![]() Yawn use the introduction to paint a picture of the church in suburban American, and to address the great need of a people who are buried in a kind of church culture, but who fail to realize that their religion bears little resemblance to biblical Christianity. Suburbianity begins with a rather lengthy introduction, but it serves the book well and should be regarded as the book’s first chapter. We have made ourselves and our American dreams the main thing and pushed the main thing – Jesus Christ, and His rescue of sinful humanity through His life, death, burial, and resurrection – to the bottom of the list. The problem according to Byron Yawn is that the church, the American church, the suburban, American church, has failed miserably in keeping the main thing the main thing. “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing,” is perhaps Stephen Covey’s most well known quote, and it is one which translates well into the life of the church.
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