Two books have caught my attention lately. The first is The Search for God and Guinness, by Stephen Mansfield; the second - Five Cities That Ruled The World, by Douglas Wilson.
While attempting to find either or both of them on Monday, I made my way to the Theology/Church History/Christian Living section of one of our local secular bookstores. Sadly, it has been my experience that the larger secular stores carry much better material than the local Christian bookstores. If you want Veggie Tales, go to the Christian bookstore; if you want a challenging read, then go elsewhere.
As my wife (despairingly) and friends (gleefully) can attest, I am a professional when it comes to finding the latest titles. After years of diligence in this area, when given the content and title of a book, I can pinpoint with precision like accuracy exactly where the book will be found on local shelves.
So I was quite surprised by Monday's turn of events. After perusing the various Christian sections, I had been unsuccessful in finding either title. While disappointed, I simply came to the conclusion that neither book had hit the local shelves yet. On the way out, however, I decided to make one last attempt at it by going to the computer at the front desk and entering both titles. Ureka!! Both titles read "Currently in stock." How could I have missed them, I wondered. Turns out that both titles were located in "World History/Britain/Ireland." I made a beeline to the section, quickly found both, made my purchase (again, to my wife's chagrin!!), and off I went.
On the drive home, I began to think about something that noted author C.S. Lewis wrote. I can't find the exact quote but it goes something like this: "We don't need more Christian books, we need more books written well by Christians." Exactly! These two authors had done something unique in Christian circles today - they had broken out of the Christian ghetto and moved into the broader culture.
Isn't that the goal for all Christian living in some sense? For those of us that have been called, washed, redeemed , purchased, cleansed, empowered, sanctified, and renewed, shouldn't we be taking our work, wealth, and worldview into the world for the sake of the world? Privatizing our faith leads to isolated Christian bookstores that give us more Veggie Tales and Bible Man than the drama of Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. These two authors understand that - they know we must eventually move "outside the camp" to truly make a difference in the world.
Here is a link to Stephen Mansfield's article on his book that ran in USA Today last week for those interested:
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