Missions Resources - Bibliography
Blessed Are The Uncool: Living Authentically in a World of Show
Authors: Paul Grant
ISBN: 0830836039
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Number of pages: 144
Type of cover: Soft Cover
Summary:
Yodeling is definitely not cool. But according to Paul Grant, it’s something the Evangelical church may want to try out. Being “uncool,” that is.
In his book, Blessed Are the Uncool, Grant observes American Christian culture from behind its sunglasses to find an epidemic which has long been rampant among Evangelicals.
Cool, or “the private performance of rebellion for rebellion’s sake,” Grant reveals, is a root cause of many church problems. Since cool lives for the moment, defies dependence and performs for an audience, it gets in the way of true Christian community and evangelism.
As a church that pursues cool, we are “separating ourselves from the world, while judging ourselves by the world’s standards.”
Grant uses examples both modern and historic of various cultures to prove his point that Christianity’s relational God is not honored in the midst of our rebellious projected identities. He gives one example of a Georgia church who tried to reach skater punks with the slogan “religion kills;” this may have been effective, Grant says, but it also alienated them from the mainstream church rather than reconciling the two together.
John Milton (author of Paradise Lost) is used as an example of one who, by contrast, suffered unpopularity to change the world. Such an example, however, may not be popular with Uncool’s younger readers. Grant hits the nail on the head when he reveals today’s Christian generation to be one that resolves to disassociate from embarrassing churches or older Christians.
At the same time, the author notes the Evangelical church’s latest growing interest in taking their faith to the field through social justice. Real active compassion, Grant writes, is inefficient and painful; but it’s that kind of compassion, not cool, that the world wants and needs.
Conveniently separated into two parts, Uncool gives its readers a clear distinction between the problem at hand and its resolve. Because its first half is more scattered in thought with a mix of cool’s history, Blessed Are the Uncool is not for those looking for a leisurely read. While balanced with heart-warming humor, Grant’s book hits home with countless novel and soul-baring truths that will challenge each of its readers, whatever the age.
With his own embarrassing stories of attempts at cool, Grant offers his readers a humble, helping hand in a long-overdue trek--a trek out of the lonely mess of the world’s cool and into the community of faith, hope and love that Jesus intended.
by Shannon Whiting
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