Unfashionable: Making a Difference in the World by Being Different

by Tullian Tchividjian

Book Overview

From the foreword to the book by Tim Keller: "Here you will learn how we must contextualize, how we Christians should be as active in Hollywood, Wall Street, Greenwich Village, and Harvard Square (if... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1601424108
• ISBN13: 9781601424105
• Release Date: June 2012
• Publisher: Multnomah Books
• Length: 204 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Tullian Issues Call for Biblical Cultural Engagement

In Unfashionable, Tullian Tchividjian blasts the contemporary evangelical scene that believes the church must be like the world in order to reach the world. Looking around and observing ministries more focused on style than substance, Tchividjian cries "Enough!" and calls Christians back to living an unfashionable lifestyle by living "against the world for the world." The book begins with a concise, but helpful, foreword by Timothy Keller. Keller understands that engaging the culture remains an enigma for the church. Traditionally, evangelicals have approached culture with a hands-off approach, believing that the only thing that mattered was saving lost souls and that by doing so culture would be changed "one heart at a time." As American social values changed drastically in the last generation, however, most evangelicals abandoned this approach for a more proactive one, employing different strategies to redeem cultural values. The book is divided into four main sections: The Call, The Commission, The Community and The Charge. In the first section, Tchividjian clarifies exactly what he means by unfashionable. He writes: "...by unfashionable I'm not talking about what you wear or how you look, the lingo you use or the music you listen to. I'm talking about something deeper, more significant - and much more demanding." So what does Tchividjian mean by "unfashionable?" He writes, "Christians make a difference in this world by being different from this world; they don't make a difference by being the same." Instead, Tchividjian believes Christians can best make a difference by leading an unfashionable life by patterning "our ideas, beliefs, methods, and tastes in accordance with God's ways rather than the world's." In this section Tchividjian also provides a helpful working definition for worldliness. He writes: "Worldliness, then, is characterized in the Bible as the sinful misdirection of God's good creation. It means adopting the ways, habits, thought patterns, practices, spirit, and tastes of this world in spite of how far they take us from God's will and design." Tchividjian contrasts this with Christianity by saying, "If what's fashionable in our society interests you, then true Christianity won't. It's that simple." In the second section, The Commission, Tchividjian gets to the heart, and most controversial part, of his message. Namely, that a Christian's job on earth is not only to evangelize lost souls but also to redeem culture. In other words, humans also have a "cultural mandate." The cultural mandate, Tchividjian explains, is the "first job description" God gives mankind found in Genesis 1:28. The verse reads, "And God blessed them. And God said to them, `Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'" Tchividjian writes this is much more than a command to procreate.

Highly recommended!

The book Unfashionable gives a strong wakeup call to Christians that we need to be "different" from the world/culture. We are not supposed to blend in seemlessly with non-Christians. We are however to model the love of Christ here on earth, which is something we need to focus more strongly on. The book is very encouraging in terms of being different. Since America is such a conformist society, despite the rampant claims of individualism, there is a price to be paid for non-conformity. We must always remember that our allegiance is to God first, then man. The author writes in a clear engaging manner without being judgmental or preachy, which is quite an accomplishment. At the same time, he is clearly against compromise of the Word and Christianity. He outlines the dangers of compromise and re-inforces the need to go outside the church walls to minister to those in need. I highly recommend the book to those Christians who want to make a difference and at the same time please the Lord.

The Book I've Been Looking For

Exploring being "in the world" but not "of the world," Unfashionable is a clear road map for how modern Christians can engage culture by loving it's people. The author makes excellent use of scripture in calling Christians to be engaged with culture while not compromising belief or morals. His exposition of the Kingdom of God is just the primer I've been looking for on the subject. Easy to read, with plenty to chew on, Unfashionable is a book I suspect I will be re-reading for years to come.

A clear and compelling book on Christian cultural engagement

Pastor Tullian Tchividjian joins the provocative conversation on Christ and culture with this newly released (and widely endorsed) book, Unfashionable: Making a Difference in the World by Being Different. For those unfamiliar, there are a plethora of books (particularly recently) on the complex topic of how the Christian (and the church collectively) is to relate to the world. We've all heard the phrase "in the world, but not of it." But what does that look like? That's what Unfashionable is all about. Following a helpful Foreword by Tim Keller, the book is divided into four sections: The Call, The Commission, The Community, and The Charge. The Call first describes Tullian's conversion story: briefly, though raised in a Christian family (the grandson of Billy Graham), he had abandoned the faith of his parents and left home at 16. At 21, God dramatically and quite suddenly converted him. Attending church for the first time in years, Tullian recalls being struck by how different those he met at church were from his regular "in" group. This leads to the book's theme: Christians make a difference in the world by being different from this world; they don't make a difference by being the same. He spends the rest of the section talking about the world's quest for authenticity and the church's seduction with being fashionable. Tullian writes: "It's both sad and ironic that this shift is now putting the church in the wrong place at the right time. Just when our culture is yearning for something different, many churches are developing creative ways to be the same. Just as many in our culture are beginning to search back in time, many churches are pronouncing the irrelevance of the past. Just as people are starting to seek after truth, many churches are turning away from it. As a result these churches are losing their distinct identity as a people set apart to reach the world." The next section of the book, The Commission, starts with the implications of the Bible being God's standard for our entire lives. The following few chapters give a concise and understandable treatment on the kingdom of God theme in the Bible: that God intends to renew the world, that the first Advent of Christ led to his inauguration as King while the consummation of His kingdom awaits His return. Until then, Christians are called to be salt and light, and we're called to do so in community with one another. One of the most helpful phrases that Tullian returns to again and again is that we're to be "against the world for the world." In other words, we're to live distinctively and attractively different kinds of lives---lives which reveal that our true citizenship is in heaven, and that our treasures are being stored there---and that although we oppose the world's godless system of values, we are "for" the people of the world: we want to show them a taste of heaven in the way we interact with each other and with them. In doing so, the hope is that they, too, will be drawn into

Blazing an Unfashionable Trail for Evangelicals Today

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.