To start with I really enjoyed reading the book. It has many great things that everyone needs to learn about "living out the faith." The "Christian Church" in America has greatly changed from what the beginning church looked like. One of the main things that I have seen happen is that people very rarely think about the Church as everyone who believes in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior but instead only the "church" or synod that they belong too. I also agree with the statement that the word Christian does not really mean what it use to. During the early church "The Way" the followers of Jesus were called Christians to mock them. Now in America the word Christian is kind of a blank or meaningless word. Not even everyone who are believers like the word. One of my favorite quotes from the book comes from Mother Teresa, "We can do no great things, just small things with great love. It is not how much you do, but how much love you put into doing it" (p 78). I think that one of the downfalls in America today is that people only want to see or do big glamorous things. The bigger the better, is a great description of the world. Its almost like the world is telling you that just doing little things will not make a difference, and that is one of the reasons that many things are falling apart in the world. I totally agree with Shane's statement on page 104, "In our culture of "seeker sensitivity" and radical inclusivity. the great temptation is to compromise the cost of discipleship in order to draw a larger crowd." The more that I have visited different churches the more i realize that this statement is very true and alive in the United States. One of the first questions that gets asked once someone finds out that I'm a pastors daughter is "how many do you guys have." It seems like numbers are always on people's minds, but we have to realize that if the whole truth is not taught just so more people are comfortable coming to church that we are compromising not only the church but the people's salvation. Being a disciple of Christ is not supposed to be easy and rewarding on this earth, because our home is not this earth.
