Learning to be Unfashionable

Unfashionable: Making a Difference in the World by being Different by Tullian Tchividjian is a book worth reading. I've read several books on how Christians should relate to the culture around them. This is by far the best and most Biblical one.

Basically, Tullian argues that we love and care for the world by being distinct from the world. Christians make a difference in this world by being different from this world.

He writes, "When the size of God grips us more than the size of our churches and leadership conferences, and when we become obsessed with surrendering our lives to God's sovereign presence, only then will we be redemptively different and serve as God's cosmic change agents in a world yearning for change" (p. 18).

This book addresses issues such as the relevance and sufficiency of Scripture, the content of the gospel, the call to redeem the culture, vocation, and the church. Part 3 is actually an exposition of the end of Ephesians 4. Tullian lists six defining marks of a church that is distinct from the world. He ends with a passionate call to live against the world for the world.

"Christians who try to convince the world around them that they're really no different at all, hoping they'll be accepted on the world's terms and on the world's turf, should be embarrassed" (p. 167).

Here is my favorite quote:

"Ironically, the more we Christians pursue worldly relevance, the more we'll render ourselves irrelevant to the world around us. There's an irrelevance to pursuing relevance, just as there's a relevance to practicing irrelevance. To be truly relevant, you have to say things that are unfashionably eternal, not trendy. It's the timeless things that are most relevant to most people, and we dare not forget this fact in our pursuit of relevance" (p. 17).