Some evangelical Christians believe that the best way to win the world is to be like the world. Looking like the world might help us gain a hearing for the gospel.

In Unfashionable: Making a Difference in the World by Being Different (Multnomah: 2009), Tullian Tchividjian demolishes the fallacy of such thinking. Instead, Tullian skillfully shows how we as Christians make the biggest difference in the world when we are most different from the world.

The power behind our proclamation of the gospel comes not from our being in step with the world, but from our being out of step with the surrounding culture. Once you sacrifice the counter-cultural nature of the gospel in order to be “cool” in the present, you abandon the greatest opportunity you have to make a difference that will last forever.

Unfashionable is a book of depth and breadth. Tullian doesn’t leave us with superficial spiritual sayings. The book demonstrates a passion for theology. Tullian goes deep into the truth of God’s Word in order to emerge with a robust, strengthened Christianity for the world we live in.

But the book also contains a variety of topics. In less than 200 pages, Tullian writes about:

• the atonement
• the purpose of Jesus’ resurrection
• God’s intention to renew the cosmos
• the loss of Truth with a capital “T”
• our culture’s hunger for trascendence
• the importance of the church’s “togetherness
• sex and lust
• greed and theft
• anger and truth-telling

This is a short, accessible book that ably covers a number of subjects. The thread that holds all of these topics together is the drum that Tullian beats page after page:

“Christians make a difference in this world by being different from this world; they don’t make a difference by being the same.”

“The more we Christians pursue worldly relevance, the more we’ll render ourselves irrelevant to the world around us.”

Tullian believes that a biblical understanding of Christology and eschatology will lead to a view of mission that will transform the church and the world. We are called to be God’s ambassadors in this world, to join him in his mission to redeem and restore the world.

“Since God is on a mission to transform this present world into the world to come, and since he’s using his transformed people to do it, our commitment to living unfashionably has cosmic implications.”

Unfashionable resonates with me. Like Tullian, I want it all. I don’t want to choose between the cultural mandate and evangelism. I don’t want to choose between Christ’s kingdom and Christ’s cross. I don’t want to choose between individual salvation and the connectedness of Christian community. I want it all.

Unfashionable is God-centered and gospel-soaked. And yet it is immensely practical. This book displays Tullian’s passion for Scripture and his heart for personal application. You will be convicted, challenged, and encouraged as you read. 

written by Trevin Wax  © 2009 Kingdom People blog